For anyone hoping that next fall and winter will be back to business-as-usual dressing, Fendi‘s fall ’21 men’s collection might offer a realistic — and comfortable — suggestion for what fashion will really look like in nine months.
Yes, there might be suits, but they might also have pajama-like piping. People might once again carry briefcases to work, but they could likely pair them with puffer overcoats that double as bathrobes. There might also be real dress shoes, hard soles and all — but they’ll come with a cloud of cashmere socks.
The fall ’21 men’s collection, which Silvia Venturini Fendi showed at Milan Men’s Fashion Week on Saturday in an audience-free setup (the runway was shown as an edited film), echoed the mix of dress and casual shown in September at Fendi’s co-ed spring ’21 show, which showed “real” clothing in roomier, floatier silhouettes, with both high-heel boots and shower slides on foot.
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This time around, most of Fendi’s men’s footwear consisted of actual dress shoes; slick leather uppers and soles instead of the chunky sport sandals that the brand has favored for the past few seasons. It seems that designers — and maybe consumers? — are ready to get back to real shoes.
One exception was an ankle boot style, which maintained the hard sole and leather upper on the toe but whose ankle was finished with a quilted extension and an easy-to-get-into gold zipper. These dress slipper-socks (along with a series of puffy, cloud-like cashmere socks that ran through the collection) epitomize a certain tactile, comfort focus that seems to already be running through the season.
