Milan’s autumn/winter 2013 menswear shows drew to a close last Wednesday, but what continues to resonate? Houndstooth. Cardigan-snug jackets. Pinstripe suits. Sweaters of great manufacturing complexity. And a feeling that Milan has chosen inaction as the response to its growing crisis – not the general crisis that leaps to mind, but that of having no notable new talent.

What it did have – at least in part – was a new attitude to dressing. Milan’s shows tend to stick to a rule-driven formula, with polite daywear followed by tuxedos that wouldn’t say boo to a goose. So when Miuccia Prada sent out her first look on Sunday evening, many in the audience thought something had gone horribly wrong: the collar of the shirt was wonky. Uh-oh! Wonky collar alert! And yet, with Prada, everything is intentional. The collar turned out to be a statement about how we view clothing, and what it means to be correct.

The result was the only show in Milan to have any real sense of how young men really dress, while also being chock-full of pieces for older men who can actually afford the stuff – particularly a houndstooth raglan sleeve coat that felt like an echo of the work Prada did when she still produced menswear under the Miu Miu label: great Shetland wool sweaters, either in block primary colours or with stripes; gingham shirts; and, for the more adventurous, traditional shoes with monster-sized treads.