Milan Fashion Week: the maestro, the outsider and the influencers

In his small Teatro on Via Borgonuovo where his women's ready-to-wear for summer 2024 is presented, Giorgio Armani defies eternity and fashion to do only what he loves – after fifty years of career, he has well deserved it. His "man", currently embodied on advertising campaigns by Louis Garrel, cultivates the intellectual chic of a soft suit with a natural fall that everyone is currently copying on the catwalks. His "wife", on the contrary, refuses the laws of the present and dreams of orientalism, Zen and Art Deco. Mr. Armani is from the family of Paul Poiret and Issey Miyake, fashion designers who, during the twentieth century, brought East and West, East and West together. Here worn by models with notched hair and doll makeup, corded pants, small spencers, feminine blouses and princess veil dresses explore the textures and sparkles of shantungs, flocked silks, iridescent scales embroidery, moiré grays, micropearl fringes, carved organzas, Jade greens, cerulean blues and pajamas in the 1920s. If his wardrobe escapes temporality, the influence of the maestro is still as relevant in Milan, where he masterfully closes the calendar of shows Sunday late afternoon after a day unfortunately very poor in other collections.

The day before, at Bally, 180-degree turn. After two seasons of sexy a hair too much under the artistic direction of Rhuigi Villaseñor, landed last May, back to Swiss sobriety for the historic shoemaker founded in 1851 in the county of Solothurn. Now at the helm: Italian Simone Bellotti, defector from Gucci, who for sixteen years worked alongside Frida Giannini and Alessandro Michele. And it is an excellent surprise that this show is located in the charming great cloister of San Simpliciano. In this Milanese fashion frenzy, one almost feels like tasting the spiritual aura of the pre-hippie community of Monte Verita, Switzerland, where artists such as Hermann Hesse came to dance in contact with nature and sew their own clothes in the early twentieth century. The reference is not free: it is that of the designer for this summer collection.

Bally's Spring/Summer 2024 Fashion Show. Bally

We rather saw contemporary essentials between the school uniform and the panoply of the model employee (navy blue overcoat, oxford shirts), mixed with some more spectacular pieces for the show (minicrinoline, retro panty ensemble). The very desirable faded jeans are reminiscent of those of Gucci under Michele, like some of its iconic models that we find here in less "freak" version. But it's the accessories that catch our eye, starting with the boat loafers with an old school draw. We also applaud the pointy-tipped reinterpretation of the Glendale babies (premiered in 1923), the derbies inspired by the Scribe model (1951) and the nailed version of the ballerinas Ballyrina (1940). It's both vintage and fresh, just like this shoulder bag in firefighter red leather accessorized with a bell of the one that hangs on the neck of cows in the mountain pastures, these canvas bags with yellow shoulder strap and this PVC briefcase protector printed with strawberries that gives fishing.

A little later, the best of Italian fashion find themselves via Guerrazzi, a pretty little street privatized by the no less pretty Giorgia Tordini and Gilda Ambrosio, the influencers behind the label The Attico which parades for the first time. On the two rows of soft and soft sofas delimiting the catwalk are the "friends" artistic directors such as Sabato De Sarno (Gucci), Maximilian Davis (Ferragamo), Walter Chiapponi (Tod's), Dean and Dan Caten (Dsquared2), and even Remo Ruffini, the CEO of Moncler. The concept of the collection "The Morning After" is inspired by this look called "Walk of Shame" on social networks, namely that of the young woman leaving her lover's apartment in the early morning, the look a little "sloppy " in her evening dress crumpled and with her hair still wet.

The models come out of the carriage doors of old buildings filmed by cameras on the shoulder, walk on the sidewalk and go up the catwalk. The idea is good, the cast excellent (among others, Mariacarla Boscono and Rianne Van Rompaey), the great music (LCD Soundsystem), the audience of choice, etc. Except that the collection simply has neither tail nor head. The dress with crystal tassels and feathers, the moumoute capes over blue tights, the vaguely 1980s oversized jackets, and mismatched pumps show a confusing amateurism. We suppose that the brand, which also works very well with its products calibrated for the zeitgeist (the dress between 1,000 and 3,000 euros all the same), wanted to flirt with a certain idea of creativity. No doubt for their next show (but does a brand like The Attico really need a runway format?), young women will rectify the situation.