Glossy’s fashion month briefings bring you insights and analysis from straight off the runway.
For longstanding fashion brands feeling the pressure to prove or regain their relevance, fashion week is go time. But the challenge is not only to attract positive attention during the event, which is saturated with presentations, appointments and parties. There’s also a traditional, high-spending shopper base to consider. Not to mention board members, often hellbent on retaining the brand’s heritage, to answer to post-show.
Designers at Milan Fashion Week walked that line a number of ways. The same will no doubt prove true this week in Paris.
Popular instigators Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana seemed to be working to please everyone — though it’s quite possible they were simply on a mission to own a full 24 hours of MFW, versus just one. They hosted three shows, each featuring different looks and catering to a different audience (though all wound up on Instagram, natch). The night before their usual ready-to-wear show, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, they put on an intimate “Secrets & Diamonds” runway show for their top clients and select editors, featuring eveningwear worn by various millennial influencers and royals. After their show, they invited the public (via social media) to local department store Rinascente for a viewing of their see-now-buy-now “All the Lovers” collection. And, of course, there was the main event, the highlights of which were handbag-carrying drones orbiting the space. Gabbana captured the spectacle on Instagram, pairing his video with the caption: “Future & Roots.”
Using an installation rather than its customary runway show, 65-year-old Moncler debuted Moncler Genius, a project consisting of eight collaborations set to roll out one at a time on a monthly basis. Among included designers are Simone Rocha, Craig Green and Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. The concept is “one house, different voices,” Moncler’s press release stated. The fresh model proved a draw.
Miuccia Prada gave a nod to her archives with a backdrop of neon signs depicting popular Prada motifs, including monkeys, bananas and flames. The latter was mirrored on a handful of heels that looked plucked from the brand’s spring 2012 runway. Meanwhile, Fendi kept in rotation the classic double-F that Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini reintroduced last February. The logo bears Kim Kardashian’s stamp, which can’t be bad for coveted millennial appeal.
The logomania played out at Versace, too.
Whether or not throwing a few logos into the mix suffices as upholding tradition depends on who you ask. Then again, the same can be said of the importance of honoring the past. If going rogue translates to sales, what brand wouldn’t encourage a designer to keep at it? Just look at Alessandro Michele and Gucci.
Heard
Insiders shared their thoughts on Milan Fashion Week’s defining moments(s):
Adam Wray, senior editor at Ssense:
“The most memorable moments of the week, for me, were the Marni and Jil Sander shows. Both were so full of ideas and energy. These are legacy houses being led by new creative directors (this was Francesco Risso’s third runway show for Marni; Lucie and Luke Meier’s second for Jil Sander), and it was really heartening to see both find their footing with these new collections.”
Jeffrey Kalinsky, Nordstrom designer fashion director and founder of Jeffrey stores:
“Every season, it seems the Gucci show is the defining moment for Milan fashion week. Everything about it is so important: men’s, women’s, clothes, shoes, bags and accessories!”
Nicky Deam, editorial director at The Zoe Report:
“Gucci’s cyborgs, Dolce & Gabbana’s drone-displayed purses and Tommy Hilfiger’s race simulators were indisputable spectacles, but I think the most telling moment during MFW was Anna dello Russo’s auction. True to her flamboyant Italian image, the icon threw three events, including the auction of her personal street style wardrobe, garnering 147,000 euros, which will be donated through the Swarovski Foundation to emerging fashion talent at London’s Central Saint Martins. Her exiting the fashion world — with grace and a desire to bolster the next generation — is the perfect bookend to the era of extravagant street style, and a precursor to the industry’s more introspective and inclusive direction to come.”
Bookmarked
Moncler makes a multiverse
Milan is finally having a moment, thanks to an array of bright young talents
Dolce & Gabbana court controversy, Are their sales better for it?
Liked
This is a “dragon puppy” I guess @gucci #MFW pic.twitter.com/0sghk9cTBQ
— Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) February 21, 2018
Dolce & Gabbana replaced millennials on the runway with drones, proving no one is safe from being made obsolete by technology
— Tyler McCall (@eiffeltyler) February 25, 2018
