Sometimes a designer delivers a show so amazingly good that all else pales in comparison. This is Mathieu Blasey’s second time joining Bottega Veneta, his €1.5 billion turnover brand of leather goods and his former boss, Daniel He launched the brand after Lee resigned last year.

This season, Blazy has teamed up with 82-year-old Italian architect Gaetano Pesce. Gaetano Pesce conceived the show space’s colorful resin floor and also designed hundreds of bright, blocky resin chairs lined up for guests. “The idea was to actually express [human] Diversity . . . we created different characters and placed them in Gaetano’s landscape,” Blasey said backstage.

What he provided was a complete wardrobe, shown in a cast of models that were all more interesting to it than the first flashes of youth. Or started with what Blazey called “a twisted banality.” T he shirts and faded overshirts with chinos, baggies made of leather rather than cotton or wool he jeans, each he layered 8-12 prints for depth and then shaved thin . He said. These were followed by sophisticated clothing for professional life. Single-breasted suits and trousers are sewn in gentle arcs behind the calves, as if caught in air. A perfectly tailored blazer his dress or hip coat. And in the evening, knit his dresses and trousers his suits that mash up patterns and fringes inspired by the futurist painter Giacomo Balla.

The outfit was not only great looking and attractive to wear, but it was also strategic and designed to highlight the USP of the brand owned by Kering. Blazey said it’s its leather craftsmanship and its legacy as a “bag company” that ties it to travel. And the idea of ​​​​”going somewhere else.” Hence those trousers that are bent at the back and the fringe quiver on the shoulders, skirt and hem of the trousers.All of these garments belong to Bottega as you can see on his floor in the shop and the logo is there is no need.

His approach taught a lesson to designers who debuted on other labels in Milan this week: Expectations for Ferragamo, the 95-year-old Florentine shoemaker, were at their peak. Now helmed by former Burberry CEO Marco Gobbetti and his 27-year-old Maximilian Davis from Manchester, it’s the first black designer home.

In recent years, family-owned Ferragamo has lost market share to larger rivals, becoming a small fish in an ever-larger pond, and turning it around won’t be easy. million euros, still short of pre-pandemic sales.

The family urged Davis to “take risks as much as possible,” he said backstage, and the show hit like a major debut. An all-caps, slightly non-serif Peter Saville-designed logo hovers across the entrance.

By hiring young designers like this, the Ferragamo family hopes to attract younger customers, but Davis had a variety of designs in mind. The emphasis was on sleek jet-set sportswear and tailoring perfected by Tom Ford. The slinky, backless suede dress was more lively and energetic than what came before Davis, but without the thrill. To cut through the hustle and bustle, you need a thrill.

New Missoni designer Filippo Grazioli, who worked under Riccardo Tisci at both Burberry and Givenchy, was certainly aiming for thrills. Flat chevron and zebra-patterned bodycon dresses and miniskirts were no indication of the Maison’s rich savoir-faire.

Marco de Vincenzo, who also designs accessories for Fendi, did not emphasize the label’s signature paisley print at his first Etro show, but rather enlarged the logo, striped shirt pockets, skirt corners, Embroidered on the side of the carpet bag. Upcycled from past season fabrics. The problem with this approach is that Etro doesn’t have enough brand equity to make the logo widely desirable. de Vincenzo has work to do to make that happen.

Brands that have successfully evolved into luxury fashion houses, such as Louis Vuitton and Hermès, sell more handbags than specialty handbag brands and sell more shoes than shoe manufacturers. So Swiss leather goods brand Bally is looking to give fashion a second hand by hiring Los Angeles-based designer Rhuigi Villaseñor to put together his first runway collection in 21 years. His suede, his suits and slinky cutouts, his dresses were perfectly styled for LA, but they didn’t help establish a distinct identity for the brand.

Both Versace and Dolce & Gabbana leaned into celebrity power and ’90s and early 2000s fashion this season. Donatella Versace cast OG influencer Paris Hilton in a vaguely vampire show in a black cowl dress, purple boudoir gown, and dark eyeliner. , named it “curation” instead of collaboration. She chose archival pieces from 1987 to 2007, lightly reworked by the designer, and sewed labels to indicate the year of the original creation: corsets and stretchy dresses, silky cargo his pants. , had all the items Kardashian could have worn, including head-to-toe leopard print. As her mother and her three children watched from the front row, she wore her evening dress to the glittering jets and bowed her head with the designers.

It was a week of smart marketing and lighthearted fun in the shadow of the national election. On the show’s final Sunday, the Italian headed to the polls. There, it is expected to elect a right-wing coalition that has quietly worried much of the Italian fashion industry. An evening dress provided another moment of respite. After a week of so many Gen Z-focused shows, it was nice to see clothing for grown-ups.

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