MILAN — Fashion watching cinema watching fashion: Day five of Milan Fashion Week offered a very meta moment as Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci brought the crowd at Dolce & Gabbana to their feet, entering the room in character as Miranda Priestly and Nigel. They were seated directly across from real-life editor Anna Wintour. (Scenes of the upcoming sequel to The Devil Wears Prada are currently being filmed in town.)
On the runway, the tension between stripping things down and piling them up continues to mount.
Bottega Veneta
At Bottega Veneta, there were both layers on layers and a sense of precision in Louise Trotter’s debut. Despite the proposed change of logotype (a chunkier font on invitations paid tribute to the house’s original branding from 1966), the show wasn’t a total departure from its previous creative regime, but rather an evolution. She took on the big volumes and magnified sense of craft that defined Bottega’s recent past while steering it to more possible, wearable ground. But not entirely: This is still fashion with a capital “F,” even when it evokes a sense of the everyday.
Of this season’s crop of creative directors staging debuts, Trotter is the only woman, and it is evident in the way her work relates to the body and movement. There is always a consideration of the reality of wearing clothes. On top of this there is a sentimentality that is entirely her own, and quite charming. It was evident in the fluttering of marabou and fringes, in the interplay of protection and exposure, in the fluffy movement of jumpers and skirts that looked very opulent, in a futuristic way.
Venetian opulence, New York grit and Milanese austerity were on Trotter’s mind — the three cities being intimately linked to the Bottega Veneta story. There was also, of course, a focus on intrecciato.
The show made for an assured debut outing whose only evident minus was a lack of freshness. Trotter is true to her intent and is a sensitive designer. Her language, however, keeps firm ties with the idiom created by Phoebe Philo. This is not to say that Trotter is a copyist: She has her own way. But still, there is something familiar to her work. It’s great, not exciting — but could become so.
Ferragamo
Ferragamo’s Maximilian Davis is a die-hard purist. One of his stylistic obsessions is the 1920s, both out of an understandable aesthetic predilection — to this day, that decade still stands for elegant, modern linearity — and out of respect for the brand’s history, which saw the founder’s heyday in those years. This season’s collection explored that moment with its fringed flapper and long silhouettes once again, in an open air show that took place in the cloistered courtyard of Portrait Hotel, formerly the archbishop’s palace.
There was a lot going on the catwalk, so much so that it all felt like a jazz tune: From tuxedos and trenches to lingerie dresses, tassled bandage dresses and chunky wooden bracelets.
Davis has a wonderful hand with both clothes and accessories. The items are desirable in themselves, but there was little narrative or visual coherence to the outing. As a complete vision for the brand, momentum is lacking.
Ferrari, Dolce & Gabbana
At Ferrari, Rocco Iannone worked in reduction, doing away with colour and decoration to focus on texture and shape. The result was both sculptural and fluid, completely devoid of needless references to the car world, and more focused than previous seasons.
One cannot accuse Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of lacking focus, either. When they dip into an inspiration, they go all the way down. Today’s collection was a continuation of the striped, embroidered pyjama silhouettes seen in its menswear — adapted here in every possible variation, and paired with slinky lingerie and roomy, mannish tailoring. It was repetitive, but also marked an interesting shift in the label’s work: away from overt, in-your-face femininity, embracing something softer and cosier. For the D&G world, it felt fresh.