Milan Menswear AW 08

Menswear buyers are not so naive as to expect a barrage of jaw-dropping new looks to emerge from the Milan catwalks. With autumn trading predicted to be a challenge at best, many will have hoped for plenty of commercial help from designer brands. And that is exactly what Milan's autumn shows served up last week.

Grey continued to dominate tailoring, as used by Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum and Thomas Maier at Bottega Veneta through to Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons for Jil Sander. Other shades to emerge were purple at Emporio Armani, and lapis or azure blue at Prada. Clean-lined silhouettes with concealed fastenings were the blueprint at Jil Sander, Prada and at Calvin Klein, where creative director Italo Zucchelli used technical fabrics to create garments that responded to body heat.