A packed calendar at Milan Fashion Week made for a stunning festival of fashion with the likes of Fendi and Prada on full form
After the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, London Fashion Week turned out to be a somewhat mournful and highly respectful affair, but things are back in full swing at Milan Fashion Week with a packed calendar full of the usual household names in fashion as well as loads of Milan’s emerging talent.
On Day 1 the industrial setting of a huge shut-down tyre factory hosted Tod’s latest collection with models wearing classical womenswear with minimal intrusions to the elegant style. It was almost all about minimalism, whereas Missoni took a different approach with new creative head Filippo Grazioli who went with a more vivid palette for his 90s-inspired creations.
Day 2 went to Prada who stole the limelight with a monochromatic and almost monolithic backdrop for the “Touch of Crude” collection from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. Elements of Hollywood Film Noir contrasted with other pieces featuring floral motifs and, again, minimalism and simplicity as the singular concept.
According to Prada, “The collection plays constantly with dissimilitude and paradox, shifting between different visions, separate realities… Human gestures animate surfaces - traces of life shape the forms of garments, intentional rifts, twists, creases and folds capture a spontaneity, like memories of beauty embedded in cloth. Acts of refinement are energised with a sense of the accidental, representative of creative freedom, gestures of liberation.”
Fendi’s Kim Jones presented his spring-summer 2023 collection on Day 3, paying homage to Karl Lagerfeld and the 2000s.
"What is particularly interesting to me about Fendi is exploring the notion of functional utility alongside femininity - because the Fendi women are strong women with full, busy lives,” said Jones.
The collection is a development of Jones’ established ideas but with influences of the Maison’s history and heritage. Karl Lagerfeld's work in particular between the period of 1996 and 2002 is the underlying inspiration for the Fendi collection which transforms the era into a contemporary style.
