5 Milan shows in 5 sentences

By Katie Wright

5 Milan shows in 5 sentences

Dsquared2 - Trailer trash girls in fifties glasses and trucker caps hightail it from prom night still wearing their frocks and head to the hills for outdoor pursuits in cut-offs and plaid.

Gianfranco Ferre – Beautiful minimalist white petal shapes by day and a gorgeous concoction of metallic pleats, rouches, frills and folds for evening.

Marni – loads of layers of leggings, pencil skirts, buttoned-down shirts, tie belts and loose sweaters came in tiny random spots, blossom print, horizontal stripes and vertical stripes with a gypsy headscarf to boot – as if the main theme wasn’t clear enough already.

Alberta Ferretti – Demure, floaty, chiffon belted dresses in neutral colours enhanced with netting or appliqué and topped off with a sun hat.

Salvatore Ferragamo - Bright white gave way to sunshine yellow, jodhpur curves and tribal-style high necks.

FRIDA GENIUS

By Katie Wright

FRIDA GENIUS

I can’t count the number of shows that started all in white and ended in black. Is this a sign of play it safe recession tactics? Or some kind of religious allegory? I’m guessing the former. And so it was at GUCCI, where Frida Giannini paired bright white with tiny flashes of silver at collar and cuffs, and on accessories, no doubt putting a tick in the ‘space age-inspired’ box. A dozen looks in the colours segued to grey but the metallic detailed continued; chrome belts were reminiscent of horses’ stirrups.-

The only non-monochrome colour came from bright orange, blue and magenta on asymmetrically patterned cocktail dresses. Then it was fade to black slim cut trousers, blazers and ankle-length dresses. Another top notch outing for Giannini.

Raf Simons adopted a similar approach for paragon of minimalism JIL SANDER. The only time the Technicolor was only turned on for a couple of dresses – crinkly wet look numbers in metallic cyan and bottle green, they both had that gorgeous creepy-crawly exoskeleton feel to them. Clever little so and so that he is, this season Simons took a slew ideas that have formed the backbone of numerous of his contemporaries collections of recent years and seemed to perfect them in one exit. I’m talking dual length hems, pyjama-esque tailoring, the baggy shirtdress, 3D cloud-front dresses, cut-outs on sheer fabric, the modern flapper dress, loose origami patches… all delivered, Sander-style, to great effect.

Milan continued...

By Katie Wright

Milan continued...

A touch of the aforementioned D&G cowboy style made its way into their mainline collection, by way of string bowties and a smattering of denim. Other than that it was a noir affair, with lace being the operative word. Apparently last winter Prada helped sustain the ailing lace industry, and it looks like Dolce and Gabbana are on hand to help out this season. Expect the high street to take note. In addition to plenty of the revealing black stuff there was a selection of more demure offerings – a rose-print pencil skirt and tuxedos, for instance.

Black lingerie stylings were also present at Fendi but were preceded by far more modest daywear in ivory and pale coffee tones, that could definitely be filed under ‘effortlessly chic.’ For evening, textures were feathery on dresses with hems either super short, ankle length, or a bit of both, and topped off with a small but perfectly formed clutch bag.