Ciao from Milano where the fashion mood was subdued to say the least. A certain melancholy seemed to have gripped the city’s designers as they reflected on how to create high fashion collections in the face of global unrest and the uneasy fact of the ongoing financial downturn.
With the middle income customer squeezed out of spending, luxury fashion has found itself in a hyper-rich arms race, with ever inflating prices ring fencing collections away from the aspirational shopper.
Not long ago, catwalks were flooded with trainers and ‘merch’ — branded hoodies, T-shirts — which offered an olive branch to the fashion-seeker on a relative budget. No more. The streetwear mood with its sneaker-obsession has left the palazzo. Loafers and proper boots abound. Equally, houses are competing in ways to burnish their offer in the face of tedium from the quiet luxury moment, but an understanding that commercially this has been a boom period. Still, how many more cashmere beige jumpers do Gwyneth-wannabes really need? The question they are trying to answer — how to charm the 0.01% to shop your brand over any other?
The answer seemed to be throw as many coats at them as possible — khaki, head-to-toe black, varsity jackets and Balenciaga-style cocoons were everywhere. Shoes were covered in fluff, perhaps all the better to take that idea of a soft landing — and offered a quirky edge to pieces steeped in conservative classic codes. Shirts in any colour but white were also abundant; legs were either totally exposed or moderately covered up. No middle ground here. Meanwhile, for all you mob-wife aficionados, fear not, puffs of (faux) fur and fluff were generously feathered across everything. Skirts came lengthy with cool kick-hems, while dresses were neat shifts.
The tempered mood was explained perhaps most succinctly by Matthieu Blazy at Bottega Veneta. “We all watch the same news. It is hard to be celebratory at this point. Still, the idea of rebirth is beautiful, too” he said in a collection where he considered the “monumentalism of the everyday.”
Interestingly he took the same starting point as Roksanda had in London, Le Corbusier’s Cabanon near Monaco. The stripped back simple wooden cabin created by the titan of modernist architecture was echoed in his wooden set, on which guests sat on individual planked boxes. There was a considered balance and control to his collection, which was one of the best of the week. Fringed leather maxi skirts were tempered with simple black tops, full leather skirts were worn with polo necks and shirts, flashes of optimism came in sunset reds, yellows and sky blues in a collection which otherwise skirted around a heavier colour palette.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons also took a darker turn this season; mining Twentieth century references in search of what the future might hold. Grey suiting was spliced with silk slips — giving a sense of someone scoping up all their belongings at once and fleeing. Backstage Mrs Prada mentioned the Oscar-nominated WW2 film The Zone of Interest. There was some levity though, in the pops of acid knitwear — the same clashing colourways as with the January menswear shows — and neat two-tone pointed kitten heels.
Maximilian Davis continues his whip-smart exploration of what Ferragamo can become in a collection of clothes so great that it’s almost easy to forget that this was once a pure accessories business. His khaki car coats, leathers and swathes of knitwear were spot on, as were the red carpet looks — including a fish-scale like black dress which was quite breathtaking.
Elsewhere, Dolce & Gabbana picked up on the sexy office-core mood — with an exploration of the tuxedo; while at Jil Sander husband and wife duo Luke and Lucie Meier leaned into cocooning, soft mid-century shapes which felt both soothing and striking at the same time.
Six key trends from Milan:
The vibe shift dress, Prada
The glitz knit, Gucci
Head-to-toe red, Jil Sander
The kick-flare trouser, Bottega Veneta
Mob-wife 2.0, Dolce & Gabbana
The pea coat, Ferragamo
