Milan is in need of heroics. That message came through loud and clear from the number of menswear designers in the city who spoke of creating clothing for superheroes. Iceberg's Federico Curradi has the distinction of being one of the first to send up the signal—the Bat signal, in this case. His stated inspiration was Bruce Wayne. Apparently he'd been thinking of the way that the Wayne wardrobe (glen plaids and tweeds, in Curradi's version) would morph when he assumed the persona of his caped alter ego.
There was an insistent techiness to all of the clothes Curradi showed, both in their fabrics (spongy neoprene for sweatshirts and shiny, nylon-looking silk/poplin blends for shirts) and in their patterns (scrambled and slashed abstractions of Wayne's plaids and tweeds). The way the designer put them together—the same print for jacket, pants, and long tunic shirt—suggested the all-of-a-kind unity of a costume or a uniform. Pulled apart, individual pieces will likely have a sporty, future-leaning feel that will make them salable propositions.
Behind the runway, an animation played, showing swatches of the collection's suit-fabric patterns twisting, bubbling, and deforming to an electronic beat. Batman may be an icon along the lines of Mickey Mouse, whose face used to grace Iceberg's knits, but the real heroes of Milan might be those hardy plaids and tweeds. They can be subjected to what you will, and live to fight another day.
