A particular type of man shows up to Milan Fashion Week in running shorts and a t-shirt, as if he has just stepped off a treadmill and wandered into the front row by mistake. You know the type. He seems proud of his own indifference. Then Giorgio Armani shows you exactly what dressing for the heat looks like.
The Spring 2027 Giorgio Armani men’s collection, presented on June 22nd at the brand’s Palazzo Orsini on Via Borgonuovo in Milan, was titled Mercato Mediterraneo – Mediterranean Market – and the name said a great deal. Following the death of Giorgio Armani in September 2025, Leo Dell’Orco took over as men’s creative director and staged the show in the palazzo’s courtyard. He filled it with rattan, sisal and jute rugs that gave off a warm, faintly vegetal smell in the 40-degree heat. The setting was deliberate. Dell’Orco wanted you to experience the Mediterranean before you saw it.
The collection itself comprised around 160 looks, incorporating Silvana Armani’s debut cruise womenswear alongside the men’s line — a double presentation that moved at an impressive pace. Near the end, roughly a dozen featherlight tuxedos flew past at a pace that made you lean forward to catch the details.
The clothes were made from linen, washed silks and bleached denim – fabrics that looked and felt as though they had spent a week on a sailing boat. Dell’Orco described the process precisely: “The fabrics were made to look worn-in and were treated with salt. For example, the denim doesn’t even look like denim because it has been treated to make it look like shantung.” The most interesting gesture of the season was that shift from one material to another, the eye seeing denim and the hand feeling silk.
Many of the ideas that the late Giorgio Armani championed in menswear have found their way back into the current fashion conversation, including pleated trousers, cardigan-soft jackets, boxy shirts and knitwear that suggests ease rather than effort. Dell’Orco worked through all of these with a minimalist approach, letting the fabrics carry the weight. Colours moved through shades of sage, beige, brown and blue, all faded as if overexposed to sunlight.
The silhouette was lengthened and slightly narrowed. Jackets were a few inches longer than the standard Armani cut, while slim trousers maintained clean proportions. Classic Mediterranean workwear, such as safari jackets with bellows pockets, appeared above tailored trousers, making the look practical without sacrificing its elegance. Pale denim shirts were paired with navy blazers. Collarless tailoring was evident in the form of bleached denim versions that felt genuinely new.
Dell’Orco was clear about one thing: no Bermuda shorts. “I didn’t show any Bermuda shorts as a matter of principle,” he said — a pointed remark in a week when some guests had dressed as though they were heading to a track meet rather than a fashion show. The restraint felt appropriate. The whole collection argued that covering the body and keeping cool are not contradictory.
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A few evening looks closed the show: tuxedos reduced to combinations of black shirts and trousers, some collarless and some with a covered placket. The final jackets were adorned with small pins representing the zodiac signs of Dell’Orco and the late Giorgio Armani, Scorpio and Cancer respectively. It was a quiet, personal touch that didn’t need to shout.
Dell’Orco has now presented two collections in this role, and his vision is becoming clearer. He is not trying to rewrite the brand. Instead, he is building on the foundation laid by Armani, refining the materials and forms he refined over decades and pushing them slightly further towards a man who, as Dell’Orco put it, is “vibrant, sun-scorched and full of character“. For Spring 2027, that man was impeccably dressed.
