MILAN — In between established brands and the London pack decamping to Milan — with names including Martine Rose, Dunhill and David Koma joining the calendar for the first time — a host of homegrown designer labels are bringing their take on Italian tailoring prowess via a workwear and utilitarian lens to Milan Men’s Fashion Week. Here WWD sat down with Diomene, GR10K and Ascend Beyond to hear what it’s like to have a big stage and still stay true to one’s DNA.
Diomene
Milan fashion darling Damir Doma has been in reset mode for a while, pausing his namesake fashion brand during the pandemic and taking time to reflect on his next move.
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After getting back sole ownership of the business from former partner Jeremy Rocher in 2021, Doma was feeling like a different designer. The pandemic was a “real awakening,” he said. “In that period, I didn’t have the feeling that it was right to just continue as if nothing had happened….I needed to turn the page, I needed a stronger push than just doing a new collection. I needed to do something for myself not for others….I needed a stronger statement from a creative point of view to recalibrate and change a bit what I was doing,” he explained in an interview at his studio, an industrial loft in central Milan.
What that turned into was Diomene, which was introduced in 2021 and produced under license by Confezioni Raffaella in Italy’s Veneto region. It reflects his move to embrace a slower pace.
“It’s personal. It’s intimate. It’s authentic. I think authenticity is one of the key words for any project today. And I think it’s also what’s lacking the most… everything has become so generic,” Doma said.
“I wanted it to be less hardcore fashion, a little bit more on the edge. I want to create my own classics…something really timeless,” Doma said, adding that he wanted to break free from the pressure that comes when buzzy names rapidly grow to hundreds of doors and then have a hard time keeping up with the pace that the fashion system requires.
“I really enjoy it, because there is no pressure on this project. I had from the beginning a very clear and very conservative plan,” he said. The brand is stocked at about 28 doors spread mainly across Japan, South Korea and China, including Boontheshop and 10 Corso Como. Doma said he plans to ramp up the brand’s footprint to about 40 to 60 multibrand stores globally flanked by e-commerce and potentially retail.
The spring 2025 collection — Diomene’s fourth — is rooted in soft, deconstructed tailoring imbued with a crafty feel that, Doma said, evokes spirituality, purity and languid sensuality without compromising wearability. Cue the silk pajamas and soft linen sets featuring workwear jackets, roomy shorts and make-do-and-mend vests worn with slouchy crewnecks, as well as the occasional tone-on-tone embroideries exuding an arty vibe.
The presentation of the 12-look collection, to be held Friday at the brand’s studio, will feature floor-to-ceiling prints of look book images by Nicolas Kern photographed at Villa Borsani and a cocktail area by Milanese institution Bar Basso. Diomene will hand out a limited-edition magazine to guests and attendees.
GR10K
The media-shy Anna Grassi likes to call herself a “factory girl,” having drawn her ambition to launch the GR10K brand from the work experience she obtained at her family’s company, which is known for its expertise in workwear.
GR10K was established in 2019, five years after she joined the Grassi firm in the commercial department and had multiple chances to delve into its rich archives, which spanned from train attendant uniforms to fireproof gear. “I had easy access to this stylistic, storytelling and fabric archive,” she said.
Although lacking proper fashion training and background, she was triggered to reinvent her family company’s expertise into contemporary clothing. Two pairs of helping hands, architect Luigi Alberto Cippini and Andrea Slaviero were onboarded as part of the collective team behind GR10K and have helped Grassi grew into a full-fledged brand, with showroom distribution set up in Paris.
Earlier this year, GR10K also attracted investors. The owner of buzzy Italian brand Magliano, Underscore District, acquired a majority stake in the label and is committed to scaling its potential, from venturing into new product categories to building a stronger international footprint.
“This was the right time to grow, it was also a necessity. We had come to a standstill in terms of forward-looking projects, and we found in Underscore District a common goal,” the brand’s founder and chief executive officer said.
“The Grassi company continues to be a source of aesthetics and conceptual inspiration, but I established my own manufacturing network, which justifies the slow, albeit organic, growth we’ve experienced so far,” Grassi said.
In sync with the GR10K ethos, the spring 2025 collection, the first to be presented as part of Milan Fashion Week, nods to gorpcore for its combination of performance and utilitarian references.
“My experience as a ‘factory girl’ not only brought about a fascination for workwear per se, but also for processes and garments done in a beautiful and simple way,” she explained.
For the first time the creative team developed a mood board focused on a specific reference, American Midwestern workers’ uniforms. For example, horsemen’s duster coats are reinvented via technical and waterproof fabrics, waxed cotton is plied into trucker jackets and the Dyneema fiber used for sails and ropes is turned into performance outerwear.
The collection includes collaborations with Factory 900, a Japanese eyewear brand based in Fukui, and Deep, an organization committed to preserving biodiversity for which GR10K created uniforms inspired by field work gear. The lineup also includes a new iteration of the cobranded footwear with Salomon.
In addition to the seasonal lineup, the brand is debuting “GR10K Replicated,” a selection of carryovers and essentials representative of the brand’s key codes.
Prices range from 150 euros for tops and 300 euros for footwear to 1,200 euros for the most expensive outerwear pieces.
GR10K, which originally drew the interest of such edgy retailers as Ssense in Montreal and The Broken Arm in Paris, is currently stocked at about 50 to 60 doors globally including SKP in Beijing and Wuhan; Dover Street Market in Tokyo; Slam Jam in Milano, and Departamento in Los Angeles.
The spring presentation, to be held on Friday at the San Fedele Auditorium multipurpose venue, will feature a four-hour performance by a group of string instrument musicians wearing the collection.
Ascend Beyond
Emanuele Abbondanza, the creative mind behind the Ascend Beyond up-and-coming menswear brand, is a byproduct of his generation.
A Millennial born in 1996, he’s the type of guy one could find on a trekking trip or mindfulness retreat somewhere in central Sardinia and clubbing until dawn in the Milanese suburbs.
His passion for fashion emerged early on. “Wearing clothes is easier than talking,” he said referencing his shy personality and stutter. After studying fashion business at the Istituto Marangoni school in Milan, he joined the GCDS team as a product developer and quit to attend the Afol fashion school and obtain a Master’s degree in fashion design.
Ascend Beyond was established in 2021 with his friend and business partner Marco Grossi and was among the finalists at the 2024 grant of the Camera Moda Fashion Trust, the nonprofit organization that supports young Italian or Italy-based talents.
Abbondanza’s maternal lineage has informed his penchant for crafty details, Mediterranean flair and knack for mysticism, the latter drawn from the traditions of the Sardinian Island where his mother and grandmother Leandra, a seamstress, were born.
None of those references are too literal in his menswear collections, which are imbued with performance and workwear whiffs inspired by one of Abbondanza’s fashion heroes, the late Massimo Osti, the mastermind behind the C.P. Company and Stone Island brands.
Ascend Beyond’s spring 2025 collection “is the first collection I didn’t approach with the usual meticulousness. I have often started from articulated ruminations to develop strong concepts. This was more about doing what I like, it was much more instinctual,” he said.
Titled “I Wasn’t There (or Was I?),” the collection includes some of Abbondanza’s distinctive elements, including the vintage teaspoons used in lieu of zip pullers, but decidedly steps on the gas when it comes to the rustic and crafty elements he has always scattered throughout the line. “There is a lot of lace and eyelet fabrics,” Abbondanza said, highlighting the use of deadstock or upcycled fabrics.
A hemp and linen thick and rough textile is turned into workwear-nodding jackets, while, by contrast, sartorial pleated pants are done in a brown technical fabric. Olive oil was used to finish cotton and give the fabric a see-through effect for pocketed jackets. A detachable hoodie, similar to balaclavas, speaks to Abbondanza’s passion for Osti’s sportswear as well as to the handkerchiefs sported by older ladies in Sardinia.
The young creative is gearing up for his first presentation as part of the official Milan Fashion Week calendar on Friday. In addition to clothing, displayed on hangers, the presentation will include a bar area serving coffee throughout the day and offering coffee ground fortune-telling sessions. A room dedicated to a listening session will boom music that was instrumental in the collection’s genesis.
The collections retail between 70 euros for jerseys and more than 400 euros for outerwear with pants standing between 270 and 310 euros. The collection is currently available at the brand’s e-commerce site.
