D&G studded with metal and zips for 1980s nod

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian design label D&G flashed back to the 1980s in its menswear show on Tuesday with shiny metal zips and studs on trousers, bleached battered jeans and plastic jackets.

Silver baseball boots, sandals with broad studded straps and trousers put together jigsaw-like by zips were worn with hooded black shiny jackets or drill cotton with big metal buttons.

The spring/summer 2008 designs from the label had some echoes of their stablemate Dolce & Gabbana, whose show on Sunday kitted men out in military-style.

But D&G's look had heavy punk undertones, from metal plated belts to chains swinging from waists. Union Jack motifs were picked out in sparkling stones over black leather in a huge shoulder bag or on the front of a white vest.

Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, the duo behind both labels, put silver metal on collars for white shirts, teamed with thin black ties.

They covered the fronts of trousers in small, silvery studs or sparkled them with embroidery made of myriad mixed beads.

Beading was used on the front of a black waistcoat, or a denim version was worn over a white shirt.

For the finale of the show, D&G sent all the models out in black or white suits, which stuck to the single-breasted theme of other designers in the current menswear show season, which runs to June 27.