Milan Fashion Week 2016 Spring Summer News: Day two best moments

Sep

Milan Fashion Week 2016 Spring Summer News: Day two best moments

And Milan Fashion Week 2016 Spring Summer day two is history! After a day one where Alessandro Michele had the biggest highlights, and designers amazed us with their new collections for Spring Summer 2016. Milan Design Agenda features the favorite looks from Milan Fashion Week 2016 Spring Summer that will surely satisfy your curiosity and a few hints on what next season world fashion trends will be! Further do…

Max Mara

Why has the sailor theme been around so long? Elegant, sporty, and fresh, sailor stripes can be worn in almost every season. A masculine genre, it still looks great on confident women who prefer comfort over frivolous trends. But what is really enticing about the mariner theme itself, is that it conjures a spirit of travel, new beginnings, and escapism.

This is the air that emanated from the Max Mara runway, as the brand unfurled its Spring/Summer women’s collection this morning, drenched in a spray of ship cords and tinseled stripes, taking the motif to a new dimension.

In what was one of Max Mara’s most upbeat shows in a while, star patterns replaced Max Mara’s celebrated houndstooth print – reminding us of the starry sky maps that led ancient explorers to new worlds. Sketches inspired by artist and writer Jean Cocteau infused the collection with the sort of French charm that is the foundation of so many evergreen fashion ensembles.

High-waisted pants and skirts adorned with polished buttons and canvas matelot pants possessed an air of ambition. Looks were tomboyish, but still celebrated the graceful contours of the female body.

DJ Johnny Dynell’s interpretations of old sailor songs like “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor” and Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam,” an animated mise-en-scène illustrated by Brian Grimwood paid tribute to sea tales of old: Sinbad the Sailor, Bluebeard, and the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale.

Fendi

It’s always interesting to see what Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi come up with for their Spring/Summer runway shows considering that this is a house known for its expertise in fur and leather – two materials that lend themselves to cold weather wear. This time the pair just decided not to kowtow to seasons at all. And who could blame them considering the mood swings Mother Nature has been having over the last few years?

Backstage, Fendi talked about a folkloric somewhat Victoria sensibility to the collection, but on the runway the style looked as if it harkened back further, to more medieval times. The structural nature of the impressive handicraft work used on the clothing seemed almost armor-like in their application. Particularly on the key silhouette of the show, a dress crafted with sections at the sides cut away to expose the model’s waistline.

Onto this Lagerfeld used both macro and micro leather stitch work to great effect. Some dresses had pockets outlined in wide whipstitching, others featured a braided snakeskin harness. He even reworked the dress design into an open weave mink for a summer fur coat alternative.

Next to all this impressive show of sartorial strength (including one knockout red basket weave leather skirt and a short body con dress constructed from leather smocking), the designer brought in a bit of romantic volume via full sleeved poet shirts. The way he was able to lightly drape the fabric – which surprisingly was sometimes actually leather – was beautifully done and the allusion to a bow at the back of the neck made for a sweet touch.

Often those tops were paired with leather romper shorts (think Shakespearean thespians) that really only belong on the stage. However, a few silk print pieces with a motif that echoed the graphic stitch work were a lovely fluid interlude among all of the more disciplined designs.

Emilio Pucci

The long overdue new wave of Italian designers seem to have finally found a foothold in Milan. Massimo Giorgetti at Emilio Pucci, along with Fausto Puglisi and Alessandro Michele at Gucci, are proof of this fact. On Thursday it was down to Giorgetti to produce the goods at his debut show for the storied Pucci label.

Backstage, in front of his mood board for the show, the designer spoke passionately about making the past, specifically three key sea-inspired Pucci silk scarves from the 50s, into something relevant for 2016. “I really don’t like when clothes smell like vintage,” he specified. “The world has changed; it has to be about now.”

There was a clear connection between the cockle shell image on one of those scarves and that same motif as a laser cut crochet knitwear pattern on a semi-sheer sweatshirt. Ditto the hand drawn siren scarf that, in Giorgetti’s hands, became mermaid patches attached to a see through fishnet dress. The designer was certainly making his mark on the brand in a very bold way. But overall what looked good on paper didn’t fully materialize on the catwalk.

At the outset of the show, the collection held real promise. A smooth sailing of sequins on daywear basics looked chic and asymmetrical knitwear was a fresh approach to the brand’s graphic heritage. The idea of using colorful feather pressed underneath tulle was also an astute reimagining of the Pucci print. It’s a shame that the designer didn’t develop it further than just one look. Even the choice to go with flat sandals made for a nice clean break from Giorgetti’s predecessor.

And Giorgetti wasn’t helped by the show’s styling, with its granny-like glasses, footwear finished off in feather, and lackadaisical hair. It was difficult to watch the models and not think of another Italian brand that ends in -ucci.

Prada

The spun sugar sweetness of last season’s Prada show melted away from memory on Thursday night as designer Miuccia Prada brought some gravitas to her cement gray catwalk with a collection that was subversively cool in its sleekly linear approach to fashion.

There was a graphic interior design element about this show. The bold bands of striping Prada used in different discordant shades, textures, and sizes came together to form boxy jackets, straight stiff skirts, and square luxe outerwear that were a study in precision and form. The dramatic visual impact was a clear reference to the tastes of the 70s, when stylistic sophistication was achieved through the striking juxtaposition of patterns and colors.

The clothing also had an inherent tension to it thanks to the way Prada offset the defined spacing of her clothing with the roundness of her accessories and embellishments. The disco ball earrings, silver sphere adorned footwear, and circular netting worn like porous short capes or dickeys about the neck all broke up the vertically lined looks.

And the incorporation of Prada’s favorite round plastic paillettes as ornamentation on her eveningwear options also underlined her intrinsic need to rupture the puritanical perfection of a clean line.

This was a collection that firmly fell into the current geek chic trend that Prada originally helped birth into being back in the 1990s. But at no point did the designer look as if she was referencing her past oeuvre. This was a decidedly modern, post classic take on the idea of eccentric elegance, and a winning one at that.

Moschino

This season, Jeremy Scott wants the Moschino customer to do a hard day’s work on a road crew and then wash off the grime with a good scrub down in a car wash. That was the playful sartorial message on Thursday night when the designer turned his catwalk into a construction site framed with functioning side and drop down car wash scrubbers.

First up on the catwalk were the construction concept designs. So, models appeared wearing skirt suits crafted from dayglo safety vest material topped off with reflective trim. They sported silk dresses printed in the black and yellow barricade tape stripes or adorned in street sign motifs with clever plays on traditional warning messages like “caution couture ahead,” “shop,” or “clothed for repairs.” They were also given outerwear that mimicked the mesh look of retaining wall netting.

All of these designs came with Scott’s customary twisted take on appropriate accessories – meaning handbags consisted of orange traffic cones, street signs, or a riff on a traditional metal lunchbox. They also got hardhats with lace veils, tool belts, and reflective tape pumps.

Once the ladies clocked out of their day shift, they returned to the catwalk again to run the gauntlet of spinning scrubbers that pushed in on the runway in eveningwear ensembles. Not to be outdone, Anna Cleveland twirled madly in a fringe number that mimicked said scrubbers. As did a few of the other models in their delightfully tiered fringed designs, feather explosion dresses, and sequined gowns made to look like pop art detergent packaging. And let’s not forget the satin ball gowns with working tail light trim that brought to mind the fins of a 1950s Cadillac.

This show was all in good fun and there is nothing wrong with that. In his relatively quieter moments, the designer produced some well-executed oversized bomber jackets, workmen overall inspired separates, and chain link print dresses. But Scott has never been interested in making clothing that doesn’t stand out from the crowd. At Moschino, there might be warning signs on the catwalk but no one is planning on taking a detour from the current fun-filled direction of this house.

Keep tuned with what remains of Milan Fashion Week Spring 2015/2016!

25 September

8:30 Blumarine

9:30 Emporio Armani

10:30 Uma Wang

11:30 Sportmax

12:00 Agnona | Rene Caovilla

12:15 Hogan

13:00 Etro

14:00 Iceberg

15:00 Marco de Vincenzo

16:00 Tod’s