At Ports, they marched out three by three. Ian Hylton, Ports' creative director of menswear, grouped his models in mini sets—or, as he called them, clones. He'd been thinking of Pavel Bondarenko's titanium sculpture of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and it sent him into a space-age, modular mood. Like so many others in Milan this week, Hylton focused his attention on the coat. His future versions came with platelike rows of pockets, and panels that just look like pockets, in the same double-faced cashmere from which he cuts his more traditional tailored coats. The latter were worn by another clone set. Perhaps by design, the whole felt flat. "It's easy for a guy to define himself in here," Hylton said, though the two poles didn't admit much in between. So if you're flying Ports, you've got to ask yourself, guy: Am I Man or Astro-man?
