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This season will be another one of change in Milan, as new creative directors make their debuts for Moschino, Blumarine and Tod’s.
Running on 20-26 February, the Autumn/Winter 2024 edition of MFW will feature 56 shows and 67 presentations. As usual, the schedule is dominated by established brands such as Prada, Gucci, Armani, Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta and Versace. Marni and Elisabetta Franchi will return to the calendar, while collaborations on show will include Max&Co with Richard Quinn and Weekend Max Mara by Lucy Hale.
Attention will be on the debuts of Walter Chiapponi as creative director at Blumarine, Adrian Appiolaza at Moschino and Matteo Tamburini at Tod’s, as well as the sophomore womenswear collections from Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno, Tom Ford’s Peter Hawkings and Bally’s Simone Bellotti. “I’ve always thought sophomore collections are harder than the blank page of a first show,” says Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business. “So I’ll be looking forward to that.”
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“We’re looking forward to seeing a new creative direction for Bally under Simone Bellotti, which will launch on site later this year,” says Libby Page, market director at Net-a-Porter. “As always, we’re excited to see what Sabato De Sarno does at Gucci. Season after season, Gucci’s collections are hotly anticipated and loved by Net-a-Porter customers.” This week, Net-a-Porter customers will have exclusive access to the pre-launch of six runway looks from Gucci’s SS24 collection for nine days.
Appiolaza stepped into the Moschino role just over a month ago, following the sad and sudden death of Davide Renne only 10 days into the creative director job. With just a short time to prepare this first show, and out of respect to his predecessor, the designer is seeing this initial show as a partial introduction. “I know that afterwards, I will have the time and resources I need to do my best fully. But for now, I had to use the ingredients that were here, there was no time to develop new ones,” he told Vogue Business. “So, it has been about juggling what was here to be able to begin to create these characters and start the story that I want to tell at Moschino.”
“I’m watching out for Moschino, of course,” says Phelps. “[Appiolaza] is one of two Jonathan Anderson deputies with debuts this season, along with Séan McGirr at Alexander McQueen; Adrian was at Loewe and Séan was at JW Anderson. The last time an Anderson disciple left the fold (Bruno Sialelli at Lanvin) it took a minute for him to lose his old vocabulary and speak a new language.”
“I’m also wondering what Prada without [former design director] Fabio Zambernardi will look like; and I’m ready to be surprised by what [Marni creative director] Francesco Risso and the Sunnei guys will pull out of their respective hats,” says Vogue Runway reporter Tiziana Cardini. “Let’s see what Simone Bellotti at Bally is up to; his first season as creative director was rather promising. Then there’s Peter Hawkings at Tom Ford to check out, as well as Marco De Vincenzo at Etro — this season he’s going co-ed and his eccentricity is a good tonic for Milan’s pragmatism.”
MFW will kick off for many with Diesel, staging its usual large-scale co-ed show under creative director Glenn Martens on Wednesday. The brand has live streamed the show preparations, as well as asked 1,000 people to register to “participate” in the show, as Martens aims to democratise the fashion show process. After last year’s 7,000 capacity runway-in-a-rave, editors anticipate something big from Diesel.
“Much like last season, we expect Milan’s AW24 offering to be filled with epic venues, exciting debuts, and viral celebrity moments,” says Page.
Trends in focus
As we’ve seen across the AW24 shows so far, we can expect more bold outerwear to hit the runway in Milan. From faux fur at Khaite and Emilia Wickstead, an abundance of leather at Gabriela Hearst and David Koma, to oversized silhouettes at JW Anderson, “it’s been a feast for the eyes so far,” says Page. Coinciding with the rise of the mob wife aesthetic and plenty of fur and va va voom at the Milan menswear shows in January, searches for faux fur coats on Net-a-Porter have increased by 70 per cent in the last month, Page says. “We expect elevated outerwear, in all its variations, to be a key trend for AW24.”
Across the Milan men’s shows, a fascination with office wear took hold, often contrasted with nature (Prada, Fendi) or sexy accents (DSquared). As Prada always retains its show set across men’s and women’s, we can likely expect a continuation of the corpcore theme for this womenswear season.
Emerging names to watch
While Milan remains a smaller playground for emerging designers, there will be first-time presentations from Swiss brand Cosy Sunday, Chinese designer Jarelzhang and puffer jacket specialist Khrisjoy, among others.
Two London-based brands are joining the schedule this season: Feben will show on Sunday, supported by Dolce & Gabbana and Sagaboi; while Australian artist and designer Michaela Stark will debut her new lingerie and ready-to-wear line Panty on Wednesday, with backing from Fondazione Sozzani. Swedish labels Rave Review and Avavav will close out the week on Sunday, the latter perhaps with another viral stunt, after her falling models and flying clothes shows of previous seasons. Speaking of virality, eyes are on burgeoning label Sunnei, whose latest show stunt had editors rating looks, only to then shame those who gave their pieces a score of zero.
To support emerging brands, Italy’s fashion body Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) has announced a competition for the awarding of the CNMI Fashion Trust Grants 2024, a Camera Moda Fashion Trust initiative designed to support and promote a new generation of independent Made in Italy brands.
“The calendar confirms the vivacity of our system and its international relevance, being not only a mirror of our times but also a projection of new scenarios for our industry and society,” said Carlo Capasa, president of CNMI, in a release about the week. “We’re happy that all the operators in this trade can enjoy a particularly rich and variegated offering of shows, presentations and other events.”
“Milan is about strong individualities, more than creative hyperboles or controversial social commentaries,” says Cardini.
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Meet Adrian Appiolaza, the new creative director of Moschino
