Italian designers Dolce and Gabbana acknowledge the applause at the end of D&G Spring/Summer 2012 women's collection during Milan Fashion Week
.Italian designers Dolce and Gabbana acknowledge the applause at the end of D&G Spring/Summer 2012 women's collection during Milan Fashion Week Reuters

The 2012 Milan Fashion Week brought about quite a few surprises and introduced a few old favourites for men's 2013 summer collection.

The most exciting show, perhaps, was from Dolce & Gabbana (D&G), who took a leaf from the pages of some women's ramp shows and used "real men" from different walks of life as models. This meant the Italian design giants called on male models from 12 to 43 years of age - barbers, painters, students... and were rightly proud of their call.

"We wanted to put our clothes on real men because fashion should be for real people," Stefano Gabbana said while speaking to reporters ahead of the show. Meanwhile, the Examiner reported the show was all about stripes.

"Dolce & Gabbana's Menswear Spring/Summer 2013 collection is primarily all about stripes in all sorts of combinations and colour schemes including nautical blue and white, as in the way of sporty trousers and shorts, earthy coral and brown stripes and trendy Parisian red, navy and baby blue stripes, as featured in a shirt jacket," the review read.

Meanwhile, it wasn't just D&G who came out with bold statements. British fashion house Burberry debuted a collection with loud socks and sandals that, the Telegraph later remarked, would only have been possible because of the "Midas-touched designer-in-chief, Christopher Bailey". The review called the designs as "virulent, Quality Street metallic shades nattily co-ordinated with models' sunglasses, bags, bomber jackets and macs". The fuchsia pink trench coats and electric blue bomber jackets were not all though. Burberry does have more traditional customers to cater to and Bailey was aware of that. Thus, there was also a "show was filled with traditional tweeds, classic suits albeit with a slim cut and country old favorites: raincoats, field jackets and oversized parkas", according to whiotv.com.

Incidentally, the first day of the show also marked the return of German-born Jil Sanders, with her self-named label, after an eight year hiatus.

"It's good to be at home again. We want to keep our integrity and go back to our roots," she told AP while backstage at her show. Sanders brought back bright shades of ochre yellow, granite red and cobalt blue for the summer of 2013. The designer herself was dressed in white shirts paired with an elongated jacket and slim trousers.