MILAN — Call it a round trip. 

That’s the best way to describe the creative approach behind Carolina Castiglioni’s menswear debut for Plan C, the brand she established in 2018 that has attracted an international audience with its quirky mix of workwear, sartorial elements and subtle femininity that became a byword for urban sophistication.

In a preview with WWD at the label’s headquarters here, Castiglioni recalled how Plan C’s beginnings were rooted in menswear and her initial research hinged on turning mannish utility and tailoring codes into versatile propositions that could empower women by combining practicality with a dash of eccentricity.

“So launching menswear now is a sort of a natural evolution,” said Castiglioni about translating Plan C’s womenswear pillars for men.

The spring 2025 collection that is to be presented on the inaugural day of Pitti Uomo on Tuesday will highlight the coherence between the genders and the shared language Castiglioni has built through arty touches, workwear references, nautical nods and summery fabrics.

While the spotlight will be on 10 seminal men’s looks, replete with their own accessories, they will be flanked by the women’s offering to make a stronger statement of cohesiveness.

Not that Castiglioni needed an extra injection of impact. She had already enlisted Italian artist and designer Duccio Maria Gambi — with whom Plan C has been long collaborating on store design and special projects — to curate the installation that will be staged in the Sala Grotte hall of the Fortezza da Basso location.

The space’s arched ceiling will be enhanced by metal structures, which Gambi molded, pierced and hand-painted. He also created the mannequins, doubling as sculptures, to present the clothes in a more arty way, while the venue’s dim lighting will add to the theatricality. 

“This new episode of our collaboration confirms that Carolina and the brand’s overall vision are very much aligned with mine,” said Gambi. “For this new men’s adventure we transformed a large venue with an immersive installation featuring themes and elements already explored in stores and pop-up shops that we developed together, including the use of raw and poor materials elevated through colors, the search for interesting textures enhanced by solid colored backgrounds. This time we introduced a sharper and bolder focus on textures contrasting with the context and reflecting the world evoked by the men’s collection.”

Performances will take place in the space that will be open to press and buyers and will run from noon to 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The installation, however, will remain accessible throughout the trade show, closing on Friday.

The cross-pollination with art and design embedded in Plan C and expressed by initiatives the brand hosted during Milan Fashion Week and Salone del Mobile over the years was one reason Pitti Uomo’s organizers invited Castiglioni to join guest designers Sir Paul Smith, Marine Serre and Pierre-Louis Mascia this season.

Lapo Cianchi, head of communications and special projects for Pitti Immagine and general secretary of the Fondazione Pitti Discovery, praised Castiglioni’s work and distinctive aesthetics. “Her research is always pointing to new dialogues and interactions between fashion, art and design [and her work] is modern and highly inspiring,” he said.

The arty approach is visible in the collection, which opens with a series of looks printed with photographs Castiglioni took and repainted in part. As canvases, the images on cotton shirts and long tunics come with their respective titles in Italian spelled out on the garments. Subjects range from the picture of a billowing curtain to one showing Castiglioni’s daughter Margherita from the back against a blue backdrop. The founder’s daughter has always been a source of inspiration, contributing to the Pili and Bianca hand-sketched characters that appear on Plan C’s signature canvas totes, for example.

The spring 2025 lineup will also be marked by easy-to-approach pieces shared by men and women, mainly crafted from cotton in all forms, from poplin shirts in solid tones or striped patterns to lightweight textured versions in jade green and sky blue. A standout cotton field jacket was coated with a water-resistant film, creating a shiny finish and liquid feel to its silhouette, and was cinched by a drawstring around the waist.

In fact, drawstrings and colorful ropes, winks to the nautical world, were recurrent themes throughout the looks, imbuing a sporty vibe to the collection. More tailored pieces in lightweight organza oozed the same effortless attitude that was amplified by the brand’s signature knits, including handsome charming openwork polo shirts in vibrant green and tangerine. 

As Castiglioni pointed to a white-and-blue dotted print splashed on cotton separates for both genders, she said the brand already had male customers purchasing Plan C collections, especially in Japan, which is its largest market.

Without disclosing overall sales, Japan accounted for 32 percent of total volume last year, the company said. So it’s no surprise that Plan C opened its first store in Tokyo’s Aoyama neighborhood in 2019, once again tapping Gambi to develop the interior concept. While that unit is no longer operating, Gambi also curated the current store in the city’s luxury retail complex Ginza Six last year, which joined shops-in-shop at Isetan Shinjuku and Umeda Hankyu Osaka, as well as distribution in 30 multibrand retailers in the country.

In addition to Japan, where the brand works with local distributor Bluebell Group, Plan C is present at the Galleria department store in Seoul and is distributed at 140 retailers globally, including 10 Corso Como, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Going forward, Castiglioni’s plan is to keep the distribution of the men’s and women’s offering united, further strengthening the presence of the label at these locations and its relationship with the retail partners. 

The daughter of Marni’s founders, Castiglioni launched Plan C with the support of her father Gianni and her brother Giovanni in 2018, after a decade of developing special projects for her family’s business. Renzo Rosso’s OTB took full control of Marni in 2015 and the Castiglioni family exited the following year, including creative director and Carolina’s mother, Consuelo.