Your Guide to the ‘Other’ Fashion Week

McKnight and Cawley, like many designers who participate in the unofficial anti-fashion-week fashion week, run small businesses selling artisanal menswear that is best appreciated up close, where you can feel the thoughtfulness they put into their fabrics and shapes. Same with Australian purveyors of ballistic outerwear Man-tle and shaman of earthy wool trousers Evan Kinori. And though there isn’t a phalanx of street style photographers lining the alleyway where you’ll find Antwerp menswear wizard Jan-Jan Van Essche, I would argue that if you want to see where menswear is really headed, you’d be better off visiting these quality-obsessed, off-piste designers than hitting every big runway show. What they all lack in VIP wattage and institutional buzz they more than make up for in their fresh approaches to how clothing should be made today. Just look at the success of Japanese menswear label Auralee, which rode a wave of excitement for designer Ryota Iwai’s meticulous fabrications and exhilaratingly natural styling all the way to the actual Paris Fashion Week calendar.

This season, there’s more going down at the other fashion week than ever before. (Or so I think: since there’s no schedule, it’s hard to definitively tell.) But anecdotal evidence abounds in my inbox crowded with invites. Several big names are also going off-calendar this season: in Paris, The Row and a post-Hedi Celine are both showing in DL formats. In fact there are so many off-book showrooms and presentations and cocktails and parties that several fashion-adjacent friends from NYC are flying to Paris next week to hang out because, as one told me, Everyone is going to be there. And by there they meant, of course, the other fashion week.

Without further ado, here’s a subjective guide to the other fashion week, courtesy of the intrepid global GQ team who will be covering all the action on the ground.

Head of Editorial Content, GQ Italia

Milan Fashion Week will unofficially kick off on Friday with GR10K’s presentation. GR10K is the ultimate post-gorpcore-meets-Italian-craftmanship-and-textile-know-how brand. Plus, they have the best creative community in town around them. Also on Friday, Dorian Tarantini will unveil his new project, Santamaria Sound Studio, a music design studio for brands and fashion shows.

Dorian is a true Milanese legend: fashion designer, deejay, and many many more creative jobs. Plus, he knows how to throw a party!

On Saturday, Our Legacy is holding an aperitivo in their showroom, and the best way to understand why Our Legacy became one of the coolest brands in the world is to meet the people behind it and have a drink with them.

Style Editor, GQ Italia

Milan Fashion Week has a few aces up its sleeve, well hidden among the noise of the calendar’s big names. Many brands have now hacked the system, opting not to put on a real show, but to create installations or presentations that would be the envy of the best fashion shows. Two of them are GR10K and Rold Skov. The first is Anna Grassi’s brand, which, inspired by the family business specialising in workwear and protective equipment, has reinvented gorpcore, taking it in the direction of a certain idea of almost formal fashion. Last season, GR10K organised a presentation in a theatre where an orchestra dressed in the brand’s clothes played continuously while some elements changed places. The whole thing was streamed live—a different approach to the classic presentation.