Magliano Men’s Fall 2026: Feeling Blue

Hats off to Luca Magliano for eschewing postcard Italy and highlighting the quiet charm of the country’s provincial towns, where not everyone looks like Marcello Mastroianni or wants to channel the fierce, bare-shouldered sensuality of Sophia Loren.

Unlike some of his peers, Magliano isn’t into Instagram Italy and those hilarious shots of glamorous old ladies gossiping their way down via Montenapoleone. He keeps it real and sees poetry in the safe and slow-moving pace of provincial life.

For his first season showing in Paris, Magliano said he was looking to “the elegance of the provincia” and to “wardrobe classics that are born out of necessity and urgency.” For all his enthusiasm, this collection might have been too real — and whatever the opposite of aspirational is.

Honestly, what man dreams of looking like he’s just been in a brawl, with a pale suit dusted in dirt and covered in scuff marks? What woman wants to mimic the exhausted patron of the local coffee bar, in her sheer black tights, sensible flat shoes and dowdy skirt?

Even the models looked miserable as they shuffled their way around the circular catwalk wearing ill-fitting suits that resembled 1950s hand-me-downs, with shoulders comically wide, jackets too long, and sloppily rolled and tucked waistbands.

One wore sneakers that looked as if they’d been bound together with tape, while others wearing layers of sweaters looked as if they’d dressed in the dark.

Some of the fabrics here were lovely — herringbones, corduroys and windowpane checks — but their beauty was lost on the old-fashioned, ill-fitting clothes that were more suited to a period film, or to the characters in an Elena Ferrante novel, than to the Parisian catwalk.

Magliano may have a thriving business in Italy and the Far East, but times are getting tougher and the word on so many lips this season is value for money. Men are looking to invest in elegant, flattering pieces that will stand the test of time, rather than ones that are lost in time.

Ditto for all the female customers out there, many of whom already look and feel exhausted, and who don’t need a wardrobe to match.