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On the runway at Milan Fashion Week, Versace dug into its pattern archives, Zegna doubled down on the tie and Marni showed a big and bold black plaid.

On the runway at Milan Fashion Week, Versace dug into its pattern archives, Zegna doubled down on the tie and Marni showed a big and bold black plaid.

By

Jacob Gallagher

Jan. 19, 2018 4:50 p.m. ET



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IS THE TIE dead? Not if you ask Alessandro Sartori, the designer who helms Italian luxury brand Ermenegildo Zegna. At the runway show for his fall 2018 collection, which recently kicked off Milan Men’s Fashion Week, a model seemingly wore not one, but two ties strung around his dress shirt (turned out it was one extra-long tie, knotted twice). Is Zegna expecting the two-tie trend to sweep the globe? Surely not: The brand calls these lengthy ties “scarves,” and intends real men to drape, not knot, them around their necks. Despite the dramatic, rather comical, styling decision— and the fact that businessmen are increasingly rejecting ties—the show did convey that neckwear isn’t going away.

This exemplified a theme that emerged during Milan Fashion Week: Just when you thought a trend was gone for good, there it was on the catwalk, saying “Nope, not so fast.”

The renewed love for ties wasn’t limited to Zegna. Just a year ago, other Milanese labels like

Salvatore Ferragamo

and Marni forewent them altogether in their runway collections. This season, ties were back—popping up at both those shows, as well as the fall 2018 runways at Ralph Lauren, Versace and Giorgio Armani. With the tie’s return came a subtle design shift: Most of the neckwear on show was slender, single-colored or gingerly patterned; we’re not back to the boldly deco Ferragamo ties of the 1980s. Yet, if you have an armful of neckties taking up space in your closet, Milan certainly gave you reason to rejoice.

Etro was one of many Italian labels to produce jackets in British plaids, such as this pink-accented checked sportcoat.

Etro was one of many Italian labels to produce jackets in British plaids, such as this pink-accented checked sportcoat.

Also cheer if you have a checked overcoat or suit dangling on a hanger. Credit the prevalence of traditionally British fabrics on Netflix’s “The Crown,” as designer John Vizzone did during a walk-through of his latest collection for the Paris-based label Cifonelli. The influence of the series’s tweedy Prince Philip (Matt Smith) was visible in pieces like Cifonelli’s brown herringbone suit, as well as Etro’s glen plaid blazer (in red, green and blue) and Marni’s zippered duffle coat in a mega-scaled black-and-white tartan.

“Any time you look back to British heritage or the earlier notions of menswear it makes for a more interesting season,” said Justin Berkowitz, the men’s fashion director of Bloomingdale’s. As he explained, this redirect towards more traditional fabrics comes in response to the attention-seeking streetwear styles that have populated the runway in recent memory (think garishly logo’d hoodies and tapered sweatpants). “We’ve gone so far in the other direction— towards the avant garde, towards streetwear, for so long that it felt like it was time for a slight change,” said Mr. Berkowitz. This change is less about capital-F fashion’s obsession with reinventing itself, and more a recognition that, while trends come and go, certain bedrock pieces always make for a reliable investment.

For its nostalgic fall 2018 collection, Prada revived its sleek “Linea Rossa” windbreakers.

For its nostalgic fall 2018 collection, Prada revived its sleek “Linea Rossa” windbreakers.

Mr. Berkowitz also pointed out that many brands are returning to their “core” characteristics. Versace’s show was full of gilded motifs and silky shirts, key components of the label’s DNA (also debuting this past week, coincidentally or not: “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” the new FX series about the family, which the company has emphatically distanced itself from). Meanwhile, at Fendi, the Roman label’s signature brown-and-black double-F motif was stamped on fuzzy fur jackets and plastic-coated bucket hats. With this retro renaissance, the intent is twofold: to entice younger customers who may have missed these motifs the first time around; and to pull in older customers who want familiar touchstones.

Yet this clamor for nostalgia echoed loudest at Prada. Its collection was anchored by black nylon—as seen in jackets, hats and bags—a throwback to the ’80s and ’90s when

Miuccia Prada’s

empire was founded on shiny, swishy nylon accessories and outerwear. A black Prada backpack, the very item with which Ms. Prada started her industrial fabric crusade in 1984, can currently be seen in the “Is Fashion Modern?” exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The show also marked the reintroduction of Prada “Linea Rossa” (also known as Prada Sport) the brand’s more affordable collection introduced in 1997. On the runway: the sort of icy gray slick waterproof nylon jackets that were popular pre-Y2K. They will trigger “MMMBop”-soundtracked memories, and, if you’re lucky, send you back to your closet to dust off an original. Alternatively, you could buy the new version when the collection hits stores in a handful of months. The big takeaway from Milan: It always pays to hang on to your old clothes. Even if they’re out of style, it won’t be forever.

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