Inevitably, on the first day of the Milan shows, everyone was tentatively fishing around for signs of a response to the…what do we call it?…Crunch? Crash? Raf Simons was having none of that. “I wanted to present something powerful,” he declared uncategorically.

“Love You,” the invitation announced. As you moved it around, the lenticular lips puckered up with a Rocky Horror relish. But what Alexander McQueen really wanted to convey was the “über glamour” of seventies discos (in fact, he said he wanted “über über”). With such a goal, his new collection was hardly going to speak to this particular season, which has already pitched its tent for pajamalike ease.

After last season’s Highland fling, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce returned to sea level with a spring D&G collection inspired by the French Riviera. They didn’t have any old beach bum in mind, though, rather a twenty-first-century version of Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. The Grant élan could be felt in the tailoring—shawl-collared or peak-lapel suits in various combinations of navy and white—and in the polka dot neckerchiefs that were tied loosely under the jackets.

Giorgio Armani’s growing appetite for eccentricity knows few bounds as he charges on through life. His Emporio collection offers him a wide platform to indulge it, if only because it’s more relaxed than his signature line—he gets to mix things up a little more. Here, there were shoes that looked like spats next to cowl-necked waistcoats that closed diagonally (Bugsy Malone meets A Flock of Seagulls), or a mandarin-collared top sharing catwalk space with wide-cuffed ciré shorts, or crinkled ginghams and harem pants.