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The 15 best shows from Milan Fashion Week - and the trends to know now

The big names at MFW: Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Versace
The big names at MFW: Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Versace

These are the shows to know from Milan Fashion Week...

Prada

prada
prada

The most radical change wasn’t the dystopian show (live streamed via lots of dangling cameras) .It wasn’t even that this was Miuccia Prada’s first collection with her new (and first) co-creative director, Raf Simons. The truly disruptive element was the questions from the public that followed. The clothes exuded a similar lack of ease – white nylon shell tops, slim trousers, rucksacks and calf-length, flared skirts with almost no surface embellishment, apart from flower, leaf and tree silhouettes. But a lemon, buttonless coat here – an industrialised take on Fifties opera coats – here, a pale pink dress there added warmth if not cosiness. LA

Fendi

fendi ashley graham
fendi ashley graham

How do you create a sense of ease and not make it about a pair of jogging pants and a fleece? Silvia Fendi took a Forties silhouette and pumped it full of air. Was that really Karen Elson, liberated from the US travel ban (it was). Ashley Graham? (Ditto). Fendi also invited craftspeople from each of Italy’s 21 regions to reinterpret the famous Fendi Baguette bag. From Abruzzo comes a white lace one, dipped in sugar water to stiffen the lace. “If we don’t do it, these crafts will be lost,” Fendi told me via Zoom. This is Italy’s “we’re all in it together” moment. LA

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2021
Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2021

Dolce & Gabbana last created a patchwork collection in 1993, at the zenith of the supermodel era when Evangelista, Crawford, Campbell et al were sprinkling their super-stardust on fashion. There’s so much apposite about patchwork now, 27 years later. It feels comforting, nostalgic and crafty. In the rarefied world of D&G, patchwork is less about DIY, more an appreciation of fatto a mano and the craftsmanship still poured into these collections of almost 100 looks. They offered tailored wiggle dresses alongside laze-luxe kaftans, hedging their bets on whether we’ll be partying and jet-setting or doing GFH (Glam From Home) next summer – either way, we can rest assured we’ll look fabulous. BH

Giorgio Armani

giorgio armani Spring/Summer 2021
giorgio armani Spring/Summer 2021

“I think that the challenge has always been to adapt to the times without changing one’s nature,” Giorgio Armani said, before presenting no fewer than 99 looks in an audience-free catwalk show that was for the first time broadcast on prime time television in Italy as well as streamed online. The Armani show aired after The Good Wife and before a rerun of American Gigolo, the 1980 film starring Richard Gere, who famously wore Armani throughout. This collection included all the motifs that are not supposed to translate well on television – eye-tricking geometric jacquards and finely checked brocades. Yet it all came across smoothly, interspersed with silk satin dresses and pyjama-like trousers that moved like liquid. CL

Loro Piana

Loro Piana Spring/Summer 2021
Loro Piana Spring/Summer 2021

Loro Piana is the go-to name for Succession types who like their luxury discreet. And impeccable, obviously. The house, perhaps better known for the ultimate merino coat and superior knitwear than anything suited to warmer months, presented a SS21 collection with a vision of an Italian summer sure to resonate with anyone who’s ever lusted after the costumes in The Talented Mr Ripley. It’s Fifties-inflected, with full-skirted broderie anglaise dresses and skirts, but this suit in superfine “gold lichen” wool is the sophisticated shot of sunshine we need now. EC

Boss

boss Spring/Summer 2021
boss Spring/Summer 2021

Given that Boss is a brand esteemed for its tailoring, the collection designer Ingo Wilts show in Milan read as one of its most casual yet. Relatively. There are still blazers aplenty in the Boss women’s spring/summer ’21 world; they’re just styled with silky tracksuit bottoms and flat utility sandals. The whole collection made a convincing case for mixing work and play, with tailoring fabrics applied to relaxed shapes. And rather than office black or navy, the palette was dominated by duck-egg blue, mint green, pine. The look that made you go “ooh” was one of these smart-casual hybrids: a double-faced leather coat worn over a hoodie and split-hem tracksuit bottoms, all in clotted cream – an ideal look for a first-class long-haul flight, whenever that may be. EC

Max Mara

Max Mara Spring/Summer 2021
Max Mara Spring/Summer 2021

Ian Griffiths, creative director at Max Mara, chose to riff on the fact that we’ve all been wearing sweatpants for the last six months, rather than delivering yet more of them. Drawstring and ruching elements were added to relaxed suiting and casual outerwear, for a new take on easy dressing at the office.

“To present restrictive uncomfortable clothes just would not be realistic,” Griffiths acknowledged. “But if people want to buy any clothes at all, they want to buy special clothes that make them feel good. They might be going to the office for only two days a week instead of five, so now those two days feel more like an event and they take pleasure in thinking about what they’re going to wear.” CL

Moschino

Moschino Spring/Summer 2021
Moschino Spring/Summer 2021

“Of course Lady Penelope [star of British Sixties puppet show Thunderbirds] wafted through my mind,” Jeremy Scott enthused over Zoom from Los Angeles, where he lives and works. “But I have to say, my marionettes have slimmer necks”.

Lockdown made him hungrier than ever for glamour. Fifties couture, old brocades, sky blue and bronzy-pink tulles and duchess satins were whooshed up into full skirts, shawl necklines and nipped-in jackets. It was charming and so crazily off beam in terms of what most other designers are designing, it can’t fail to resonate on some level (you can see it still on Moschino.com). “My role is to raise a smile,” says Scott. Job done. LA

Salvatore Ferrgamo

Salvatore Ferrgamo 
Salvatore Ferrgamo

I always end up wanting the clothes in Luca Guadagnino films. There were Tilda Swinton’s simple yet elevated sundresses in A Bigger Splash and the preppy Eighties shirts and baggy shorts in Call Me By Your Name. Now, it’s the sinuous powder-blue silk dresses, sage tailoring and sumptuously plush leather clutch bags and mules which feature in Life in Technicolour, the Hitchcock-inspired short film Guadagnino created in collaboration with Salvatore Ferragamo creative director Paul Andrew. Shot in deserted locations in Milan (a comment on this year’s evacuations from the cities in which we once bustled?), this was TV fashion at its most desirable. BH

Brunello Cuccinelli

Brunello Cuccinelli
Brunello Cuccinelli

Back in March when Brunello Cucinelli closed down the factory in Solomeo, the medieval hamlet he owns in Perugia – as you do – he promised all 2,000 of his employees that their jobs would be safeguarded for two years. Six weeks later the factory reopened. “Everyone is masked up, but we’re less fearful, more hopeful,” he tells me, with a contender for the best Zoom bookshelves behind him (filled with hundreds of colour coordinated bobbins of his cashmere samples). There was no show, no presentation, but he has just opened a new store in London. The new collection is quintessential Cucinelli: soothing shades of cream, soft tailoring and the luxurious athleisure he always did but never with more conviction than now. As for all the unsold stock from summer – he’s donating it to charities. LA

Ports 1961

Ports 1961 Spring/Summer 2021
Ports 1961 Spring/Summer 2021

“I wanted it to feel blankety and cosy,” creative director Karl Templer told me before his show – which was simultaneously staged in a courtyard in front of 50 guests and streamed online. Fine cottons and taffetas had been pre-washed to make them softer. A laser-cut dress over a slip had the ease of a T-shirt. Even the gold jewellery was hammered to look molten and more tactile. The brief was versatility: double layered, designed to be worn loose or belted, and whooshed up at night with necklaces and belts. Ports, founded in Canada in 1961, might just have found its identity and purpose. LA

Valentino

valentino Spring/Summer 2021
valentino Spring/Summer 2021

Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino’s creative director, opted for real models, live music courtesy of British artist Labrinth and a real audience, albeit a drastically reduced one – and a live screening. Aerial views, landscapes and split screens meant that besides seeing close-up details of those laser-cut cotton dresses and shirts, we could appreciate the life enhancing qualities of his beautiful yet realistic clothes. Floral chiffon maxi dresses billowed, oversized blouses in fuchsia or cappuccino fluttered over slim trousers and cycling shorts and high waisted denim jeans worn with white blazers looked somehow so fresh and approachably chic you may not want to don a hoodie again. LA

La Double J

La Double J JJ Martin
La Double J JJ Martin

“Ours is never going to be the cool brand, we’re about fun!” trills JJ Martin as she sweeps around her all-shades-of-the-rainbow showroom via video conference call, pulling out baby-doll minis, dramatic maxi dresses and swimsuits which double as sleek tops from her spring/ summer 2021 collection. Martin’s “folksy but modern” look, with prints inspired by Transylvanian textiles, is destined to accompany you on a grand tour of Italy next summer – “gigantesca” bikinis which roll right up your ribs and reversible totes for Amalfi sauntering and “I’m touring Rome” tiered skirts. Finish the look with raffia pocket necklaces just big enough for your mask and hand sanitiser and Catherine de Medici earrings. Thank God Italy is still on the permitted destinations list. BH

Tod's

Tod's Spring/Summer 2021
Tod's Spring/Summer 2021

Did you groom for Zoom? Use your virtual quiz nights as an excuse to dress up? Well, your efforts will likely pale in comparison to Tod’s, which reimagined a digital party for its presentation, switching from room to room as models sang and sashayed to a screen where they were being watched by various socialites and influencers. “I like to be spontaneous, playful yet serious,” said creative director Walter Chiapponi, who brought joy and ease to this collection after forging a closer bond with his colleagues during lockdown. “It feels fluid and sensual but we added femininity, too,” he explained, showing how he’d paired silk ruffled dresses with Plexiglas heels. Here’s hoping they get a real-life outing. BH

Versace

Versace Spring/Summer 2021 irina shayk
Versace Spring/Summer 2021 irina shayk

It can feel as if we’re living through some kind of Greek myth these days. We may not be at Atlantis levels of destruction just yet, but if you’re feeling bleak, Donatella Versace has some good news. In a digital-only show, we saw ancient, broken columns and Medusa heads in an underwater world, quiet and abandoned. Then in marched Versace’s troop of modern mermaids, in strong dark tailoring at first, soon evolving into an uplifting spectrum of colour and aquatic-themed decoration. This was Versaceopolis – “a utopian settlement created on the seabed and populated by strong and confident men and women”. Putting in my visa application now. BH

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