Style and the City left Florence to attend Milan Fashion Week, showing off the best of Made in Italy for next fall.
The love story of Milan and Italian fashion goes back to 1979, when the first fashion events were organized under the name of Milano Collezioni. Today, after the incredible success of Italian ready-to-wear, which competed with the prestigious Couture Parisienne, fashion week became Milano Collezioni Uomo for the menswear market and the famous Milano Moda Donna for women’s fashion.
The entire city of Milan was transformed by fashion. Once known for its iron and steel industry, Milan is now one of the world’s most glamorous cities. Designers changed the way the Milan looked by opening amazing fashion stores, stylish cafés and restaurants; sponsoring art exhibitions and events-in short, giving the city a real and extreme fashion makeover!
In the first year of Milano Collezioni, fashion week consisted of about 50 shows. This year’s fashion week, from February 25 to March 4 , boasted more than 200 shows and presentations.
The busy days are full of opportunities to admire the new collections from the names that made Italian fashion big the world over. Along with these shows are those of the numerous medium-market brands that promote the quality of Italian apparel through accessible yet very stylish ready-to-wear lines.
A very interesting and positive sign: the media is beginning to pay more attention to young designers-unknowns who fight to find a place to shine and have a chance to show their talent.
One of the shows that I had the pleasure of attending was in fact the Next Generation fashion show, sponsored by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion) and featuring four interesting designers: Alessia De Pasquale, Marta Forghieri, Antonio Romano and Alessia Xoccato. In particular, the three young ladies-operating in a man’s world-are ones to watch! I enjoyed looking at fashion born of ideas, constructed with consistent tailoring techniques; they are refreshing in their invitation to feel elegant and stylish in a free and unconventional way.
As for colors, grey is still king (perhaps it embodies the mood of the global economic crisis?), and I saw it enriched by a variety of metal tones, from shiny liquid metals from silver to dusty bronze. A nude powder pink that suggests the most fragile and romantic side of woman was paired with sporty-techno details and touches of black and orange.
Finally, blue made its entrance, like a sky full of hope, which, even with its intense clouds, reveals its beauty and grace. I saw it light and voluminous, made of gorgeous circle-shaped pieces, ready to fly high like a kid’s balloon.
Will the future of Italian fashion fly high as well? I hope so. These young talents give a reason to believe in the blue sky after the rain, possible through courage, creativity, desire to break conventions.
I also noted a feeling of power that we can learn from the past of our country: Futurism, now celebrating its 100th anniversary, was so much more than an art trend. It represented a new way of living and organizing society, giving voice to an extremely strong struggle for change and an understanding that in the new era nothing will be the same. Futurist artists embraced and faced the change; they did not suffer under it.
These are lessons that we all could look to: fashion can play an important role in innovation, and Italian style can tap the energy of the next generation of talented creators.
