Milan Menswear Fashion Week - Trends for Dapper Men in 2012

In September, I gave you a rundown of women's fashion trends for 2012. With the Men's version of those runway weeks happening now, I thought I'd give you a preview of menswear for this year. The main takeaways: distressed navy blue, leather and velvet.

Breeches and Blue
Alexander McQueen showcased the same crisp, streamlined looks expected of the line, plus a few old-old-school additions. The trench coats and suit jackets are handsome and well-fit examples of outerwear and suiting. The capri-style pants with high socks are a bit George Washington-esque, but notable nonetheless. The stand-out patterns and colors are stripes, tie-dye and blue. From thin pin stripes to thick horizontal bars, the pattern appears on a good deal of the garments. An artistic tie-dye pattern also appears on the suits. The design would definitely show up well (and possibly better) on a promotional T-shirt. The most important thing to note from McQueen's line is the pervasiveness of distressed navy blue. The color appears on jackets, pants, shoes, socks and suits.

Leather and Embroidery
Diesel did a good job of melding functional outerwear with fashion in its 2012 line. With interesting additions like zipper-heavy leather coats and denim-colored suits, the label introduced a line of attractive and wearable garments. Diesel also plays with texture by combining denim, velvet, chunky knits and thick embroidery in many outfits. Leather was another popular fabric. Leather appeared on jackets, pants and sweater sleeves. While I'd advise against the sweater sleeves, the jackets and pants look like staples. Note: not everyone (read, only Lenny Kravitz) can pull of leather pants so be wary.

Cardigans, Ascots and Layers
Of the runway shows for 2012, DSquared2 put on the most realistic and wearable by non-fashion people. The main styling points: cardigans and layers. No one looks bad in a cardi. They are forever fashionable. Dsquared2 knows this so they showed plenty of cardigan options for men. The layered styles included those cardigans and much more. Layers consisted of jackets over vests over jean jackets over collared shirts over T-shirts. Throw on a scarf too, because, well, there's still epidermis showing so why not? (As I've mentioned before, I'm a large proponent of scarves so I love this addition.) I have one complaint: The appearance of man purses a.k.a. murses. Why do designers insist on making these? Satchels, briefcases, backpacks, messenger bags, weekenders, pockets: men already have those. They do not need purses, especially large shiny ones that match their shoes. The promotional products industry has many fine examples of men's bags. The fashion industry should follow their example.*