Even before today's show began, Angela Missoni could count one major coup. For the first time in their many years together, her beau, Bruno Ragazzi, was stepping out in a Missoni blazer, rather than the classic Caraceni he usually favors. Ragazzi is the kind of sharp-dressed man you'd picture with an immaculate wardrobe of clothing and accessories, as opposed to your average closet stuffed with everyday schmatta. And it's the wardrobe rather than the closet that Angela is targeting with her men's collections, adding and refining until the Missoni man need look nowhere else for his clothes. Well, that would be the ideal, at least. For Fall, there was more of the emphasis on the classic, particularly traditional English clothing, that we've seen in Milan this week—but obviously given a Missoni spin. So a herringbone parka was paneled across the back with knit. A double-breasted suit and a harrington jacket were as soft-shouldered as cardigans. And would a Cornish fisherman even recognize the Milanese mutation of his sweater?
In the end, the collection was, as usual, about Missoni's mastery of its medium. There was a time not so long ago when knits piled on top of each other added tons of chunk, but now a coat sits over a jacket, cardigan, and shirt in a lushly layered collage of pattern and color without the merest hint of bulk. It's a feat, all right. It gets finer by the season. And now even Bruno's on board.
