Milan Fashion Week – Street Style with Senior Fashion Editor/Designer Todd Anthony

Breakfast without orange juice is like a morning without sunshine, and now it seems, after Milan Fashion Week, so is a wardrobe without the joyful hue of orange. 

The 2019 Fashion year kicked off in Milan, showcasing menswear for Autumn/Winter. Although I enjoy nothing more than reviewing the runways in order to break down trend for you all, in this article I focus on two trends that are taking the chilli Milano streets by storm. 

The overriding macro trend seen for this season worn by both men and women, as they sauntered outside venues waiting for the next show, was the colour orange.  

At the end of 2018 Pantone released its 2019 colour of the year; ‘Coral essence -20-0056’. As a man who loves his trends, especially where colour is concerned, I was excited to see a wash of coral hues in a variety of tones take to the streets in Milan. Our Italian peers are always forthcoming when successfully twisting a rule and this year they didn’t disappoint showing up in orange, a colour adjacent to the Pantone prediction, with little to no pink dropped within the plethora of oranges on show. 

We had people seen wearing full block true orange from head to toe for a bold impactful, yet very delightful statement. Some chose to use the colour in a subdued way in order to elevate a more conservative colour palette, tipping their hat to the trend rather than immersing themselves in it.

The overall aesthetic seen on the street at this year’s Milan Fashion week was what I call, daddy dressing; everything is big, bigger than you. Oversized overcoats sitting on top of oversized shirting and oversized off the leg trouser silhouettes, with print on print and the more courageous,
adding texture to the layered colours and prints that adorn these oversized silhouettes. 

The topic of texture at Milan Fashion week brings me to the next trend, ‘The topic of faux fur’!

You cannot be fake chic, but you can be chic in fake fur. Happily the amount of fake fur seen on the streets of Milan in contrast to that of real was welcomingly astonishing. Faux fur was seen in a variety of proportions from full oversized coats on both men and women to small design details within garments and accessories such as collars and cuffs. 

As many of us in Melbourne are aware we are one day in the future when it comes to time but a season behind the rest of the world when it comes to fashion. We have the advantage of hindsight as we are able to see our own fashion future. So our Melbourne My Style Fashionistas, if you want to be street style savvy this coming winter, order yourself something in orange and find yourself in faux fur. 

Todd Anthony

Images via google