BEAUTY: Clothing--Etro

Let's just get it out of the way: I still miss Kean Etro, the son of Gimmo Etro, founder of the house. Kean started the menswear division in 1990 and was the Creative Director until four years ago when he stepped down. I miss his enthusiasm, his vision, but most of all, his daring with the DNA of the family house: the paisley. Current Creative Director of menswear Marco De Vincenzo has done a nice job but he is not Kean.

This Fall-Winter '26-'27 collection shown for Milano Moda Uomo—not nearly as lush as past collections under Kean—gets as close to Kean's sensibility as I have seen so far. Which makes sense since De Vincenzo based it on an archival collection Kean created that explored the idea of human physiognomy often mirroring that of animals. Called "Ani-men," the collection was shown to the public on mannequins with Venetian-made papier-mâché animal heads—foxes, owls, rams, bears. But for the official lookbook, we see the collection here on a model. And animal imagery mixes nicely with some subtle paisleys that show up, pleasingly, on all garments. I particularly like the effect of tooled leather stags and owls on a motorcycle jacket (final look)!