with Billionaire and A-Cold-Wall, gentlemen and bad boys clash at the opening of Fashion Week

From the first day of Men’s Fashion Week, Friday, two very distinct visions emerged from the Milanese catwalks. On the one hand, the faithful of menswear high-end couture with whispered elegance like at Billionaire. On the other, fans of underground and experimental streetwear, in the wake of A-Cold-Wall, which presented for the occasion the first collection designed after the retirement of its founder, Samuel Ross.

Billionaire returns to Four Seasons, the most popular five-star hotel in Milan’s luxury quadrangle, where the brand regularly presents its collections. “I imagined a wardrobe for a summer vacation in a dream destination, between Portofino and Mykonos, with lots of white suits and light tones. White reflects the sun. This is important with an ever-changing climate warmer”, underlines Philipp Plein backstage, who bought the label in 2016, raising 100% of its capital in 2022.

The hotel’s green garden offers the ideal setting to host the show which, for once, abandons its characteristic flashy side and have you seen me, for a much more sober and cool style, in perfect line with the trend of quiet luxury. Certainly, the gentlemen of Billionaire always display their taste for luxury and underlined elegance, with the flower in the buttonhole, the essential panama hat and thin socks going up to below the knees, including when they dare to wear Bermuda shorts .

But their wardrobe for spring-summer 2025 also offers many relaxed silhouettes, with looser pants, almost in a baggy vein, simple white t-shirts and little waterproof nylon jackets without frills. All worn with leather sandals and flip-flops, for a nonchalant but classy look. Even the banker’s suit swaps the jacket for the jacket! And, above all, no superfluous ornaments. At most, the models let us see a small medallion hanging on a chain on their neck.

The palette reflects this new, cleaner and more discreet style. Apart from a silk shirt with small baroque prints and a python jacket, the wardrobe is mainly made up of monochrome silhouettes in neutral and rather classic tones (white, gray, black, navy, beige). Everything is very light and fresh with suits and all the basics of the menswear cut from linen, silk, cashmere and flannels.

“Billionaire is a super luxurious niche brand, 100% made in Italy by small artisans. It has never been about fashion. It is above all a timeless wardrobe. But, this season we have made small adjustments to make the range more contemporary, we worked on the proportions of the pants, which were wider, and introduced Bermuda shorts, including in the suits,” explains the German designer entrepreneur.

Another new feature, tested last season and renewed for next summer, is the introduction of women’s ready-to-wear through four looks. These are essentially pantsuits and chic cashmere coats, designed for the business woman.

Considered the “little gem” of the group, Billionaire continues to focus on its exclusive dimension with a strong focus on a quality product and limited distribution. The brand is sold through 85 multi-brand stores and five mono-brand stores in Porto Cervo, Marbella, Baku, Dubai, as well as Beverly Hills, in the opening phase.

Between the flagship shows of Moschino and Dsquared2, Friday was also an opportunity for certain brands to position themselves in the presentation program in order to be noticed from the opening day. This was the case of A-Cold-Wall (ACW), which returned to Milan and revealed its new face.

At the start of the year, it was in fact bought by Tomorrow Ltd, which already held a minority share, marking the departure of its founder Samuel Ross. Founded in 2015, the English brand became known for its avant-garde spirit with research into technical materials, while working on a premium streetwear universe. She then got a little lost along the way by focusing on a more commercial offer.

Today, it is relaunching by reconnecting with its roots and its conceptual spirit through a focus on research, while focusing on concrete and commercial products. This new chapter has been entrusted to two personalities who have been active in ACW for several years already, 2016 for Liam Hassimi, the brand director, and 2020 for William Slocombe, art & design director.

“We redefined the concept based on the brand’s DNA, its universe close to British subcultures and its radical approach to fashion, by reworking the chromatic base, the silhouettes and the fits. The idea is is to go towards a more mature client with a certain artistic sensitivity”, explains William Slocombe. “The three key words that summarize this phase are: experimental, new vision and integrity of identity,” emphasizes Liam Hassimi.

With ACW’s studios in Milan and London, the two have built a very contemporary street-sportswear collection with essential and almost basic pieces, easy to sell, enhanced with technical details or special treatments, such as faded effect dyes. , crinkled fabrics or worked leathers made in Italy in artisan workshops and specialized textile factories. Many pieces are available in nylon with pants and windbreakers full of drawstrings and laces allowing certain parts of the garment to be tightened or gathered. The duo also revisited the asymmetrical vest, an emblematic ACW piece, oscillating between a bulletproof or life-saving vest.

This new era introduces feminine silhouettes for the first time, the idea being to broaden the brand’s audience, also with unisex pieces. It notably offers a hooded tunic dress using an innovative, highly textured protein material, obtained by a microbial fermentation process. This technique was developed by the Japanese biotechnology company Spiber, with whom ACW created a capsule collection also including technical jackets, cargo pants, a bag and shoes.

In total, this first post Samuel Ross collection, entitled “Pink Noise”, consists of 24 silhouettes and 120 pieces with t-shirts sold for around 120-220 euros, sweaters between 180 and 320, pants between 280 and 480 , sweaters at 300-450 euros and jackets ranging from 350 to 850 euros. The brand is distributed through nearly 120 multi-brand retailers mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom, including Selfridges in London, and via two mono-brand stores in China, in Shanghai and Beijing.