At Milan Fashion Week, Shaking Off The Past And A Sense Of Propriety

What does chicness look like today? That seemed to be a question that Italian designers pondered this Milan Fashion Week for the fall/winter 2024 collections as they generally turned away from the headline-grabbing and the statement-making in favour of wardrobe-building.

It was certainly the case at the big debuts of the season. At Moschino, Adrian Appiolaza pivoted from the campiness of Jeremy Scott to reflect a realer way of dressing. Walter Chiapponi, formerly of Tod’s, toned down the Y2K brashness of his predecessor at Blumarine.

Meanwhile, over at Tod’s, Matteo Tamburini hewed close to the stealth-wealth ethos of the House, choosing to emphasise certain details like double collars on the clothes, and oversized Gommino studs on the shoes. 

Related article: Behind The Scenes Of Tod’s Latest Project, ‘The Art Of Craftsmanship’

At Gucci, Sabato De Sarno continued building on the foundation he laid out last September. His first look here was basically a redux—and a reduction—of that debut collection’s first look: A black, leggy silhouette composed of tailoring over hot pants, with tall riding boots in place of last season’s flatform loafers. Outerwear remained De Sarno’s focal point—you could tell from how beautifully and thoughtfully constructed the coats and jackets were. Underneath were dresses in sleek, clean lines—sometimes sheer, and sometimes spangled.

Related article: Sabato De Sarno Cleans The Slate With His Gucci Menswear Debut

De Sarno played a lot more with embellishment this season—tailoring was jazzed up with dégradé sequins; slip dresses sparkled. There was technical precision for sure—see the snakeskin placed in curving strips on a Sixties-ish cropped coat—and the clothes all looked expensive and flattering, but one can’t help wishing the craft was in service of more creativity. 

Matthieu Blazy showed that fashion rooted in reality doesn’t have to be without imagination. In five short seasons at Bottega Veneta, he has made the elevation of the ordinary his stock in trade. This season, he continued along the same lines but refined them further. The clothes were less wrought this time around but no less remarkable. Richness came from layering, sculpting and draping, and the ingenious treatment of fabrics. Leathers were laser-cut to look like furs and feathers; at other times, they were made as light as silk. Seams were pinched up for a 2D effect. There were structured silhouettes with soft scarf-like details; form-fitting knits and dresses that suddenly exploded in flounce and frills.

Flounce and frills abounded at Prada too, where Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons examined the ladylike—and then turned it inside out and on its head. What looked like sober wool suits from the front were revealed to have sensuous silk slips attached at the back. Sweaters and twinsets were worn with Forties and Fifties skirts that have been cut away at the backs and tied with some sort of bustle-bow hybrid.

Related article: Miuccia Prada And Raf Simons Just Made The Office Exciting Again

Girlishness was taken to the extreme with shifts covered entirely in ribbons; on the other end of the spectrum were biker and bomber jackets. Models wore policeman’s hats covered in feathers. Towards the end, there were opera and trapeze coats, cut in technical nylon; as well as cocktail dresses given cargo-trouser-like details. These were all tropes recognisably from the past, but they were in no way nostalgic. It was all very strange and very compelling—a high point of the week. 

A similar exploration and excavation of time was also going on at Marni. The brand is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and Francesco Risso wanted to bring it back to a place of pure creation—no references, no moodboards; just feeling. You could say he went back to basics, though the clothes he presented were far, far from basic. First, there was an exploration of shape—a series of all-black looks cut close to the body or given stiff but light paper-doll volumes. Certain pieces evoked the grandeur of midcentury couture, but with none of its weightiness. Extraneous details have all been stripped away.

Other looks—referencing sportswear, but shrunken or elongated—looked downright futuristic. Most looks came in solid blocks of colour; the prints that appeared fell somewhere between animal, mineral, wood-bark, and childlike scribble. These, coupled with the shaggy fur coats and stoles (plus the show’s cave-like setting) gave the collection a raw, primal quality. Fashion could use a little more of that.