Magliano FW24 Imagines Classic Menswear With Insurgency

Five years ago, Luca Magliano launched his namesake label at Pitti Uomo with a romantic collection titled “Wardrobe for a Man in Love,” offering the Bologna-native designer a fast-pass into Italy’s higher fashion circles. On Wednesday evening, the designer made a glorious return to the men’s trade show as its honored guest designer, a title previously earned by the likes of ERL’s Eli Russell Linnetz, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Thebe Magugu, among others. It was a profound homecoming for Magliano, whose vision is much sharper one half-decade later.

“I’m getting old in a beautiful way,” Magliano told Hypebeast backstage, reflecting on his growth as a designer. “It was all about being super loud at the beginning. Now, I’m really enjoying the subtle erotic feeling that exists between clothes and people.” It’s this stimulative design ethos that makes the brand feel relatable to its fans, and Magliano’s ability to embolden its flirtatious undercurrents proves he knows his audience.

The show was held inside the massive Nelson Mandela Forum, a popular Florentine venue for concerts, athletics and other events. Emerging from clouds of smoke, models descended from the crest of the arena’s grand staircase, which served to remind onlookers of the cinema more so than reality. In Magliano’s words, the set was a “device of strain and an impromptu occasion for glamour,” offering a cruel political metaphor that united top and bottom, or dominant and submissive, if you will.

For Fall/Winter 2024, Magliano examined menswear’s classic shapes, restructuring traditional codes to fancy a wider demographic with doses of femininity. The mood board was tacked with powerful women — the late feminist lesbian poet Patrizia Cavalli, the Italian actress Anna Magnani and the German artist Hanne Darboven, to name a few. Their strong portraits, mirroring Magliano’s fortuitous commitment to inclusivity on menswear’s main stage, contributed majorly to his fluid output.

“It has to do with the way we interpret the concept of ‘classic’ as an overextended feminine form,” Magliano said. “Being at Pitti means reflecting on the idea of classic, and our take is feminine, a sort of new neutral that belongs to gay identities and to the queer culture.” Challenging fashion’s binaries, Magliano’s cuts are deconstructed, rearranged and transformed into new-age classics, behaving with the body in a “flirty and weird way to become something else,” as he puts it.

The collection included a number of collaborations with poised Italian fashioners. Neapolitan-shaped suits were hand-sewn by Kiton for Magliano in black and white editions, and hat designer Borsalino entered the arena with a line of eccentric headwear. “It’s about starting a cultural conversation with people that don’t see things like you,” Magliano said of the line’s collaborative nature. “You have to look for a common ground.”

Overall, the collection is intellectual, insurgent and ironic — all at once. It’s both formal and messy. It’s expertly tailored and somehow artistically undone. It’s proud but not without hardship, particularly that of the queer community; and it’s futuristic in its approach to categorical clothing. It’s Magliano.

See Magliano’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection in the gallery above.