GLAMOUR, BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT!

Milan is synonymous with sexy, but this season was all about female empowerment, so sexiness came armour-plated, says Grazia’s Fashion director Rebecca Lowthorpe

No other fashion city does glamour like Milan, but what does it look like in 2019? The city that could once be relied on for straightforward trends, polish, glitz and sex in no short order now finds itself grappling with wider issues – from politics and feminism to diversity and sustainability, while attempting to stay relevant, desirable and drive sales. It’s a tall order.

‘It’s a big problem for us designers,’ said Miuccia Prada post-show in the foaming ring of journalists, iphones shoved under her nose. ‘ We work for rich people, do rich clothes, but fashion is also very relevant, so there is a kind of request to talk about other political subjects. But how do you find a way that is intelligent, not too superficial, and make it light because still, it’s a fashion show – fashion has to be about pleasure, too.’ Her answer was to cover the Prada show space with spiky grey foam, the kind you find in a packing crate, then pour her energy – ‘the two forces I feel at the moment, romance and fear’ – into the clothes. Romance meant satin

flowers climbing up skirts, tumbling off-the-shoulder dresses, cloaks of lace and daisy-chain necklaces. Fear meant lashings of black, military tailoring and knitwear emblazoned with Frankenstein’s monster’s face. What was she afraid of ? ‘ War, any kind around us. Violence in Europe – in another siècle there would already be war, I really feel that fear is around us; all the violent parties, violent situations in Europe, racism.’

It was sobering stuff, visually powerful and a million miles away from last season’s sweetness. It was Mrs Prada who created those pretty satin headbands (that everyone was wearing at the shows), but her new season-defining accessory is the stomping tractor-tread boots, built to give any assailant a good kicking.

The strong, empowered, don’t-messwith-me woman was everywhere in Milan. At Gucci, she wore a mask pierced with lethal metal skewers, jewel-encrusted elf ears and prickly chokers. Lions snarled on the soundtrack as if we were in a Roman amphitheatre about to be attacked. We were. Not by big ravenous cats, but migrainous lights that pulsated on and off throughout the show. Which was a shame because it was hard to make out Alessandro Michele’s abrupt change of step. It was only in the showroom that you could absorb the stripped-back, grown-up tailoring of big shouldered jackets, gathered-at-the-hem trousers and cinch-waist coats in chunky tweeds. The much- 

copied, stupendously successful master of mixing it all up has led the fashion vanguard with individuality, but this was positively restrained – the clearest sign yet that Gucci is not just for his beloved geeks and nerds. You will want one of those big, swaggery trouser suits and the new silk scarf-handled bag.

So, what of easy-to-do glamour in Milan? Does it even exist any more? ‘Sometimes, in the debate about fashion and feminism, glamour took a beating. Right now, everyone’s talking about fashion that empowers women, but how exactly does that work?’ asked Ian Griffiths at Max Mara. He sent out boss-woman suits that recalled Nancy Pelosi, the 78-year-old House of Representatives Speaker, whom he dressed in a punchy red coat that went viral in January. ‘Glamour is the magic ingredient that puts the power into power dressing,’ he went on, sending forth colour co-orded trios of models, which rammed home the message that Max Mara is far more than a manufacturer of toffee-beige coats (though they were lovely too). As was Giorgio Armani’s Rhapsody In Blue, delivered in smoky shades of the palette in a procession of lean, languid silhouettes that occasionally erupted at the thigh in the form of velvet jodhpurs – jodhpurs being the new tricky-trend trouser shape, seen also at Alberta Ferretti in winter white.

As for modern power dressing, Karl Lagerfeld said it best at Fendi, in what was the late designer’s last collection for the house. (According to the PR team, he was still phoning through his styling recommendations just days before he passed away.) The collection was all about Karl, from the Karligraphy ( his swirling initials) on the new (must-have heirloom) bags, to the scissor-sharp tailoring and super-high neck collars that recalled his own custom-made Hilditch & Key shirts. It was a show full of emotion that ended with a film of the legendary designer sketching himself, in the outfit he wore on the first day he came to work for Fendi in 1965. When the finale played out to Bowie’s Heroes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

As for Milan’s unashamed sexiness, you had to keep your eyes peeled for it, in a city that, pre #Metoo and #Timesup, served it up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That said, it was the surprise theme at Marni, where designer Francesco Risso proposed a collection called Neuroerotik, full of slippery satin slips pierced with old wedding rings or layered with chains and sometimes worn with black lipstick and bovver boots. For the 

Marni woman, it was less ‘come hither’ and more ‘look, but don’t touch’; as if all that scarlet – danger red, the number one colour here and all over the Milan catwalks – might set off an alarm.

Even Donatella Versace, Milan’s most reliable source of unapologetic sexiness, transplanted her usual glamazons with, er, grunge. Granted, not the Seattle kind – moths didn’t make the holes in all those cashmere sweaters, and the safety pins holding them together came in jewelencrusted gold. ‘I wanted to show that side of a woman who isn’t afraid to step outside of her comfort zone because she knows that imperfection is the new perfection,’ announced DV of her full-throttle riot of print and colour. T-shirts were emblazoned with her portrait from the 1995 Richard Avedon perfume campaign, Blonde, and mini perfume bottles were printed all over tights, tops and rendered in charms that swung from bags along with her dog, Audrey, cast in crystal. Other brands celebrating glamour included Roberto Cavalli ( in graphic multicoloured tiger print) and, of course, Dolce & Gabbana, who titled their show Eleganza and recruited a master of ceremonies to talk us through the epic 127 looks, which ran the gamut of the duo’s 36 years in business, from masculine tailoring, bold blooms, black corset dresses, brocade, sequins, crystal and leopard ‘on a dress so tight-fitting it almost resembles a tattoo’.

As for new blood in Milan (a rare occurrence), it was exciting to see the debut collection of Daniel Lee, a 32-yearold Central Saint Martins graduate, new in at Bottega Veneta and billed as the answer to Phoebe Philo’s old Céline, where he headed up the womenswear. Did he live up to the hype? Not yet; he’ll have to inject some sensuality into those basket-weave leathers and boxy quilted skirts, but if the scoop-neck sweater dresses are anything to go by, he’s one to watch. Old Céline customers will be more likely to cherry-pick from Salvatore Ferragamo (the grey all-in- one, the cherry red wool pants, the supple tan leather maxiskirt, the camel blazer…)

So, will Milan’s designers change the way you dress next season? You’ll definitely be after a scarlet satin dress, a forest green (the other big colour hit) coat, a swaggery pair of pants (clearly, the new trouser shape). Possibly a basketball cap (everywhere, but best in chestnut leather from Sportmax) and most definitely a pair of stomping boots. Oh, the glamour! But not as you know it.