AND Last but not least Giannini... FBM Mens Review is Complete

Frida Giannini never stops finding inspiration in her hometown, Rome—someone should give that girl the keys to the city. For her latest men's collection, she'd been spending time at the legendary film studio Cinecittà, looking at fifties-era photos of actors like Marcello Mastroianni in their white suits and piqué polo shirts. But sportswear as we understand it now didn't exist in Italy then, so, to bring things up to this century, Giannini also drew on the boys the Romans call adorable caniglia, who twist tradition with a little sartorial eccentricity. Then, to add some unambiguously masculine spice, she injected a dash of speed demon Steve McQueen in the form of aerodynamic biker jackets and pants. Giannini's recipe needed that weight because, in the end, what really stood out was her own playful Gucci-lite sensibility: leather jackets in silver, white, butter yellow, or lacquered black paired with skinny trousers in bold checks or bright colors, which had an almost cartoonish flair that evoked the eighties. Also echoing that decade was the new-wave smartness of a check suit, striped shirt, and spotted tie combination (the effect was compounded by the soft, Capezio-like shoes in white or silver). Giannini claimed the checks actually came from her research into the fifties at Cinecittà, but it was men she was looking at in those old photos, and it's boys she's dressing when she matches Mastroianni's smart checks with a green suede baseball jacket. Though the look still has its charms, it might be time to move on up.-Tim Blanks

D&G

The soundtrack for Dolce & Gabbana's presentation was Timbaland, but the inspiration looked like purest Timberlake: the shaved-headed models, the young urban take on dressing up, the overall edge. Domenico and Stefano smartly acknowledged the way that contemporary menswear merges day and night by running their show back to front. They opened with a formal look—tuxedo-striped pants, shawl-collared jackets, contrast lapels—and closed (finale aside) with a blouson and combats in linen all scrunched up in the curious twenty-first-century Stone Age effect they used in their last women's collection. In between came a typically catholic collection of items that covered the ever-widening Dolce & Gabbana waterfront: from a white linen jacket that offered one of the season's more appealing takes on menswear's evolving see-through kick, to a pair of denim clamdiggers that, teamed with a floral shirt, hinted at one half of the design duo's long-standing affection for hippie chic.The final march-past of mannequins all sported white orchids in the breast pockets of their evening suits, but that romantic flourish was less intriguing than the show's use of technology. Screens suspended over the catwalk featured a Minority Report-style forensic look at the proceedings, and one passage of combat-inspired clothing was illuminated by LED-like hardware, an arresting way for the modern attention junkie to feed his habit.— Tim Blanks

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Varvato's Update

The key to John Varvatos' fashion sensibility might be found in the last outfit that made its way down his catwalk: a tuxedo jacket and jeans. It's a quintessential dressed-up-rocker combo, the sort of thing that a Varvatos fave like Jesse Malin (front-row center, in a painful-looking neck-and-back brace arrangement) might wear to an awards show. Perhaps he’d even tie a silky scarf around his waist, the way Varvatos showed it. The designer made his mark with collections that delivered American frontier spirit with European finesse, and he’s gone on honing that proposition (the set—a collage of dusty, cracked old window frames—simultaneously suggested a Wild West ghost town and abandoned buildings in the Eastern bloc). His latest standouts included a fitted, zippered jacket that bloused in the back, a mushroom-toned military jacket, and a slate cotton tux. Given the commercial expansion envisaged for this label, there was a subtle boldness in the light gauge of the knits and the asymmetry of jacket and coat closings. But what would be truly great would be to see Varvatos tapping some of the contrary spirit of his other front-row face: Alice Cooper. Amid all the tastefully subtle aging, dyeing, and tailoring, it wouldn't hurt him to throw in the occasional jolt of black eyeliner.
— Tim Blanks