The best looks and trends from Milan Fashion Week SS27

Milan's Spring/Summer 2027 season has closed, and with a few days' distance, the standout looks are easier to isolate from the noise of the week itself, as are the trends that we see peeping through the hemlines. Across Prada, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani and Dhruv Kapoor, the collections shared a preoccupation with inheritance - but it was the individual looks, not the themes, that have stayed on with us.

Stravaganza Siciliana was built on the premise of inherited wardrobes, and its best looks made that premise legible. Burgundy bell-bottoms printed with roses, worn beneath a sheer black-and-white polka-dot blouse, captured the collection's instinct for mismatched generations dressing as one. A floor-length leopard-printed cape thrown over baggy denim jeans was the clearest example of the show's central trick - heirloom pieces styled with total disregard for their original context. Pattern clashing, pussy-bow blouses, layering and a fair amount of eccentricity ran through the whole show; it felt like a collection that could teach you how to raid your own closet. The eveningwear closed on a more solemn note, with a Chantilly lace and macramé gown cinched by a rosary-style belt. The whole collection was undeniably hard to resist.

Prada's 63 looks were unified by a single premise - no dresses, trousers or shorts, only the skirt in continual reinvention. The strongest moments were the most contradictory: a skirt rendered in a crystal web that felt like lace, worn with nothing more than a sculptural satin bra top, its arm cuffs trailing small pouches. Elsewhere, cotton was treated to mimic leather, while a skirt wrapped in tulle looked as though its pleats had been preserved under glass. The spray-painted leather car coats, paired with pleated skirts, came closest to a complete outfit and were the collection's most photographed exit.

Demna's second Gucci show was staged inside a constructed replica of the brand's forthcoming store concept, and the standout look arrived early: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in an oversized faux fur coat, black pencil skirt and lace corset, walking as if browsing the shelves around her. The opening women's look reworked Gucci's equestrian legacy for the present. Throughout, the horsebit motif did the most interesting work - miniaturised on a shirt collar or jacket pocket in one exit, then supersized as a waist fastening or a clasp across the back of a jacket in the next.

Maria Grazia Chiuri's mirror-lined show for Fendi opened on a monochromatic look built around a daring backless top, setting the tone for a collection that treated lingerie as outerwear rather than foundation. A sheer peachy-orange dress worn with a yellow fur boa stood out for its colour alone, while a velvet cheetah-print jumpsuit gave the collection its most confident silhouette. The reworked Baguette, now with cascading fringe and elongated handles, was the accessory moment of the week.

Silvana Armani's second collection for the house, titled "Evolution," found its most affecting moment in a reproduction of Giorgio Armani's own first Holy Communion suit - dark, double-breasted, worn with a tie, white gloves and a rosette at the lapel, and instantly recognisable from the black-and-white photograph the house later released alongside it. An embellished bomber carrying a collaged portrait of Giorgio in black tie extended the tribute more directly. The introduction of cotton, a fabric Giorgio himself resisted, gave the wide-leg trousers and roomy shorts a lightness that set them apart from the tailoring around them.

Kapoor's "Presence" produced two of the week's more unexpected images: a plaid lungi skirt worn with a khaki sleeveless gilet, its high white-lined collar left open over a bare chest, and a voluminous black balloon skirt scattered with clusters of beading. A black-and-white asymmetric dress printed with a woodgrain motif, carried alongside a vivid blue tote holding a rolled yoga mat and flowers, distilled the collection's sense of a wardrobe assembled rather than designed. The three PUMA x Royal Challengers Bengaluru jackets, reworked with hand embroidery, marked the first appearance of an Indian Premier League team on a Milan runway.