In Milan menswear shows for spring 2013, designers remain on the essentials

  MILAN - Among the many insults to the intelligence distorted by the corporate culture in the last decade, is certainly "brand DNA" is not the worst. Capitalism is a lot, but as far as we know it does not begin at the cellular level.

What is particularly difficult, is the metaphor that is otherwise empty slogans like "authenticity" mean in almost all cases that the matter in question is a fake out.

People want to know simple stories, as we all know that the Web and has all the fragmented aspects of everyday life, they Hanker for her zealous than ever. It must also be true of fashion should not be surprising.

Since brands are usually of a seed innovative or creative spirit, their stories when they read, be very convincing. Evokes moods and atmospheres, sample stories, including an important part of the work of fashion and magic. The rapper, the exotic foreign labels throw in their rhymes understand the power of name-checking Prada or Gucci.

So this week, it comes as a relief to have sobered the designer behind these and other houses here, from the economic crisis, the basic concepts and put their own simple stories. The decrease in general bombardment of kitsch references to cowboys or mods or rockers or Indians, they relied on the tried and true design.

In the best case - Prada, Jil Sander, Calvin Klein, Gucci - they are used to cut down on these aspects of design, the consumer, their label went in the first place. Much has been for the fact that Miuccia Prada presented a show in which women male was also found that the range were typical crazy and dumb, but it was minimal clothes, androgynous and made based on simple shapes and surfaces. No one seemed to forget how they like similar efforts by Phoebe Philo at Celine, not necessarily a bad thing looked.

Hardly any other designer to manage, and Philo and Prada, for clothing, although a lot of fashion, have to provide a background in the real world. Everyone has the opportunity for consumers, without the intrigues of the Association to the airport or in the office, as if every day is Halloween.

Prada was hard and cold, stripped of crazy stacked on the ornamentation of some recent shows. Striped pants crotch in different colors, which appear on normal adolescents, but also male models in their 50s, were more radical than plausible, if not only worn by people of both sexes, but also those of a certain age.

Jil Sander, in his return, she founded after a retreat not entirely voluntary (in which she designed collections breakaway hit for the Japanese giant Uniqlo mass marketing), was also made available to arrive. Fans of the first day Sander could always count on them to hard-working tissue in a way that might seem simple proportions, and were detailed with a precision few designers we offer. One of the most famous joke about Gandhi is that it costs a fortune to him badly; vaunted simplicity is not achieved with simple means.

Similarly, let the know on clothing hangtags Sander that minimalism does not come cheap. Sander - a collection of short trousers with long, smooth thin layers (some sleeveless tunic), painterly color-block print, and barrel-shaped coats, some in color signature as Yves Klein Blue - is finding its niche in a tough market, this is an open question. However, there is every reason to celebrate his return.

And it will also lead to two designers, the lease is not in the Showboats, sometimes not to get her through. Show Frida Giannini for Gucci has once again how much she understands the idea behind Gucci and its origins in a time when gently forgiving, unlike today, dolce far niente not seem to be the punch line, demonstrated a cruel joke. Who has time for a good life if you work two jobs to survive?

Apparently, consumers do Gucci, Frida Giannini, creating clothes for him to concentrate on a Mediterranean idyll: perfectly cut suits in the colors of Necco wafers, double-breasted jacket and skinny jeans with a big collar studded crispy just worn on the ankle. She presented thin layers on finger length ratio and with a complete easy. She sent a white version of the classic Gucci loafer, with a little egg net. She offered her interpretation of the ubiquitous weekend bag in a band baiadera (and Alligator: the lizard, which was better). The atmosphere and the world they may not have entirely imaginary, Italy, caused his 1 percent.

Italo Zucchelli, Calvin Klein, is another unknown designer with a gift for capturing the mood of foreign cultures. In his case it is not the super rich sailing off the coast of Sardinia, but that before his concert, he called the "American hero." What he seemed to say Joe was a simple, one person, for a denim jacket is a fundamental part of working clothes and not an ironic comment on Americana.

Strangely, this fact Zucchelli jewelry must be eliminated; tinker with a basic vocabulary of the form (a denim jacket has both a version close to the body side and a chunky enough to cover a television has been shown), and you stimulate the neutral range, the a house where he proposes the signing of bleached bones in the desert and try different tricks with effective deceptively complex tissues. Tissue micropleat subtle black and white tuxedo as, for example, is something that anyone should try with less know-how never Zucchelli.

There were among the soloists performances here this week (10 to 12 of them one day) owes much to the designers carefully cover their many Paris. It is logical that in a city such as industry, as they could give their best when the most limited in the trade.

Overall, there was a welcome absence of kitsch. (Well, almost: Dsquared, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace have love theme parks and tours across the country club, Sicily, and Las Vegas, with gladiators in see-through mesh pants directly from a catalog International Male.)

The flight is a topic of kitsch Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, where he worked once again managed a training session for the ultra rich ultrarestrained dress. It's hard to imagine that, without his strong hand in it for the occasional impeccable taste (think Baja pullovers of silk or velvet, crepe cotton sweaters, costumes decently treated with floral motifs surprinted vague), the hedgies would.

In fact it is not. They come for lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant, the last bastion of elegance, hoodies, Mark Zuckerberg or Mom jeans.

Also held at Salvatore Ferragamo and Missoni, Angela Missoni designer Massimiliano Giornetti and loyalty with their loyal customers. As Giannini named Gucci, Giornetti a privileged world of the summer and bright colors, and is far from imaginary. His suits, sportswear and gladly made plug of cotton in the colors of a Bellini or a cocktail of other specialties, inspired by the frenetic energy of Los Angeles were told the designer that can be neglected and the dark corners doomful Dennis Cooper that complicated city.

In fact, they look more like the stuff you see in Playboy or in places such as the ineffably elegant hotel Il Pellicano on the Amalfi coast. You can find them in a big picture book on this Eden Italian Rizzoli, one that has some of the same people who have in the beautiful Angela Missoni in Milan can be detected.

For signs of hope, if not optimism turns were easy to spot. Even collections that do not deserve much contemplation provided pictures lift the spirits on a gloomy Gus. Neil Barrett, he was walking outside in the rain pattern of an old palace style baseball jackets with patterned like footballs. Umit at Benan, he was the designer and heavy on his woolly scampering all colored - Tables crumpled beds, whose inhabitants were asleep - in just his underwear. And Giorgio Armani, which was a flight of beautiful models show that in the end which may be, could never be confused with another designer.

Wearing a crisp white suits with short pants, they were like a signal from the designer, who turns 78 in July, that life is good, will certainly continue.