Milan Fashion Week always packs a punch. This season the energy feels like it's been turned up to eleven. There is a push and pull between the established fashion houses that are showing collections that remind everyone why they are still at the top of their game and the heritage brands that are being revived by new creative directors. Those include Trussardi (Serhat Isik and Benjamin Huseby, 3rd season), Etro (Marco de Vincenzo, 2nd season), Bally (Rhuigi Villaseñor, 2nd season), Ferragamo (Maximilian Davis, 2nd season), and Missoni (Filippo Grazioli, 2nd season). Add to that Matthieu Blazy's groundbreaking third collection at Bottega Veneta, and the fact that next season will see the Gucci debut of Sabato De Sarno and you get an idea of the frisson the city is currently experiencing. How lucky for us. |
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"I Do," Every Day This season Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons showed their soft side, with a collection inspired by acts of kindness and caring for each other. As such, they paid homage to nurses' uniforms, and showed white skirts in duchesse, organza, satin, and velour, with wedding-inspired floral embellishments as part of every-day outfits. "Why should this celebration of love be for only a single day?" Simons asked. "Real life is much more rich than any fantasy, and therefore more important," Mrs. Prada added. "Everyday life deserves beautiful things. Because every day of life counts." |
| Protect Yourself You may have heard about the set at the Diesel show, which featured a mountain of 200,000 Durex condoms—part of a collaboration with the brand that will be dropping later this year. But you shouldn't let that distract you from the clothes that Glenn Martens sent down the runway, which had just as much wow-factor, especially a series of upcycled pieces like the coat above. Made from deadstock faux-fur, it was painted, covered in plastic, and then heated, to create an effect they're calling "liquid fur." Fabulous. |
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Pattern Is Movement Matthieu Blazy's third outing for Bottega Veneta proved, without a doubt, that his success is no fluke. In an 81-look collection that never felt tired or repetitive, Blazy showcased his prowess with construction and materials, in the process creating deeply desirable clothes."I always look at how women and men here layer," he told Nicole Phelps. "It's very sophisticated, even when it doesn't work, you know? It's so personal." On the set was Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, by the Futurist artist who wrote in a manifesto that art should have a "strict historical relation with the moment in which it appears." |
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The Real Rockstars Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo's Sunnei has become one of Milan's can't-miss shows. Last season featured a revolving door of twins, and the season before that, models ran past show-goers, who were "invited to follow the show in slow motion through their iPhones." This season their presentation had a double-meaning. The models were members of the team—from accountants to designers—who walked down an elevated runway before trust-falling into the crowd like so many pop idols. "We wanted to celebrate our team, as they are our daily inspiration." |
| Everything Old Is New Again Gucci's new creative director Sabato De Sarno won't show his new vision for the Italian house until September, but in the meantime, the creative team in charge of the fall collection looked to their archives to tide us over until then. That meant that models Amy Wesson, Liisa Winkler, and Guinevere Van Seenus walked the show; the "G"-embellished string-bikini returned (this time peaking out from under the slit of a gown); and the Horsebit bag, introduced 20 years ago by Ford, was welcomed back. Oh, how time flies. |
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Golden Child For his second collection for Ferragamo, Maximilian Davis looked to the 1950s for inspiration. "It's how Ferragamo started, making shoes for films in the 1930s, and that grew into building relationships with movie stars like Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s," he explained. But the archival style he brought back had a more obscure provenance; it was originally created for a private Australian customer in 1956, and was actually gilded in 18 carat gold. (Ferragamo collaborated with Florentine goldsmiths for its production.) The sandal now boasts Davis's signature angled heel—and wearable materials. |
| Karl's Colorblocks At Fendi, Kim Jones looked to a series of triple-yarn, color-blocked knit dresses from a 1996 collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld for inspiration. Our own Laird Borrelli-Persson went into the archives to dig up these runway images for us, which in turn unearths a new inspiration for the season: while Jones opted to show his dresses with sleek black or brown leather boots, Lagerfeld opted for chunky, grunge-inspired boots in bold colors like royal blue, yellow, and lavender. Will some young upstart celeb be inspired to wear one of these looks for the Met Gala? We can only hope. |
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Patchwork History Roberto Cavalli got his start with patchwork "hippie" denim pieces back in the day, and for fall, Fausto Puglisi focused on the technique, working with leather and denim to create ensembles that belied their complex constructions. Denim triangles were heat-sealed and combined with "breaking effect" jacquards, denim-embroidered fil coupés, or merged with light silks and moirés. Some were also subtly printed with images of desert landscapes, referring to a recent trip Puglisi took through the American Southwest, which served as an inspiration for the collection. |
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Touch the Future Lucie and Luke Meier were thinking about the Y2K era when they began working on their fall collection for Jil Sander. "We were thinking about how the outlook was so positive and exciting, thinking about technology coming into our lives. Now the positivity about the future is more difficult to hold up," Lucie told Nicole Phelps. The adjectives they used to describe our current times, "fuzzy, technical, mobile, ethereal," could also apply to the clothes. Like the butter yellow boiled wool dress with a jacquard pattern that created black eyelash-like fringes, or the black and cream felt wool coat with a needle punch technique that added a brush-stroke effect in a bright shade of green. |
| Camel Time At Max Mara, Ian Griffiths showed a luxurious collection inspired by the French philosopher and mathematician, Madame du Châtelet (who was also the one-time lover of Voltaire), mixed with his own New Romantic sensibilities—as Luke Leitch pointed out. "The fashion at the time was completely not enlightened. So I was imagining how she might have dressed if she had freedom to and how that would translate into today," Griffiths explained. But any woman living at any point in time would have a hard time resisting the pure camel hair coat worn over a camel hair jacquard dress (and cinched with a wide corset-inspired suede belt) that made up the collection's fifth exit. |
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The Rihanna Effect Giorgio Armani named his fall collection cipria, the Italian word for face powder. "An enveloping and personal vision that suggests intimacy as an antidote to a moment of theatrical excess," said the show notes. The final model emerged on the runway wearing a slim black dress with all-over tonal embellishments, holding an Armani Beauty compact in her hands, and powdering her nose, recalling a similar moment during Rihanna's Super Bowl performance a few weeks ago. |
| ATXV ATXV's Antonio Tarantini teamed up with a friend from his Galliano days, the knitwear designer Ikuko Niwa, to create the snake-inspired sweaters in his collection. Tarantini was working through the loss of his nonna while working on this collection, and conceived of the sweater as an example of facing his fears head-on, in the process becoming an emotional support animal of sorts. |
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Ciao Milano! Show-goers really bring their A-game when they arrive in Milan. Even when wearing full looks from the designers whose shows they are attending, there is always an added level of pizzazz and personality that shines through. Click through to see all the funnest moments from outside the shows as captured by Phil Oh. |
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