Milan Men’s Fashion Week 2022: Is Fendi levelling up the gender-bending menswear trend? The luxury fashion maison brought boundary-defying feminine silhouettes to its autumn/winter show

Jan 19, 2022

Models wear creations for the Fendi autumn/winter 2022-23 collection, in Milan, Italy, on January 15. Photo: AP Photo

Have pandemic lockdowns emboldened men to embrace a more feminine style? Fendi thinks so, adding cut-outs, mini-bags, shorts tailored like skirts and Mary Janes to its menswear

Kim Jones had a buzzy collab with Versace for the maison’s womenswear, but this collection was all about the signature elegance of classic Silvia Venturini Fendi

Milan menswear designers seem to have decided on the answer, but the question remains: have the pandemic lockdowns emboldened men to embrace a more feminine silhouette, including skirts, minidresses and cape coats?

As a rule, men’s collections on Milan’s runways this season have so far hewed conservative on the colour palette, leaving the risk-taking to the silhouette.

A men’s mini-bag tops off an otherwise more traditional suit ensemble at Fendi’s men’s autumn/winter 2022-2023 fashion show on January 15, in Milan. Photo: AFP

A model showing off a top with a cut-out at Fendi’s men’s autumn/winter 2022-2023 fashion collection on January 15, in Milan. Photo: AFP

Fendi’s collection for next autumn and winter was infused with the fashion house’s disciplined tailoring and elegance – with some welcome eccentricities to lighten things up. They included a leather aviator cap with the flair of a Moroccan fez.

A model presents a monochrome outfit with a bucket hat for Fendi’s men’s autumn/winter 2022-2023 fashion collection on January 15, in Milan. Photo: AFP

Fendi’s men’s autumn/winter 2022-2023 fashion collection featured men’s Bermuda shorts with the tailoring and flow of a skirt, on January 15, in Milan. Photo: AFP

The toned-down colour palette in grey, black and ivory with flashes of red seemed to suggest that the collection was business as usual, but then Silvia Venturini Fendi threw in some surprising silhouettes, starting with a men’s Bermuda short with the tailoring and flow of a skirt, worn with sheer knee-highs and buckled two-tone pointed Mary Janes.

She then proposed wide-leg dress trousers that only from the back showed to be skirted. They were paired with jackets, or knitwear that had a feminine peek-a-boo V on the chest.