Celebrities swarmed Milan Fashion Week on the last big day of runway shows on Saturday, sending crowds of adoring fans from venue to venue.
Madonna sat in a front-row seat at Dolce & Gabbana, along with Naomi Campbell and Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin. Her bandmate, Maneskin frontman Damiano David, showed up at Diesel, one of the season's hottest tickets, across town. Jacob Elordi took a seat on a bunny-shaped bean bag chair to take in the Bottega Veneta show.
Highlights from Milan Fashion Week's mostly womenswear previews for next spring and summer on Saturday.
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Dolce & Gabbana Celebrate Madonna
Madonna attempted a semi-stealth entrance to the Dolce & Gabbana runway show draped in a black veil for a runway show referencing her 1990s heyday and celebrating the cone bra.
Models in bleach-blonde wigs strutted in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s signature corsets and fitted jackets, each featuring the aggressively feminine cone bra, in a collection that notes said “pays homage to an ironic and powerful female figure.”
Madonna wasn't cited specifically, but the stars of the Milan designers and pop star have been aligned ever since they made costumes for her 1993 Girlie Show tour. The tour promoted Madonna's “Erotica” album launched alongside her taboo-breaking coffee table book, “Sex.”
“Madonna has always been our icon. It’s thanks to her that a lot of things in our lives changed,'' the designers said in a note.
The collection, dubbed “Italian Beauty,” perfectly captured that moment in time. Cone bras peeked out of cropped jackets with a pencil skirt, garters swung from corsets and coats sculpted the body. Floral prints returned, accenting a color scheme of black, nude, red and white. Oversized cross earrings finished the looks. Heels were unapologetically high.
After taking their bows, the designers walked down the runway to greet their guest of honor. Madonna, still covered by the Chantilly long lace veil fastened by a gold and crystal crown, stood to embrace them both.
Bottega Veneta taps wonder
Bottega Veneta's sometimes misproptioned, sometimes crinkled, always provocative collection explores the intersection between the real world and fantasy, adulthood and childhood. Creative director Matthieu Blazy's meaning is simple: To delight.
“We need beauty. We need joy,'' Blazy said backstage. ”We need that experimental act. It is also an act of freedom.”
In this universe, a dental clinic receptionist wears a skirt with a trouser on just one leg, which Blazy asserts as a playful act. In a familiar scene, a well-dressed father carries his daughter's pink and purple school bag. “Do we like the bag? I don’t know. Does it tell a story? Yes,'' Blazy said.
Each detail is deliberate, from a flat collar on a dress shaped like bunny ears to big colorful raffia wigs, even if their ultimate purpose is just for fun. Crinkled clothes signify a children's attempt to dress up, only to be ruined by the end of the day.
Blazy's characters carried what appeared to be ordinary plastic grocery bags, but which were made out of nylon and leather — part of the brand's ongoing technological innovations. The faux plastic bags signified everyday life, and were accompanied by the brand’s trademark woven bags, one for a violin, another a wine bottle.
Ferragamo’s freedom of movement
Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis celebrated the freedom of movement inherent in ballet in his new collection, inspired by archival photos of brand founder Salvatore Ferragamo fitting African American ballet dancer Katherine Dunham for shoes.
Dunham often trained and worked in the Caribbean, which allowed the British designer with Jamaican roots “to find a link between Ferragamo’s Italian-ness and my heritage.”
The collection recalls a 1980s way of dressing, with strong shoulders and oversized tailoring, also an homage to Russian ballet star Rudolf Nuryev, another historic Ferragamo customer.
To emphasize movement, Davis created long parachute dresses in silk nylon, suede and organza with a billowing bubble shape. The ballet dancer is honored in cashmere dancer wraps color-blocked with layered leotards. More subversively, shorts with frayed denim suggested a tutu.
Diesel elevates denim
Diesel models tramped a field of 14,800 kilograms (nearly 33,000 pounds) of denim scraps “to highlight the beauty of waste,″ creating a dystopian backdrop for the brand’s latest collection of elevated denim.
The Veneto-based brand under creative director Glenn Martens has become a laboratory for textile experimentation. Short shorts are embroidered with a cascade of extra-long fringe, for a skirt-like effect. Jeans are lasered to look destroyed; necklines on cotton sweatshirts look distressed but the effect is actually a jacquard with the cotton burned away to the tulle.
Marten's said the brand's “disruption” goes beyond its design. "We are pushing for circularity in our production,'' he said. In that vein: A coat was made from leftover spools of denim thread, while oversized jeans were from recycled cotton, some from Diesel's own production. And the scraps piled on the floor were to be repurposed after the show.
