The Milan downpours didn’t dampen the week’s mood, which was buzzy with expectation for several debuts, including Sabato de Sarno as new creative director of Gucci and Tom Ford’s first Milan show under British designer Peter Hawkings, Ford’s longtime protege.

Both hit their strides with highly well received collections, as did a number of other familiar faces to Italy’s fashion capital.

From Prada to Ferragamo, Fendi to Bottega Veneta, Milan proved once again that impeccable elegance are its watchwords, and crisp femininity — which this season took the shape of knits, short shorts, red leather, and well-tailored jackets — its main aesthetic.

Not every brand shared that same vision — namely Diesel, the week’s enfant terrible, which, in pure Diesel style, put out a larger-than-life collection of distressed garments made of shredded deadstock jeans, recycled denim and vintage posters transformed into crumpled graphics, giving the audience true post-modern punk vibes in a rave setting, and the wildest presentation of the season.

Overall, however, the festivities showed a consistency of form that continues to make the Italian city Paris’s greatest rival to the fashion scene throne.

As per usual, movie stars and A-listers flocked to the proceedings, gracing front rows like it was their full-time job (given the strikes currently taking place in Hollywood, it might as well be).

Gucci had the starriest attendance of them all, with Julia Roberts, Ryan Gosling, Gabrielle Union, Jessica Chastain, Paul Mescal, and Jodie Comer as just some of its VIP guests.

Emma Watson, Scarlett Johansson, and Benedict Cumberbatch came out to support Prada, while Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell sat together at Fendi. The list could go on.

Everything old is new again:

Anna Wintour might once have said that fashion is not about looking back but looking forward (in the 2009 documentary “The September Issue”), but several brands in Milan turned to the past — and their archives — for their Spring-Summer 2024 collections.

Kim Jones did it first at Fendi, which opened the week with a line-up of streamlined, beautifully tailored clothes that took a cue from the label’s Spring-Summer 1999 collection, (designed by Karl Lagerfeld) — though the creative also cited the classical statues of Rome as inspiration.

Prada referenced the 1920s flapper girl with dropped-waist dresses featuring swaying lashings of fringe, then hinted at the ’40s and ’80s with a series of menswear silhouettes that spanned oversized barn coats, gray and navy suits, and romper shorts.

There were also traces of the ’60s and ’90s, the best example being a sleeveless shift dress made from organza and gazar (a type of silk) that seemed to float behind the models as they walked down the runway.

At Tom Ford, new designer Peter Hawkings paid homage to some of its predecessor’s greatest hits from the Gucci Spring-Summer 1996 show — skinny velvet suits, unbuttoned silk blouses and tiny shorts paired with towering stilettos — albeit with a slightly demurer approach.

Versace dipped into its Spring-Summer 1995 Atelier Versace archives to revisit its iconic hourglass jackets, checkerboard styles and sharp minidresses in georgette and jersey, and added a touch of 1960s-infused aesthetic with sorbet colors and silhouettes that could have easily been worn by Brigitte Bardot or Priscilla Presley back then.

Above left | Supermodel of the 1990s, Claudia Schiffer, returned to the runway for a nostalgic moment during the Versace show (See video above - what a gal !)

Original Story By | Marianna Cerini