The many moods of Milan

ITALIAN LABEL MARNI won quick praise on Sunday for a modernist collection that featured opulent coloured fur coats, feather-fronted skirts and bright zip-front jackets on the fifth day of Milan Fashion Week.
Trade journal Women’s Wear Daily called it “a fashion extravaganza as audacious as it was beautiful”. Jessica Michault, editor-in-chief of Nowfashion.com, tweeted it was “one of the strongest” of the season.
Marni creative director Consuelo Castiglioni’s autumn-winter collection included several oversize and boxy, geometric designs that have proved something of a running theme during fashion week.
The wide trousers, belts and tunics gave the whole an Oriental feel, while there was also an element of “sports chic” in some of the more youthful numbers.
Missoni was another strong favourite, with its signature knitwear side by side with cashmere, mohair and tweed while the warm colours like chocolate and caramel were combined with oranges and turquoises.
Missoni said its collection aimed to convey an image of a “free-spirited woman” and “dynamic protagonist of city life” who can blend “fashion with street style, informality and the utmost sophistication”.
Salvatore Ferragamo’s Massimiliano Giornetti also offered an amalgam of textures, experimental fabrics |and colours – where |generally sombre shades were livened up by gold and copper threads.
The show, which American actress Hilary Swank attended, was also the debut for the new “Fiamma” handbag line, which features a semicircular top handle and was shown off in a variety of exotic materials.
Gaia Trussardi, the fourth generation of the eponymous brand, rounded off the day with a collection inspired by French New Wave cinema that offered a muted palette of greys, blacks and browns and emphasised comfort and “eccentricity”.
Fairies in flowing dresses, little red riding hoods in fur and female knights in bejewelled chain mail took over the catwalk at Dolce & Gabbana’s fairytale show the same day.
Stefano Dolce and Domenico Gabbana once again drew on Dolce’s Sicilian roots for a varied collection rich in Baroque patterns, embroidery and even the crossed keys that symbolise the papacy.
Most original were the shiny hoods reminiscent of the mail that might have been worn by the Norman soldiers who conquered Sicily in the Middle Ages.
“Today we are living in a kind of Middle Ages. Like then, we are in a landmark era,” the design duo said in a statement during men’s fashion week last month, in which they also featured Norman knights.
The abundance of furs and the use of reds in the collection, which was viewed by model Eva Herzigova and actress Monica Bellucci, also confirmed these as key trends this season in Italy’s fashion hub. An enigmatic press release from the fashion label gave “Enchanted Sicily” as the title of the autumn/winter 2014-2015 collection and offered “enchantments, dreams and romantic” as |keywords.
Dolce and Gabbana launched their house in the 1980s and have built it up into one of the world’s most recognised brands.
They are currently appealing a conviction for massive tax evasion through Luxembourg, which they have denied.
Giorgio Armani closed Milan Fashion Week on Monday. Dressed entirely in black, Italy’s 79-year-old fashion king bowed and applauded at the end of his catwalk show, which featured a sober colour palette with lime green linings and trimmings.
Trouser suits were roomy – a key trend during the autumn-winter womenswear collections this year, which have also been filled with opulent furs, global nomad looks and bold colours.
DSquared2 meanwhile staged an eccentric show set in an asylum that included a pillow fight and designs that were part sado-masochist, part 1960s glamour, part old-school stewardess.