Welcome to our Fashion Week Briefing, compiled with on-the-ground insights from Vogue Business and Vogue Runway editors that you won’t find anywhere else, plus all of our coverage from the week. Stay tuned as we recap what’s happening in New York, London, Milan and Paris this fashion month. To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.
Milan is abuzz with new energy. A decade ago, some viewed the city’s fashion week as a stopgap between London and Paris, where they might discover an interesting emerging designer or two. Then, the pandemic took its toll, with luxury heavyweights including Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Versace remaining off the Milan schedule in September 2021, following lockdown disruptions a year earlier.
This season, buyers and editors jostled for seats at the hottest shows. Throngs of fans crowded show venues for a glimpse of celebrities and influencers, who have become a clear priority for brands thanks to their potent ability to draw attention and sell products. There were 62 physical shows (up from 54 last season) with the hottest designer debuts — at Gucci and Tom Ford — taking place within 24 hours of each other.
“The mood is very exciting. We need new blood in fashion. I think this is a pretty good season,” said Anna Dello Russo, an Italian creative consultant and veteran fashion editor, speaking to Vogue Business between shows.
At Gucci, the marketing was louder than the clothes. Ahead of the show, the brand had plastered billboards and outdoor spaces across key cities with the word “Ancora” (again, or encore in English), the theme of creative director Sabato De Sarno’s first collection. He presented a pared-back vision to an A-list crowd that included actors Julia Roberts and Ryan Gosling. The accessories, which included towering platform loafers and reworked signature bag styles, stood out, but left critics wanting more.
Peter Hawkings, who was Tom Ford’s longtime studio right-hand before stepping into the creative director role, presented an elegantly louche collection that many compared to Ford’s time at Gucci. Among the attendees was Carine Roitfeld, who styled Mario Testino’s campaigns for Gucci under Ford. Speaking to journalists backstage, Hawkings acknowledged Roitfeld as an inspiration, as well as his wife, Whitney Bromberg. “It is so helpful having a wife who [has] very strong opinions,” said Hawkings. “She will tell me if she likes or hates something and that is so important because I can’t try on the clothes, but she can.”
Another longtime design hand celebrated this season was Fabio Zambernardi, who has worked at Prada Group for more than four decades, most recently as design director for the Miu Miu and Prada brands. At the close of Prada’s show, which featured sharp suiting, rugged jackets and floating dresses in super-fine organza and gazar, Zambernardi stepped out for his first public bow with co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons — timed to his final show for the brand. Attendees were captivated by the slime that poured from the ceiling and a starry front row that included actors Scarlett Johansson and Emma Watson, both of whom feature in Prada’s fashion and beauty campaigns.
Noticeably absent from most runways was overt branding, a thread throughout New York and London as well. Instead, there was a quiet but confident strength as designers at heritage houses appeared to find their stride. Matthieu Blazy’s fourth collection for Bottega Veneta consisted of well-constructed herringbone coats and complex knit dresses and swimwear (the brand will reopen its Paris flagship this week; the first space to hold Blazy’s creative vision for AW23). Maximilian Davis’s third for Ferragamo was a cohesive outing of luxurious wardrobe staples that blended his Caribbean heritage with Italian influences. “I wanted to achieve a sense of ease and effortlessness,” he told reporters backstage. Both proved that “quiet luxury” doesn’t have to be dull.
Francesca Ragazzi, head of editorial content for Vogue Italia, observes that brands in Milan — as in New York and London — are paying greater attention to the end consumer and creating clothes that people would want to wear. “There were no logos, but more emotions, feelings and sentiments at the shows.”
There was also a bigger focus on casting cross-generational and size-inclusive models. Gucci cast predominantly new faces, while plus-size models Ashley Graham and Devyn Garcia walked for Dolce & Gabbana. Emerging London-based size-inclusive designer Karoline Vitto staged her first solo show in Milan that was backed by Dolce & Gabbana.
Made in Italy remains a focal point — and advantage — for brands operating in the country. Tod’s, which is currently without a creative director since Walter Chiapponi stepped down in July, highlighted its craft by featuring its artisans and product construction at the show. Others looked to the archives for inspiration — an increasingly popular tactic for grabbing the attention of younger generations with a thirst for nostalgia. At Ferragamo, Davis brought back the Calypso, an architectural shoe style from the 1950s. A bag designed in 1913 by Miuccia Prada’s grandfather Mario, was both reproduced and reinterpreted. Versace continued to develop its signature bags, including the Goddess and the Medusa from the 1990s.
“Made in Italy is our strength and a ‘must have’. Most of the international designers transform their ideas into clothes through [Italian] techniques and expertise,” says Tiziana Fausti, owner of the Italian luxury retailer 10 Corso Como.
In Milan, the topic of succession persists. Many of the biggest houses have been family-owned, but luxury’s globalisation and a rethink of creative disciplines has led several companies to sell ownership stakes to conglomerates or become publicly listed to survive. More may follow in the coming years. At Roberto Cavalli, investors from Vision, the Dubai-based investment vehicle of millionaire Hussain Sajwani, which acquired the Italian brand in July 2019, sat front row with Sergio Azzolari, who became CEO seven months ago.
After showing in Cannes and Los Angeles, Versace returned home and presented its first show since becoming part of new luxury group Tapestry. Ahead of the runway, Donatella Versace invited editors to her new office in Porta Nuova, where she gave a sneak peek of key looks, many adorned with the Versace Contrasto Checkerboard, a pattern that debuted in Spring/Summer 1982. Versace didn’t have much to say on Tapestry other than that she was “very happy” so far, and “it was business as usual”.
There were also plenty of creative show formats. For The Attico’s highly anticipated runway debut, founders Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini lined a street in central Milan with sofas they had sourced; guests sat and watched in the open air, while residents looked and cheered over their balconies. At Sunnei, guests were given voting markers and asked to rate each look — an approach that “speaks a lot to Gen Z; they are in tune with the zeitgeist”, Vogue Italia’s Ragazzi says. As luxury houses seek to strengthen their relationship with younger generations, they should be made to feel welcome, adds Dello Russo. “It’s the democratisation of fashion and we need that.”
Gucci had originally planned to present its collection outdoors in the academic area of Brera, but unpredictable weather prompted the Italian house to move the show to its headquarters. Heavy rain didn’t stop 7,000 guests — 6,000 of which were raffled tickets for the public — from attending Diesel’s outdoors runway, which was followed by a rave and a free weekend film festival.
The renewed buzz around Milan may pose challenges for young designers as they now find themselves competing with big players. Italy’s governing fashion body Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) is in ongoing talks with New York, London and Paris on the possibility of adding an extra day, which would give younger brands more breathing space. “In my opinion, it should be the right city for both emerging names and bigger brands, but for the new ones it’s not so easy,” says Luisaviaroma’s buying director Marta Gramaccioni.
Few international buyers and editors attended shows from Stockholm-based Avavav and Rave Review, because the timing clashed with luxury titan Giorgio Armani. “When we came to Milan and did our first show, it wasn’t as crowded as Paris,” recalls Avavav founder Beate Karlsson, whose runway went viral for its sensationalist approach, as models with dripping wet makeup and hair were pushed and shoved and ran half-dressed down the runway. It sparked online debate about what a fashion show is and should be. Karlsson shrugged the critics off; she has a devoted community of followers — including South Korean artist and rapper MLMA and model Lin Lin — who all came dressed in the label’s irreverent grungy style.
The strength of Milan is largely its no-nonsense approach, which have turned brands that produce quiet but high quality clothing, such as Brunello Cucinelli and Loro Piana, into cult names. “Most of the collections had a real wearability factor,” says Neiman Marcus’s vice president of luxury fashion Jodi Kahn. “Each brand remained true to its own ethos and did not lean into a trend that was not already in their house codes.” She adds that there was “an evolution and elevation in the fabrics and techniques across all of the brands”.
For Luisaviaroma’s Gramaccioni, it was a season of “more minimal and quiet essentials”, with tailoring, suits, see-through and leather pieces being among the major trends, although some houses, such as Roberto Cavalli and Etro, stuck to their guns and presented collections full of prints. “I’m going to buy all of the major collections, but with a focus on wearable looks, adding a few special pieces for the most demanding clients,” she says.
And what of Paris, where most editors and buyers have now moved onto, for a nine-day extravaganza featuring shows for megawatt brands including Chanel, Hermès and Louis Vuitton? Milan is on the rise, but it stays in its lane, believes Dello Russo. “Sorelle!” she says, “Milan is a sister of Paris, not a competitor.”
Correction: Vogue Business’s newsletter, sent on 26 September, stated that Anna Dello Russo has a role at Vogue Japan. She no longer works there.
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