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