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Gucci bets on the show- The eighties version of Marie Antoinette is in Moschino
- Prada recovers its archive successes in one of its brightest collections
What is expected of a collection and a fashion show? Expectations, like the industry itself, have been changing over the past few years. Selling, although it may seem obvious, is not always the first option. There are others: generate noise and content on social networks. Demonstrate - with a great set design and a selection of great models - the brand's grandeur . Strengthen your image of exclusivity to boost other business lines - such as cosmetics. And surprise. Entertain.
Judging from what has been seen so far in Milan Fashion Week, none of these last two objectives are among the priorities for the firms that have shown their collections for the next autumn-winter. With the exception of the parades of Gucci and Versace, which left no one indifferent with his ode to the Soviet-Sicilian excess. Marni was also an exception, although for reasons opposite to the previous ones. The firm directed by Francesco Risso presented a collection supposedly inspired by abstract art, full of brushstrokes and tattered patchwork , where the only interesting thing was the bias-cut carpet coats.
From Etro and its magnificent handicrafts, to Tod's and its exquisite work of the skin, through Armani and its defense of the tailoring of Eastern cut. Everyone seems to agree on the same professional motto: let's do what we do best. The problem is that things well done matter, but they don't always get emotional. And in the end, the ultimate reason for this immense and expensive fashion circus is to generate desire: desire to buy, to belong, to possess.
The formulas to trigger it are as many as signatures. The entire wall that ran along the Versace catwalk was a huge screen that projected thousands of Donatellas Versace and other symbols of the Italian house, such as the Medusa. In front of her, she paraded what the Italian designer interprets as industrial: boots with a 12 cm heel, rubber toe and toothed sole; tracksuits with huge necks and oversized zippers; military-cut coats accompanied by Russian astrakhan caps: the USSR of 1979 seen since the Sicily of 1987. The KGB and the italodisk. A crossroads of cultures and aesthetics that can only become striped pants of different exotic skins, white loafers and logos, many logos. Also in a strict and interesting black tailoring. The excess without regrets and without dissimulation.
At the opposite end of the creative arc, Emporio Armani presented his collection with a game of siamese: the models came out on the catwalk two by two with chromatically complementary styles; some proposals through which the designer was declining the eternal codes of the brand: wide velvet pants with tops decorated with chiffon rosettes; Sequin mini dress combined with mohair bullfighters; coat dresses topped in frills. All with low shoes. Meanwhile, huge screens launched a message: "I say yes to recycling."
This season, in Tod's, the role of leather work - the identity of the Italian firm - was much less than in previous collections. Under an appearance of simplicity and classicism discrete urban winks were hidden, reminiscent of the spectator (and the buyer) that is in 2020 and not in 2002: quilt coats, American that are wrapped in the back with elastic bands, pleated skirts that are supported on the lower part of the hip and Prince of Wales check pants combined with leather corpillos and silk shirts.
Marco de Vincenzo - who came out to greet after the parade with the saddest face a catwalk has ever seen - opted for a collection articulated around the point and reminiscent of his years as a member of the Prada design team.
Jeremy Scott brought in Moschino what is expected of him: entertainment and fun. The designer takes this season as reference the Maria Antonietta of Sofia Coppola and deploys on the catwalk a wide catalog of miriñaques and miniature skirts, corsets combined with perfect jackets and patterned with classic porcelain motifs, chewing gum pink velvet frocks and dresses with Multi-story pie form. It is not new - Versailles had already been reinterpreted by John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier - nor provocative. But, thanks also to its always spectacular selection of models, it fulfills its function of hoarding Instagram stories . Although not as much as it used to.
In Sportmax everything revolves around fabrics and textures. From the mohair dresses with ham sleeves, to the metallic fabric pants and the micro-pleated silk designs. The firm abandons its sports codes in favor of a proposal that seeks to merge, during the first part of the parade, medieval elements such as layers, blazers or fencing chests with other timeless pieces such as sailor jackets or leather raincoats. The exercise, although ambitious in its approach, does not finish curdling; especially, when in the last part of the collection the brand is committed to a series of tuxedos and night pieces embroidered with a kind of fireworks, which is difficult to link aesthetically and conceptually with the first part.
Etro, on the other hand, is inspired by the American Indian culture to decline his collection of ponchos, blankets, cowboy jackets and leather boots in a parade where the presence of Eva Herzigoba tops , Doutzen Kroes, Irina Shayk monopolized the entire leadership.
Jil Sander, a real dream
Functionality is an ambiguous concept in the fashion industry. It should be a sine quanom requirement of any good design, but it is often a quality that is interpreted as synonymous with lack of creativity or directly boredom. Jil Sander achieves the squaring of the circle by offering a collection that is feminine and pragmatic. Of an exquisite delicacy and at the same time Cartesian regarding the pattern. On the catwalk, the choreographers dressed in long fringes gave way to a series of over-sized Americans and coats with trapezoidal shoulders, under whose fists the countersleeves of organza blouses poked out. A work that represents a leap forward in the trajectory of Luke and Lucie Meier, the creative directors of the firm for three years.