A dance to the music of menswear, where two presentations featured professional ballet dancers in a busy weekend at Milano Moda Uomo. In a season of Alpine mode at Ralph Lauren, Ibiza cool at Bally, uber luxe at Brett Johnson and living archives at Valextra.
 

Ralph Lauren: Italian-American friendship

 A happy meeting of Italia and America at Ralph Lauren, with a dashing Dolomite collection inspired by next year’s Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, when Ralph will dress the U.S. ski team, off the piste.

A Purple Label Fall 2025 collection, where Ralph Lauren blends American luxury with Italian artistry, inspired by the nattiest streets of Milan and the majestic peaks of Cortina.
 
Snow crystal pattern chunky sweaters; RL Sci Club puffers; perfectly judged green Prince of Wales suits worn with shearling trimmed parkas and mountain boots; superb gents coats in the fabric of the season – cashmere Donegal tweed herringbone – and black leather Rocky Mountain cowboy shirts cut for an après-ski cocktail in St Moritz.

“Purple Label has always been a way to express my vision of true luxury. Fall 2025 Purple Label mixes the beauty of rusticity with timeless elegance. It is about a world of warmth and sophistication, sartorial tailoring and modern silhouettes,” explained Ralph Lauren, who was never truer to his word.
 

Brioni: A dance to the music of tailoring

Brioni staged its presentation inside a palazzo that Napoleon called home in 1805. 

Starring four dancers, whose elegant pirouettes and whirls underlined the truly special lightness of the fabrics which the house’s creative director Norbert Stumpfl has dreamed up.
 
Cutting marvelous tone-on-tone micro houndstooth check jackets and blazers – like one in gray and anthracite paired with a coal-colored flannel shirt and steel black tie. Talk about impeccable.
 
Stumpfl’s leather looks were also something else: whether a tough chic jerkin finished with black crocodile trim; calf leather peacoats; or a remarkable gray great coat made of shaved American crocodile to take away the traditional shine. Priced at €45,000, it was menswear priciest treat this season.
  

Corneliani: London Ballet, Italian sartorial symphony

On Saturday, Corneliani invited the Central School of Ballet in London to stage a special performance in the courtyard of the 16th century of Palazzo Durini.
 

Blending historical legacy with contemporary ideas, just like the brand’s latest collection. Curated by choreographer Kate Coyne – the school’s artistic director – it starred with three dancers miming the multiple ways men can meet and greet each other.
 
While around an outer platform models paraded in the latest collection. Attired in precision jerkins, wide sleeve trenches, or the coolest of peacoats – all very easy to wear.
 

Bally: Love that Leo Mas Muzak

There was an odd lack of co-labs in Italy this menswear season. Though one that caught our attention was Bally’s linkup with Leo Mas.

The all-time great DJ created a super capsule collection for Bally, which the brand feted in style on Sunday night in their coolly airy flagship. One of fashion’s greatest locations – the corner of Via Montenapoleone and Via Manzoni. Sportingly, Leo signed autographs on maxi LPs from pin-up records featuring two of his tracks.
 
“Leo Mas is one of the great DJ legends of clubland, and I should know I was pretty present,” chuckled Bally’s creative director Simone Bellotti.
 
The link-up led to some natty leather totes – covered in illustrations that ranged from Mas’ old logo – Muzak Muzak – to the inside of the clubbing world’s holy of holies – Amnesia in Ibiza, where Leo once ruled supreme.
 

Tod’s: Pashmy, the pashmina of leather

A display of four leather-clad artisans greeted guests to Tod’s this season – all of them checking out an astute new research project – “Pashmy.”

Its goal: to find the finest leathers, silky soft skins that Tod’s have named Pashmy, a soft and lightweight material, that evokes the delicacy and refinement of pashmina, from which the name itself is derived.
 
Yet also has the sturdiness of true leather – in either of its two variations: a fine suede or ultra-light nappa leather.
 
“Feel this,” insisted Tod’s owner Diego Della Valle, “It has the touch of freshly shaved skin.”
 
Hence, for this collection, creative director Matteo Tamburini reinterpreted men’s wardrobe classics such as the bomber and the shirt jacket in Pashmy leather. Using natural earth tones, from sand, burnt shades to tobacco – enriched with the T signature.
 
Pashmy even took a stroll in the classic Gommino moccasin, and above all in some really eminent examples of the W.G. – or Winter Gommino – whether in leather or suede. Collector’s item boots.
 

Valextra and the living archive

This season, Valextra concentrated on updating some iconic silhouettes – from its gents on the move weekender Boston Babila Travel Bag to its briefcase, the Avietta.
 

In the latter, by adding Costa – the house’s signature black lacquer trim –  the Avietta looked refresh and even more elegant.
 
While the MyLogo Bowling Bag got a new look in Sublime leather, exceeding all expectations of a traditional luxury travel bag. 
 
“What I love about Valextra is that the archive is a living phenomenon,” weekender enthused CEO Xavier Rougeaux. And well, he should.
 

Brett Johnson: Ever expanding with luxe

One brand enjoying a clever expansion is Brett Johnson, a Washingtonian designer and label that has made Milan its European HQ.

Brett proudly showed off his ideally located showroom on Via Manzoni on Sunday, which has been refitted in pale gray plaster walls, fine wood shelves and great neo-classical modern light fixtures.
 
Johnson concentrates on modern menswear elegance, and high ethereal luxury. Like a pair of remarkable shearlings made of Vicuna suede – and priced at €7,000.
 
He has clearly found an audience. Sales grew by 50% last year, and wholesale clients to 38. This year, Brett hopes to get that number closer to 60, and judging by his swish knits, snappy suede blazers and double-face cashmere redingotes, he surely will.