by Ada Maria Francesca Romeo
At Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027, emerging Italian designers Grossi, Domenico Orefice, and Cascinelli transformed personal memories into powerful collections.
Among the emerging names at Milan Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2027, three Italian designers demonstrated how menswear can become a medium for expressing emotions, memories, and personal identity. Grossi, Domenico Orefice, and Cascinelli belong to a new generation of creatives who, despite speaking vastly different aesthetic languages, share a common approach: using human experience as the foundation for authentic storytelling through design.
Far removed from the idea of fashion as mere decoration, the three brands transform family memories, childhood places, and reflections on personal growth into tangible design elements. From Cascinelli’s nostalgic reinterpretation of family heritage, to Domenico Orefice’s vision of home as a metaphor for identity, and Grossi’s exploration of a fragile, ever-evolving masculinity, their collections prove that intimacy can become a powerful source of creative innovation. The result is menswear that does more than dress the body—it tells the stories of the people and experiences that shape it.
With “L’Uomo per Gioco”, GROSSI continues to explore masculinity as an unstable, performative identity that is constantly being negotiated. The SS27 collection creates a universe suspended between childhood imagination and adult uncertainty, where cartoon-like wigs become masks and the body takes on an intentionally ambiguous character. Irony, a defining element of the brand’s aesthetic, gives way to a deeper reflection on male vulnerability and the weight of social expectations.
The accompanying SS27 capsule, AFA, completely overturns the conventions of seasonal dressing. Absolute black dominates the summer wardrobe, while structured fabrics and unexpectedly heavy volumes create a deliberate tension with the traditional idea of spring and summer. Rather than functioning as a purely aesthetic provocation, the collection questions inadequacy as a creative language, transforming what appears out of place into its most authentic expression. The result is a vision of menswear that abandons the pursuit of perfection in favor of an identity that remains fragile, contradictory, and constantly evolving.
Images courtesy of Grossi
With HABITAT, Domenico Orefice presents the most intimate collection of his career to date. After establishing a highly recognizable design vocabulary over the past few seasons, the designer turns his attention to his origins: his home in Naples and the people who inhabit it. Here, the concept of home moves beyond a simple narrative reference and becomes a living part of the creative process, transforming memories, everyday rituals, and family relationships into essential components of the wardrobe.
The collection preserves the brand’s signature codes while softening them through more relaxed silhouettes and an effortless sense of ease. New elements, including floral motifs, stripes, and unexpected touches of red, introduce a renewed chromatic sensitivity, while intentionally unfinished details suggest a lived-in elegance that rejects formal perfection. The presentation itself reinforces this narrative by transforming the exhibition space into a home gradually coming to life through objects and daily rituals. More than a new direction, HABITAT represents the natural evolution of Orefice’s creative journey, demonstrating how contemporary luxury can emerge from memory, authenticity, and the ability to translate deeply personal experiences into design.
Images courtesy of Domenico Orefice
With “Via al Castello” (Road to the Castle), Filippo Cascinelli Staudacher draws inspiration from childhood summers spent at Castel Ivano, his family’s historic estate, turning those memories into the narrative foundation of the collection. Its greatest strength lies in the balance between emotional memory and technical performance, supported by a strong commitment to recycled fabrics and Italian craftsmanship. Technical nylon and mountain-inspired details coexist with mother-of-pearl buttons, lace accents, and references to family heirlooms, creating a wardrobe that effortlessly blends delicacy with practicality.
The same intimate narrative reappears in the collection’s signature bow collar, inspired by the scarves worn by the designer’s grandmother. The introduction of womenswear, alongside new product categories ranging from tailored shorts and the brand’s first travel bag to boxer shorts reimagined as everyday garments, further reflects the label’s ambition to expand into a complete lifestyle universe. More than a nostalgic tribute to childhood, Via al Castello demonstrates how emotional heritage can become a powerful design tool, shaping an aesthetic that feels both authentic and quietly sophisticated.
Images courtesy of Cascinelli
In an industry constantly looking toward the future, these emerging talents remind us that some of fashion’s most compelling ideas are still born from the most personal place of all: human memory.