Fitted frock coats, bow ties and exuberant colours graced the runaway as Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi both imagined more glamourous, post-pandemic wardrobes for their fall/winter collections at the Milan men's fashion week.

Designer Silvia Venturini Fendi took inspiration from the 1920s dandy at her fashion house's show on Saturday, punctuating refinement with touches of eccentricity. 

Blazers were transformed into capes, knitwear featured sizeable chest cutouts and the accessories veered towards the flashy. 

The collection also aimed for a more fluid interpretation of typically gendered clothes, with wide-leg pants ballooning into half-skirts. 

"We women wear men's jackets, I do not see why they could not take inspiration from our wardrobe," said the designer, the granddaughter of the Italian fashion house's founders. 

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At Sicilian duo Dolce & Gabbana's show, casual and sartorial styles mixed in a celebration of returning to the great outdoors. 

Tailored to appeal to a younger generation, the show featured rap and punk music orchestrated by Machine Gun Kelly. 

Models wore loose-fitting coats with leopard or zebra prints, white suits embroidered with pearls or tight-fitting pants and tuxedos with wide shoulders and a cinched waist.

Others were wrapped up in thick, oversized down jackets in bold colours or eco-friendly furs, ready to face the winter cold during post-Covid excursions.

And like at Fendi, the skirt featured as part of the male wardrobe, with the designer duo citing young people's ability to choose their clothes freely, without worrying about gender.

Both shows carried on despite the disruption sown across Europe by the surging Omicron variant, which has curtailed the fashion week calendar. 

After Giorgio Armani announced its withdrawal, the number of physical shows was reduced from 23 to 16. Eighteen brands opted for a purely virtual presence, while others presented their collections by appointment.

Still, those that went ahead, like Dsquared2 on Friday, embraced the return to the catwalk.

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In their first live show in two years -- attended by football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic -- the Canadian twins behind the label displayed a festival of bright yellows, pinks, reds and blues alongside floral patterns, sequins and crystal embroidery.

With a glimmer of hope and much enthusiasm, Dsquared2's globe-trotting styles were a nod to getting out of the cocoon and going on a long-awaited trip.

Italian fashion pioneer Nino Cerruti dies

Pioneering Italian fashion designer Nino Cerruti, who introduced "casual chic" into men's fashion and in his heyday dressed Hollywood stars, has died at the age of 91.

He died at the Vercelli hospital in the northwest region of Piedmont, where he had been admitted for a hip operation, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on its website.

"A giant among Italian entrepreneurs has left us," said Gilberto Pichetto, deputy minister for economic development.

Cerruti, who created the first deconstructed jacket in the 1970s, was one of the leading figures in men's ready-to-wear fashion in the 20th century, with a look that was at once stylish and relaxed.

"I want men more free in their elegance, more elegant in their freedom," he once said.

Tall and slim, Cerruti always insisted on being the first to try on his creations, many of which he kept stored away at the woollen mill his grandfather founded in the northern town of Biella in 1881.

"I have always dressed the same person -- myself," he once said.

- 'Italy's chicest man' -

Born in 1930 in Biella, Cerruti dreamt of becoming a journalist.

But after his father died when he was 20, he was forced to give up his philosophy studies to take over the family textile factory.

In the 1960s, he met Giorgio Armani and hired him as a creator of men's fashion.

The duo made a profound mark on the world of fashion, before Armani branched out with his own fashion house in 1975.

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On Saturday, Carlo Capasa, head of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, mourned the passing of "Italy's chicest man".

He called the designer, often seen at his fashion shows in his signature yellow jumper, "a great innovator, a visionary creative and a forerunner of many realities today" in fashion.

"He leaves behind a great legacy: the courage to invest and believe in youth. He was the one who believed in a very young Giorgio Armani."

Armani himself told Corriere della Sera of his great sadness at the news. "Nino had a piercing gaze, a true curiousity, a capacity to dare," he said.

Cerruti opened his first shop in Paris in 1967, launching his luxury brand on the path to global fame.

"Clothes only exist from the moment someone puts them on. I would like these clothes to continue to live, to soak up life," he said.

- 'Philosopher of clothing' -

As French students rose up in revolt in May 1968, he revolutionised fashion by asking male and female models to walk down the catwalk in the same clothes.

"Trousers have given women freedom," he said.

He created his first line of women's clothing in the 1970s, a branch of the business that two decades later would account for a fifth of its revenue.

He then moved into perfumes, watches, shoes and jewellery.

The man nicknamed the "philosopher of clothing" dressed American actors Richard Gere and Robert Redford as well as French star Jean-Paul Belmondo.

He also made cameo appearances in Hollywood films "Cannes Man" (1996) and "Holy Man" (1998).

In the 1990s, his fashion house was asked to be the official designer of the Ferrari Formula 1 team.

Struggling to keep up with the highly competitive world of luxury fashion as an independent business, he sold his label "Cerruti 1881" to Italian investors in 2001. It was then taken over by a US investment fund, and then by the Chinese group Trinity.

After the sale, he returned to the family home in Biella.