While London Fashion Week was a much quieter affair this season – just giving us a couple of standout shows from Charles Jeffrey and Craig Green – the men’s calendar kicked off properly last weekend at Milan Fashion Week’s SS25 edition. Opening things up was Dsquared2, who delivered a raunchy, sweat dripping kink fest in a Milanese theatre (minus the thesps, of course). Next up was Miuccia and Raf over at Prada, who served up a collection that towed the line between reality and imaginary, forcing us to conclude that they’d probably dropped a pill at the weekend and didn’t know what was real. And while there was plenty happening off the catwalk – like Alessandro Michele surprise-dropping his first Valentino collection, or A$AP Rocky starring in Bottega’s Father’s Day campaign – there was also plenty more on the runways to keep us all fed. So, scroll down for all the standout shows you might’ve missed this season.

GUCCI

Hot boys read books too! That was the message Gucci seemed intent on expressing this season as its SS25 menswear show arrived in the Triennale Milano museum, the runway surrounded by towering bookcases. “Like the sea that washes every shore without prejudice, so too a museum is an entirely open space, nourishing those who are drawn to it,” said the esoteric sounding show notes. “This collection speaks of encounters – incontri – between the city and the beach, and among people who love life.”

For Sabato De Sarno, bringing coastal life to a museum meant sending a gaggle of men down the runway who looked keen to delve into their next beach read. Thick rimmed reading glasses were paired with summer-y printed shirts, which often came with their own sets of matching shorts. While different types of casual shirts – polo, revere, classic collar – formed the bedrock of the collection, some leather smocks and a two-tone quarter zip added some much needed going out options for the beach boys to pick from.

As always, the leather goods were a particular standout, but it was the new neck accessory that seemed to grab the most attention. Recalling the pull-to-go-tighter ties from last season’s show, models appeared on the runway with taut chokers round their necks, but one turn to the side revealed they were actually sunglasses on thick, fabric strings. De Sarno was smashing beach and city references after all, so what better way to do this than a sunglasses chain that doubles as a kink-coded dog-collar.

MOSCHINO

Kicking off Milan Men’s this season was Moschino, and Adrian Appiolaza’s second show at the helm of the Italian house. “The Moschino characters are explorers, shifting between different spaces, ideas and ideals,” read notes mailed out before the show. “There’s something positive – beautiful – in getting lost, finding places you never knew.” So, Appiolaza’s first men’s show was about travelling, discovery and “an exploration of exploration” – so what better way to communicate this than a monumental pile of luggage in the middle of the Via Ventura showspace?

First out from behind the huge mound was a shifty looking character in an Inspector Gadget trench and a conspicuous bowler hat, his serious expressions contrasted with the heart-shaped leather suitcase he held. From here the camp was dialled up, with fried egg brooches coming on pinstripe suits, overcoats made from shredded newspaper clippings, and in-your-face football references on knitwear and silk shirts. 

Though Appiolaza chose to reintroduce a menswear re-edition of the SS92 Survival jacket – a carryall blazer with everyday objects strapped to the front – that’s not to say there wasn’t plenty for the women as well. The designer also chose to show his women’s Resort 2025 collection at the same time, which consisted of some bathrobes-cum-ball gowns, deconstructed office wear and a clutch in the shape of a watermelon slice.

MSGM

If you’d found yourself at MSGM’s SS25 show this season, you might have thought you’d just walked into the middle of a paintball match. While models trotted down the runway, rows of 10ft perspex screens were blasted with paint from the other side, shuddering uncontrollably with each splat. It turns out the performance was a callback to when Massimo Giorgetti founded his brand, 15 years ago this June, back in 2009. In desperate need of edging up his first collection before handing it over to buyers, Giorgetti made the last minute decision to tap a street artist to fleck the clothes with paint, which turned out to be a resounding success.

The designer’s decision to recreate that ditch attempt to spice up his collection was a useful way of showing how far he’s come. This time, the clothes didn’t need spicing up – a strong selection of slouchy suits, psychedelic shirts, graphic knits and beach-y resort wear held their own on the runway, while an image of Giorgetti’s own seaside villa La Vedetta was splashed across shorts, tops and a windbreaker, the standout print of the collection. After the models exited the runway, the symbolism of Giorgetti’s paint-covered perspex shields was not lost: unlike in 2009, not a single speck of paint found its way onto the clothes. It seems that, after 15 years, Giorgetti no longer needs last minute gimmicks to make his collections pop.

DOLCE & GABBANA

If, like me, you’ve been keeping track of Dolce & Gabbana’s rebrand of recent years, this weekend’s Milan Fashion Week runway was another one to add to the pile. As recently as SS23, D&G menswear shows have consisted of clashing colours, intricate florals and a mix of high-low Eurotrash signifiers – but since then things have leant towards the luxe, in both the men’s and women’s offerings.

This was the case at the label’s SS25 men’s show, when a pared back, beachy collection arrived on the runway. Heavy knit polos, scoop neck smocks and classic bermudas all made appearances, as did striped breton tops, slouchy pantaloons, and plaited leather bomber jackets. Named Italian Beauty, the collection strived for exactly that, and it makes total sense that one of the references was Marcello Mastroianni, who you could easily imagine sauntering into frame in one of the looks. Despite that classicism, hints of the old Domenico and Stefano of course peeked through, in sparkly, coral embroidery dotted throughout the collection. The pair may be on to pastures new, but that well-worn Euro-style is always going to rear its head in some way.

FENDI

Arguably one of the more blockbuster offerings at Milan this season, the Fendi runway began with six giant mirrored columns which then began to rotate and move back and forth as models walked through them. According to show notes, Silvia Venturini Fendi “considers Fendi as a travelling time capsule mirroring decades and destinations”, which certainly accounted for the 30ft spinning surfaces. This season, though, Fendi is particularly fixated on mirroring past decades as her family business will be celebrating its centenary next year, about the same time that this SS25 collection lands in stores.

On the catwalk, ten decades of Italian craftsmanship were celebrated through archival references, like the reintroduction of the Selleria stitch, a technique used at the house since 1925. Here, that checkerboard formation was blown up and perforated on a leather coat, while more archive references appeared in the form of a new house crest that included the two-faced Janus motif used by Karl Lagerfeld when he was at the house. Elsewhere, Silvia proposed that the Fendi man is eternally boyish, with too-big shirts and little micro shorts, and also gave us the cold shoulder, with unbuttoned henley tops that revealed vests and clavicles beneath.

JORDANLUCA

For SS25, it was all change at JordanLuca. Last season the design duo headed to a dingy catacomb for a big birthday blowout, whereas this season the showspace was flooded with light. “The collection is about trying to capture the essence and ephemera of love using the ideology of ballet,” Jordan Bowen told us backstage at the show. “Ballet is something that’s so not Jordanluca, and to make it Jordanluca has been the best,” added Luca Marchetto.

It’s true that the ballet is not exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Jordanluca, so on the runway the artform was given its own punk edge. Ballerinos arrived in cycling shorts and halter tops, while the ballerinas came with shredded tutus and leather jackets split open at the heart. Though it may have been inspired by ballet, the collection wasn’t about a crude reinterpretation, but taking the quintessence of dance and transferring it to a modern and wearable collection. In this way, lyrical flourishes adorned a lot of the clothes, like knitwear with long flowing capes attached, or a black knitted dress with tulle ruching around the waist. Though this wouldn’t be Jordanluca without a hard edge, and that came in the form of Liberty spike hair ‘dos and cinderblock shoulder pads on a number of the looks.

JW ANDERSON

Jonathan Anderson always seems to have his finger on the pulse of what’s going on, and for SS25 he once again spoke for us all. Yes world, we are tired, and the latest JW Anderson collection was well aware of that. Before things kicked off, guests were treated to show notes in the form of a poem, one that asked “are you ready for the hypnotherapy session?”, “are you feeling dreamy?” and “Is everything getting out of proportion?” 

Real Sleep was the name of the collection, and after guests had been suitably dazed by the poem, they were lulled into a further sense of security by quilted bedspread jackets, huge bouncy knitwear, and jumpers with plushie protrusions sticking out of them. After that, the designer continued to explore the classic Andersonian silhouettes of puffed minidresses and engorged leather jackets, and we also saw a tie blown-up to 20 times its original size. Elsewhere, Anderson sent up the

unstable housing market by serving us a series of knits that doubled as two-storey flats, but it was the brand new Guinness collaboration that truly spoke to a generation of arty young professionals obsessed with things like Shit London Guinnes and “splitting the G”.

MARTINE ROSE

Thanks to their clandestine nature, a Martine Rose show often feels like an event. They always seem to take place in some secret location, under a south London railway arch or in a north London street market. For SS25 however, Rose headed to Milan Fashion Week for the very first time, a place she referred to in show notes as “a traditional platform for the mainstream search of beauty”. But rather than adhere to that traditional beauty, Rose presented a collection that rallied against it. Taped on, prosthetic noses were seen on almost every model, their presence purposely distorting the idea of Eurocentric beauty ideals. “The first thing you see in people is often their noise,” Rose told Vogue before the show, “and it is often the first thing they change.”

Elsewhere, the clothes were similarly subversive. “The Spring/Summer 2025 collection is dedicated to expressions of beauty spawned from the likes of disturbance, humour, and sex,” read the show notes. An opening section of suits and ties appeared on the runway, but their wonky proportions and fetish-coded crotches meant they definitely weren’t your average office workers.

The sporting references also came through strong, with house staples like football tops and logo box tees dotted throughout. And while the lashings of rugged moto leather on shorts, skirts and trousers were a particular standout, it was one artfully draped men’s robe – its green, liquid fabric falling from the model’s chest – that definitely stole the show.