Ozwald Boateng
Ozwald Boateng

DALLAS, May 12, 2004/ FW/ — There’s a new name on the list of designers showing at Milan Menswear Spring 2005 season. Ozwald Boateng has announced that he will show his eponymous line come June in Italy’s second largest city.

Following his appointment as Creative Director of Givenchy Homme in January, Ozwald Boateng has decided to move his show from Paris – where he has shown since 1994 – to Milan.

Speaking of the move, he comments, “I did not feel that showing both collections in Paris within days of each other would do full justice to either brand. So, whilst my first show for Givenchy Homme will take place in Paris, I have decided to show my mainline collection in Milan. Milan is the home of fine tailoring in Italy and is therefore the natural location for me to show my own collection. I am excited about the move as I seek to internationalize further the brand’s distribution.”

Boateng’s show is one of several highly anticipated shows this coming menswear season. In Paris, where the London-based designer is going to show his debut collection for Givenchy, the fashionistas are all psyched up to see the show.

In Milan, the debut of John Ray as Gucci menswear designer and Alfreda Giannini as accessories designer has created a stir among the fashion flock. This is will be first show by Gucci post Tom Ford.

So, it is not ‘all quiet in the fashion front’ in a historically sleepy month of May when design houses are usually very busy getting their shipments ready for their Fall 2004 collections that are scheduled to hit stores come July and early August.

Last February and March, which was a seasons of goodbyes, the coming Spring 2005 season which kicks off on June 27, 2004 in Milan promises to be a series of hellos.

(Photo courtesy of Ozwald Boateng)