For fans of the oft-overlooked Comme des Garçons-adjacent label, the shuttering of Ganryu was a disappointing moment. As one of the more ‘accessibly abstract’ labels under expansive Comme des Garçons umbrella, the work of designer Fumito Ganryu was cherished by those in Ganryu’s tight, but committed fanbase (this writer included). While Ganryu (the CdG-connected original label) wrapped after the Spring/Summer 2017 season, Fumito Ganryu (the man, and the name of the independently run current label) pleasantly surprised followers with the announcement of his return to the fashion world—making his triumphant second act with a show at Pitti Uomo 94.

Water was a central theme for the collection, both directly and indirectly. Opening the show, large robes encased the first few looks, reappearing throughout (Looks 16 and 17); the effect was a combination of beach cover up-meets-Sith robe as they alternated between pure white (Look 1) and pitch black (Look 2). The focus on water was both literal and more abstract, even coming across in the show’s soundtrack, according to Vogue. Scuba-like pieces filled out the primary-color drenched closing act (Looks 26, 27, 29 and 30), with a smattering of alternate pieces dripping off the models’ bodies as if they were a change of clothes after a dip. For a more literal take on the theme, graphic tees—including one that simply said “Water” (Look 28)—drove home the aquatic theme.

Ganryu under Comme des Garçons was always focused on sportswear (a design signature was the humble coaches jacket). With the debut of his eponymous label, it’s clear that very little has changed on that front. For pieces that looked ‘classic Ganryu,’ the chopped up indigo shirt (with a smattering of pockets, naturally) recalled some of the designer's earlier shirting designs (Look 22), while trucker jackets in a variety of show-related colors (Looks 8 and 23) and his signature coaches jackets (Looks 12 and 24) were welcome sights for longtime fans. The collection was filled with techy, zip-shirts and tees (Looks 3, 5 and 7) that felt current—not overly ‘futuristic.' But, if we’re talking zippers, the crown goes to the full-zip hoodies (Looks 13) that, even without heavy branding, brought back memories of BAPE (though, if we’re talking ‘Shark Heads’—that would certainly fit with this hydrophilic collection).

We’re excited to see that Fumito Ganryu hasn’t lost his touch since coming out from underneath the Comme des Garçons umbrella. While this collection made a splash (get it?) in Florence, we’ll look forward to seeing him in Paris next season.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: London’s loss was Florence’s gain. The English designer is a bright spot—both in London and on the men’s calendar as a whole—tackling the codes of workwear each season while serving up avant-garde performance art-by-runway. This collection, shown at Florence’s Boboli Gardens, was no exception.

The Craig Green signatures are here. Corded shirting, bearing red-orange rope-like bindings that felt—not constraining—proper, freeing and weirdly practical in their loose, draped nature, dragged along on garments in light shades of pink, khaki, mint and pale blue (Looks 1, 3, 5 and 8). Parkas (a key, reoccuring garment in Green’s expanding oeuvre) were well-represented, filling out a central part of the collection in various forms (Looks 23, 24, 25 and 28). As for structures, Green hung pseudo-scaffolding, that—as expected—obscured, but strangely enhanced, the paired garments (Looks 18, 20, 32 and 34).

But on those structures, they human shapes—looming like, as Vogue’s Sarah Mower noted—guardian angels over their respective models (Looks 2 and 7) . But these silhouettes had a deeper meaning. Green explained, “I’d been looking at cleaners, surgeons, and postmen. They’re kind of the people who have your life in their hands. There was that forgotten savior idea. I liked the idea that people could become angels in their lives by working hard and doing good.” That theme in mind, you can see the attempt to recreate aprons, smocks and undershirts—workwear of a sort—embedded into or outlining garments that appeared throughout the collection (Looks 10 and 12—swimsuit silhouettes seen here cannot be unseen—along with Looks 30 and 31).

As the show carried on, there was still more to be excited about. As Mower revealed in her review in Vogue, Green debuted his “first collaboration”—working with sportswear giant Nike on select knitwear-like pieces (Looks 17, 19 and 21). “It’s their Flyknit sneaker fabric,” Green confessed, “which we made into clothes.”

The blockbuster closing act centered around psychedelic—in some ways floral (Looks 33 and 34)—tatami mat-like blankets, tied together with roping seen in earlier parts of the collection (Looks 35, 36 and 37). At a time when The Grateful Dead is a genuine force in the cultish, insider-y menswear space, Green’s additions feel right on cue.

This was an attention grabbing Spring/Summer 2019 for Versace.

Don’t get us wrong: Donatella Versace didn’t cause any controversy during the season; far from it—Versace nailed its multidimensional runway collection, showing that the designer was willing to stray from the ‘classic Versace man’ to create pieces that tackled stereotypes somewhere between the skate park and the boardroom. Sure these models were traditionally handsome, but Donatella Versace wasn’t afraid to admit that—at this moment—“Emotions are more important than abs.” That alone should be enough for followers to focus on, but Versace’s celebrity element shone through as well, with appearances of Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner wearing—not pieces from the Resort collection—garments from a “complementary women’s capsule,” according to Vogue’s Luke Leitch, making heads turn as well. That’s to say nothing of the brand’s literal tabloid print, with false headlines adorning hats, outerwear, bottoms (Look 8) and T-shirts (poking out from behind ‘power suit’ blazers (Looks 2, 3 and 4) or tucked into trousers (Looks 5 and 7). Oh, and for those keeping track: Versace’s Chain Reaction sneaker comes in early and stays throughout the collection, with different iterations transitioning between the collection’s different aesthetic shifts.

But just because Donatella Versace was willing to do something different, didn’t mean she was going to be boring. If anything, the snakeskin printed garments criss-crossed from jackets and pants (Looks 12 and 14) to hats and tops (Looks 18 and 19) as often as the collection's pieces appeared on a man or a woman. “It’s the same person,” Versace explained as reported by WWD.

Florals weren’t far after, with a print that felt ‘90s grunge drifting into the decade’s infatuation with rave (Looks 22, 28 and 30). That would explain the equally bright whites (Look 35) and neons (Looks 38 , 39 and 40) that rounded out the middle of the collection. It all came back again, just a touch darker, with—if anything, gaudy ‘Versace-esque’ pattern—covering an entire wardrobe of items (Looks 43, 45, 46 and 47). The bulky pinstriped pieces returned as well, this time in a slick navy or black, contrasted by a shiny purple straight from the turn of the millennium (Looks 51, 53 and 56).

Versace—the designer—said, “These are men who do not care about the rules and that is exactly what I love,” as reported by Vogue. Versace has been a brand that’s never afraid to dominate the style conversation, using an ostentation that turns what’s ‘big’ into ‘better.’ We appreciate and recognize Versace’s willingness to dress the gangly raver and skater, embedding the aesthetic with such an injection of confidence that it would make the apathetic and slouchy stand up at attention. As others shift with the season or ship out of Milan, Versace stays as a highlight of the occasionally-stuffy sartorial city.

If there’s one show that’s going to get the fashion press buzzing—regardless of what’s ultimately revealed on the runway—it’s Prada. The label’s Spring/Summer 2019 (though, we’d say it leaned more ‘spring’ than summer given the layering—more on that later) once again gave followers something to speak about. That revelation is frankly ‘old hat,’ especially when thinking of the work of Miuccia Prada.

Speaking of hats, the show opened with several ear-flap hats, which would be perfect for the fall, but—considering the season—are likely an exaggerated styling twist recalling visions of Jamiroquai. That’s not to say it’s silly; when it comes to Prada, whatever it is, it always just works.

You could say the same thing for the abundance of turtleneck sweaters; certainly a weird choice for a Spring/Summer collection, but—noting Prada’s magic in making the off-kilter suddenly desirable—it has us wondering if we should be rotating turtlenecks as often as we do T-shirts (that is to say, perhaps all year round).

That’s no joke. Prada tucked a turtleneck into nearly all of her looks on the runway, worn as a standalone short sleeve (Look 1) or paired under polos, blazers or suede topcoats and tailoring (Looks 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7). With their myriad colors and pocket tee detailing, the only thing that was different from a logo tee is that there’s just a little extra fabric above the collar. If anything, Prada made a case for the silhouette’s conversion into spring staple, adding in several pastel and patterned renditions that injected an entire season’s worth of ‘flower power’ into the offering (Looks 8, 13 and 14). The floral turtlenecks would continue to pop up throughout the collection. The florals, psychedelic and ‘60s inspired, were just one of the nods to Danish designer Verner Panton.

Something else that felt like a throwback? Those short-shorts that—in world where 5-inch Patagonia baggies are sneaker summer essential (even if you don’t know it yet)—recalled visions of swim trunks for a sun-drenched Italian coastline set in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. (Looks 21, 23, 33 and 40)Those might be better suited for the sporty-but-well-studied men of Call Me By Your Name, but their sexiness felt intelligent, experimental—even futuristic; conceptually it all meshed together in that ‘Prada’ sort-of-way.

From the bags on every model’s right shoulder to the “rubber sheened” frilled shirting closing out the collection, Miuccia Prada managed to walk the line between retro and modern, something that’s been something of a brand hallmark for decades (Looks 47, 48 50 and 52).

Prada pointed out, “The goal was to construct, to define a youthful, contemporary elegance,” reported WWD. “They’re simple pieces, and I wanted them to make sense.” Simple pieces? Maybe, but forward-facing to be sure. Prada is one of the few that has the ability to take something old (or, put another way, out-of-date) and bring it into the conversation today. If nothing else, her collection of must-have head-to-toe looks for Spring/Summer 2019 is the best reminder that Prada is a must-see in the city of Milan.

It starts with anagram wordplay at Fendi. “Fendi” and “Roma” were flipped—after a little intervention from Spring/Summer 2019 artist-in-residence Nico Vascellari—into “fiend” and “amour”; like the stereotypical moral characters one might find on their shoulders, Fendi was split between the devilish and the angelic. Speaking with Vogue’s Luke Leitch backstage, Fendi menswear creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi noted “Nico has a personality that fascinates me...he has this dark side yet is also so calm, sweet, and tender. So I was thinking about him both as a man and in his work; he transforms himself on stage.”

The collection began with hues of black—beginning an ascent into the lighter back half of the collection. Here, tailoring (Looks 4 and 7) started the procession, but looked as light as...well, bat out of hell—especially when factoring in the sheer, barely-there top layers that came by way of perforated jackets, anoraks and vests (Looks 2, 9, 11 and 13).

As the collection progressed, the offering expanding into the retro-sportswear that excels in Milan; bowling shirts and knit polos felt mid-century and classically Italian in a Talented Mr. Ripley-way, accented by equally sumptuous outerwear (Looks 14, 18 and 19).

Perhaps an acknowledgement of one of fashion’s own ‘deadly sins’, the collection veered into heavy logomania by the mid-mark, covering full ‘fits in the house’s signature interlocking “F” monogram (Looks 22 and 24). This would reemerge later too, albeit with more levity in banana yellows and traditional tan-and-brown (Looks 40, 42 and 43). Some of these items were created with the industrial, paper-like material, Tyvek.

Even with the monogram pieces, Fendi fans will likely fall the accessories most of all. While luxurious leather weekenders and canvas-like tote bags made their presence known (this is Milan after all) (Looks 26, 37 and 38), it was the supremely sporty items that will likely get the most play. Bucket hats and fanny packs were presented in plenty of well-branded iterations, with looks styled as if they were supervised by a swarm of luxe ‘football casuals’ (Looks 25, 27, 28, 30 and 51).

Sinful or saint-like, the Fendi man will find himself well-suited (literally and metaphorically) with the house’s Spring/Summer 2019. Logo’d out and sporty, without ignoring the tailoring and accessories that have been apart of the Roman label for generations.