MILAN_Leave it to Miuccia Prada to exalt urban fashion just when almost everybody else is combatting crisis gloom with classic styles done in bright colors. But then Miuccia sets the trends, she doesn't follow them.

"It's time to get back to work," the designer said after her much applauded show Monday, the next to last day of the summer 2010 menswear preview showings. The show featured a bevy of clean-cut young men wearing suits and ties and carrying briefcases.

Of course these were no ordinary suits. Made out of silk printed to look like tweed, they had a jacket cut close to the body and short slim trousers. A white shirt, skinny tie, wooly vest and pointed pair of shoes completed the no-nonsense look.

For particularly hot days in the city, Prada offered suits and even overcoats in a breezy netted fabric.

The palette was strictly urban black, gray and white. "Color has no place here," the designer said, telling reporters she drew inspiration from black and white movies. She also picked lines from these movies to decorate the walls around the runway, as well as the show invitations.

Roberto Cavalli is another designer who rarely follows the pack, so it was not surprising that he presented an aggressive summer look, at a time when most designers are opting to reassure rather than provoke.

Tight leather pants, see-through tank tops, heavy metal beading, and tough footwear tell the tale of a guy who doesn't mince his punches.

"He's a young and healthy rebel, who feels good about his body," Cavalli said before the show Monday, held in a Milan military academy.

The palette is urban, mostly black and dark brown, with wisps of pastel blue, purple and pink.

Strong pieces of the collection are the jackets with epaulette shoulders, clinging biker shorts with removable skirt, and second skin `scuba' pants. Florentine heraldry and animal figures make up the embroidery pressed into the fabric using an ultrasound process.

Cavalli saw no contradiction between the lavish look and the current crisis. "Excess is my success," said the designer famous for his over-the-top sexy clothes.

Ferragamo, one of the leaders in Italian classic fashion, Monday morning embraced the "happy color" theme of this round of collections, presenting a perfectly tailored suit in bright coral red.

Massimiliano Giornetti, menswear designer for the family run Florentine fashion house, stuck to the label's traditional tailoring not only for the suits but also for summer trench coats, loosely knit cardigans and soft leather sports jackets. Like the suit these came in unconventional menswear shades ranging from indigo blue to coral red and terra-cotta orange.

Traditional Ferragamo lace-up shoes in two-tone leather and colorful Fedora straw hats completed the never-out-of-fashion gentlemanly look.

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