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MFW runway video: Versace drafts the Foreign Legion

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Only two days into the Milan shows and designers have already drawn inspiration from nomads (Missoni, Ermenegildo Zegna) and pirates (Vivienne Westwood). Tonight Versace threw another male archetype into the spring mix: the Foreign Legion. (If someone can spot us a cop and a construction worker in the next two days, we’ll have a fashion week version of the Village People on our hands.)

Show notes referred to the idea of legionnaires absorbing the culture of the terrain and adopting the tribal look of the Tuareg -- the nomadic (there we go with the nomads, again) inhabitants of the Saharan interior -- forsaking stiff military garb for flowing tunics, and wearing sun-bleached uniforms.

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There were a few head-scratching moments -- like the black trousers with the tasseled side seams that came across as more toreador than Tuareg and a collection of stitched leather belt pouches that looked suspiciously like BlackBerry holders -- but for the most part, the wrinkled linen jackets, flowing djellabas under suit coats and fuller-cut trousers -- in shades of sand, khaki and white with the occasional pop of purple -- made this both the most restrained and most refreshing Versace men’s collection in recent memory.

-- Adam Tschorn

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Video by Adam Tschorn.

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