Fall Menswear 2012: Alexander McQueen, Prada, Gucci, Ferragamo and more.

Alexander McQueen
Knee-breeches are the best. I've been wearing them, or variants thereof, for a while now, and eagerly await the moment when Tudor pantaloons come back into style. (I can dream, OK?) So it's time once again for me to be smug about spotting an upcoming trend in advance, and/or using my pattern-recognition skills to twist reality to fit with my desired worldview.

This season's McQueen menswear doesn't reach the lofty heights of the label's recent womenswear collections -- what could? -- but it's buoyed up by a surprising amount of personality for what's essentially another riff on the classic suit. And even though McQueen chose to go for a photoshoot rather than a runway show this season, the modeling choices are interesting in themselves -- no typically lanky, beanpole-like male models here, plus some of the poses hint towards not androgyny (that staple of all high-end fashion) but a certain femininity.

I particularly like the outfit below since it's more or less a typical city banker suit, except breeches instead of trousers. It illustrates how easy it'd be to transition from a typical trouser to this -- although I'm aware that many people will still think it looks dumb.

Bottega Veneta

Trussardi
Trussardi gets a [dis]honourable mention here since their show was, to me, so comedically unappealing. The theme appeared to be "skeezy Starsky & Hutch villain", to which inspiration they brought such marvels as this:

He's stolen your baby and it's in his bag right now.

And this douchebag, whose outfit isn't actually so bad (although it does look like an action-comedy costume, thanks to the colour-scheme), but who appears to be carrying a... bottle... of urine...?

No, seriously, I have no idea.

Salvatore Ferragamo
Ferragamo, along with Ermenegildo Zegna, is one of the finest designers of razor-sharp but ultimately boring menswear. Fantastic to look at, and reeking of style, but not exactly groundbreaking or imaginative. The way I judged this particular show was, "Would Magneto wear this?" since the combination of dark, slim jackets, turtleneck sweaters and purple made me think of Michael Fassbender's wardrobe in X-Men: First Class.

In the following picture, I like to imagine that the pouch on his belt is for snacks. @zanzando suggested on Twitter that he'd use it to transport metal balls for weaponry emergencies, but in my opinion Magneto doesn't need a bag for that, so snacks it is. Cookies, baked incompetently by Charles Xavier because they are buddies and the sequel to X-Men: First Class is totally going to be all about them running a mutant school together. Right? Right.

Moncler Gamme Bleu
Another year, another marvel. Last season it was fencing; this year its Formula 1 drivers. This show wasn't quite up to the level of Spring's opaque masks or faux body-armour with random straps all over it, but a valient effort was made nonetheless.

Moncler Gamme Bleu is one of those Zoolander-esque designers whose customer base I can never quite divine. Evidently they must be doing well since they manage to keep on creating such bizarre and niche designs -- shown on the runway at Fashion Week, no less -- during this economic climate, but how? Who wears it? Maybe it looks less baffling when you're only wearing one item instead of the entire outfit of padded red nylon?

But why is he carrying a blanket?

Prada
Prada did well this season, gimmick-wise, by hiring a mixture of male models and familiar faces for their show. The clothes were underwhelming in my opinion, but the gimmick worked because: Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman! He is reason enough, my friends. Also on the catwalk were Jamie Bell (who tweeted an adorable fanboy message about meeting G. Oldman, I noticed.), Willem Dafoe and Adrien Brodie.

This jacket is too tight.

Miuccia Prada was evident in the details, such as the colourful designs on the accessories, but aside from that the collection was largely old-fashioned yet decidedly run-of-the-mill coats and suits. The shoes, socks, and sunglasses were the main highlight, for me.

My main reason for including this next guy is because I liked his name so much: Bernd Sassmannscausen. Plus his facial expression, which suggests that he's about to Voldemort all over the place.

Gary Oldman!

Jamie Bell's outfit confused me a little, since the waistcoat blended so closely into the shirt and show every sign of being tucked into his trousers. It makes his torso look oddly bandaged, and bulkier than expected.

Gucci
The fit of the suits in Gucci ran extremely slim this season. So slim, in fact, that the trousers all had to have zips at the ankles. But the focus was on fabric choices, from gaudy velvet flocking to iridescent geometric patterns to murky, almost blurred floral prints. I'm not sure if it was successful in most cases, though, especially if worn in a non-fashion context.