And so it begins – the long, LONG schedule of SS25 shows that jump around the globe for the next few months showing what we might be wearing this time next year and giving all the high street stores their ‘inspiration’ at the same time. Milan started us off with a slew of presentations highlighting the bigger trends (better keep up the running… your legs will be out!) whilst always having a keen eye on commerciality. Here are some of the highlights for us.
Gucci
We are LOVING what Sabato de Sarno is doing at Gucci after all the maximalist drama of Alessandro Michele’s tenure there (we guess you can buy that from Valentino from now on…) and this was a standout show for him. He definitely thinks that short shorts are a thing (they featured in 41 out of 46 looks) and if that wasn’t enough proof, Paul Mescal wearing them in the front row would seal the deal. But apart from those we loved the colours, the prints, the proportions… in fact everything apart from those horrid ballerina shoes which we will choose to ignore.
Zegna
Zegna is always very good taste – sometimes a little too good taste – and this season was no exception. So we expected (and got) elegant tailoring, chic leather pieces and beautiful bags but much more exciting was a very sophisticated but spicy colour palette and some pretty bold prints. Nothing was ground-breaking but for sure we would say yes to quite a lot of this. Local hero Mads Mikkelsen closing the show also warmed our hearts.
Prada
Prada are famous for their celebration of normcore and the ordinary but perhaps this season they went a little too far with a collection that was teetering on the edge of boring. Proportions were played with – very successfully in this cropped cardigan with baggy pants, less so with the deliberately short coat and jacket sleeves that just looked odd. And there were some great colour pops (something bright worn with neutral shades is an emerging trend) but you can only see so many versions of the same thing without it feeling repetitive.
JW Andersen
We can never put our collective finger on why we like JW Andersen but somehow we just do. Sure, half his collections are bat shit crazy (this one featured half shirt, half festival tent outfits) but he is so good with silhouettes and fabrics and everything is done with such conviction that we can’t help but be seduced. Whilst not as good as his work with Loewe, this offering had some great oversized jackets whilst, if not exactly super easy to wear, definitely make a statement and will have a trickle-down effect on a lot of other designers.
Woolrich
At nearly two hundred years old (they are the oldest outerwear manufacturers in the US, founded in 1840) Woolrich wants to stake a claim on the upscale fashion world and so showed their collection in Milan for the first time. Now with US designer Todd Snyder at the helm, they showed something rooted in their outdoor American heritage but with a modern attitude. There were a HELL of a lot of pockets (thousands of them on everything) but the colours were (appropriately) rich and particularly in the outerwear, there were some cool urban pieces too. One to watch maybe.
Magliano
Up until now, Magliano has been a bit off our radar – there was sometimes a feeling he was trying a bit too hard with a thousand themes running through every collection. But, if you ignore the collection notes (involving everything from Pasolini to police brutality at a G8 conference this time), the clothes were often really cool, stylish and easy to wear – convincingly shown on a great cast of street models. We loved the pink track pants worn with a slouchy jacket especially.
