Top 10 Trends From Milan Fashion Week

Milan Fashion Week ended yesterday after six days of showcasing powerful women, flashy sequins, frequent nods to the past, and near-total avoidance of the world’s current messy state. The global fashion circus now heads to Paris, where it kicks into full swing today.

Here are 10 top trends from the Italian fashion capital’s shows this season:

1. Throwback-o-rama

Versace supermodels reunion

Gucci’s creative mastermind Alessandro Michele opened the week with a show that was like totally 1980s. It was all big bangs, spaceman shades, boxy coats and even a striped tracksuit.

Donatella Versace offered the undisputed climax of the week, unveiling a collection drawing on her slain brother Gianni’s 1990s hits with a surprise supermodel reunion thrown in to boot.

Cindy Crawford, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer — now in their 40s and 50s — had worked closely with Gianni before his murder two decades ago.

2. Shiny objects

A model presents a creation for fashion house Bottega Veneta during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 23, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

Milan Fashion Week was blindingly flashy this season, with enough rhinestones, sequins, tiny mirrors and bright baubles to be seen from the International Space Station.

The million-kilowatt slinky dress was a hot item, making appearances at shows by Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Versace, Gucci and Au Jour le Jour.

3. Snakes!

A model presents a creation for fashion house Roberto Cavalli during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 22, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

Not actual snakes, calm down! Python and anaconda skins slithered their way into collections this season in the form of trousers, coats and dresses for houses like Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Tod’s and Bottega Veneta.

4. See through

A model presents a creation for fashion house Daizy Shely during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 25, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

Sheer, gauzy material was everywhere you looked, poorly concealing nipples, providing a sort of echo over the top of solid fabrics or serving as a primary component of skirts and dresses.

See Missoni, Dolce & Gabbana, Laura Biagiotti, Jil Sander, Antonio Marras and Les Copains.

5. Stripe right

A model presents a creation for fashion house Dolce & Gabbana during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

It was stripes a go-go this season in Milan.

Whether vertical, horizontal or on an angle, the big and small bands were one of the most consistent elements across collections.

Fendi, Roberto Cavalli, Missoni, Armani, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and others all got in line for it.

6. Feathers flying

A model presents a creation for fashion house Daizy Shely during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 25, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

With all the flash on the catwalk, perhaps it was appropriate that the most ornamental of embellishments (at least sequins can reflect light, right?) came in the form of feathers.

Vivetta, No.21, Alberta Ferretti, Moschino all stretched their wings out for this one.

7. Girl power

A model presents a creation for fashion house Moschino during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 21, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Marco BERTORELLO

Paying homage to women was in the air this week, including Miuccia Prada’s collection that drew on the designs and characters produced by female graphic artists.

“I feel we should really start being combative. I am kind of encouraging strength,” she told reporters after the show.

Rebel brand Moschino put on a catwalk that opened with motorcycle jacket-wearing women sporting miniature versions of the cap made iconic in Marlon Brando’s 1953 biker flick “The Wild One”.

8. Outdoor shows

Models present creations for Italian fashion house Ssheena at Piazza Duomo during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 25, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA

Over the week there were an awful lot of shows set in spare, semi-dark utilitarian spaces with pounding techno music and — thank you Gucci — at least one smoke machine.

So the shows set out of doors really stood out. Roberto Cavalli was in a public park in full view of dog walkers and pram-pushing parents.

Jil Sander’s show was in a clean white space open to the sky and Missoni was set at a former factory courtyard where patchwork canopies hung overhead.

9. What crisis?

A model presents a creation for fashion house Dolce & Gabbana during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

To be in Milan these past six days was to be only marginally aware of Washington and Pyongyang’s escalating war of words, the latest deadly hurricanes and earthquakes or British Prime Minister Theresa May’s big Brexit speech.

There were no current events on the catwalk here this season, a fact summed up by Giorgio Armani, who told reporters after his show: “It’s not because it’s a sad moment that I have to make women sad on the runway.”

10. In the pink

Models present creations for fashion house Dolce & Gabbana during the Women’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion shows in Milan, on September 24, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO

It can be hard to single out a hue for the season because, with dozens of looks at some 60 different shows on the main calendar, there was a riot of colour.

But that said, pink was the pull away tone of the season just by its sheer ubiquity. Versace, Gucci, Moschino, Bottega Veneta, Marni and MSGM all worked it into the mix.

***AFP