Milan Fashion Week opened with a sense of renewal

Milan Sept 22 (U.S.): Milan’s five-day calendar is back to nearly pre-COVID-19 levels with 68 listed shows, 104 presentations and 30 events.

A host of new designers, including many in color, showed up in perhaps the most varied week of Milan catwalks ever.

Among the highlights of the week: Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean is back after a two-year hiatus. Bally makes her catwalk debut in Milan with Filipino-American designer Rhuigi Villasenor; And Maximilian Davis has made his debut as the new creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, the Associated Press reports.

FANTASTIC STRUCTURE IN FENDI

Fendi womenswear designer Kim Jones stripped the typically luxurious Fendi showroom down to polished concrete floors, painted steel beams, and runways to showcase his upcoming warm-weather collection.

The Spring/Summer 2023 collection was a thoughtful balance of construction, texture and color.

Lace-up aprons in satin created a streamlined layer over pants, while perforated leather versions were like pullovers over sheer dresses.

Layering was key to the design. Jones played with texture, trimming an asymmetric wool coat over a sheer top, both in neutrals, providing the eye-catching color to the platform shoes. Silk dresses were rolled up and tied into a figure, and carefully tailored satin coats had peek-a-boo slits and were elegantly tied at the back, like an elaborate Japanese bow.

The silhouette ranged from body-hugging ribbed knit dresses with demure slits to asymmetrical, flowing silk dresses. Ribbed, square-necked sweaters give a school touch to skirts with deep slits on each side, or silky trousers with pockets with closed back pockets.

Neutral hues of sage, copper, and white fixed the palette, which exploded with signature pieces in cream-dipped versions of sea green, cornflower blue, tangerine, and flamingo pink.

The last look highlighted the understated elegance of Jones’s proposals: a race-back tank tucked into white trousers that were softened by this season’s half-apron skirt—all in silky white.

In the show notes, Jones said, “What’s particularly interesting to me about Fendi is exploring the idea of ​​utility alongside femininity—because Fendi women are strong women with full and busy lives.

The smallest Fendi bag to date has been worn on a neck chain. The logos were subtle: knit into the jackets’ inner hem and visible only if they were twisted up, with a Double F logo on the linings or embossed as if the initials were on the back of Jone’s new curved Obi belt.

The shoes feature colorful platform shoes or sliders. Jones is moving the brand away from its heritage fur and instead focusing on Silvia Venturini Fendi handbags, which use glossy leather, canvas and sherling.

Diesel blows up the denim look

Glenn Martin’s knit collection for women and men broadened the meaning of denim.

He nailed the low-rise, high-waisted controversy right off the top, and his first look featured a suggestion of a low-rise silhouette to high-waisted leggings, the illusion of having it both ways.

To him, the pants looked saggy and a sleeveless sweatshirt of washed jeans was tucked into them.

Traces of denim were dyed into the tops of sheer jackets, and they were worn open over Daisy Duke-style shorts with denim high-heeled boots. The male counterpart was more covered, in a double-hooded trench paired with jeans and boots.

The denim itself was well-made in the ingenious, desert-inspired washers, and might be accompanied by a bright palette of orange, green, or pink separates.

The ensemble evolved into ever more dystopian looks that look inspired by the classic sci-fi movie “Dunes,” with sandy tones and tattered patterns, as the soundtrack suggested the appeal of the giant sandworm. They included letters and layered, flowing skirts fastened with multi-slit belts, or a gray blazer over a rag-ripped skirt. New iterations of the jeans had large leg panels that fluttered, as if in flight.

Hollywood Glam in Cavalli by FAUSTO PUGLISI

Cavalli Creative Director Fausto Puglisi was inspired by the glamor of the golden age of Hollywood.

Bugliese created looks from Lake Como’s finest textiles, twisting, pleating, and fanning them to create a diva-like effect. “I wanted that kind of freshness, kind of naive,” he said.

First Look appeared as “Ave Maria” played: an angelic white brocade midi dress with a demure neckline lending a restrained feel Bugliese kept for more looks before unleashing Cavalli DNA quality to a more rhythmic soundtrack.

The looks were embellished with pineapple, grape, and palm tree brooches and earrings. The motifs also appeared as prints and in one case, a short beaded dress recalled a pineapple down to the prickly leaves at the neckline.

Buglisi said his references were “the New Hollywood Renaissance beginning in the 1930s and 1940s. … I didn’t want to go overboard. I wanted to play with colour, with very classic fabrics.”

ZHB