Front-rows of A-listers and shoulder-to-shoulder seating gave Milan Fashion Week a pre-pandemic air.
So far this week, Sharon Stone has sat appraisingly at Dolce & Gabbana, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have rocked Gucci, and Kim Kardashian wore Prada, at Prada.
After two years of digital-physical mix, social distancing and travel restrictions that kept many overseas buyers and editors away, there was a sense of return to some new normal, one now that includes war on Europe’s eastern fringe. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Milan’s central Piazza Duomo to demonstrate for peace on Saturday, crisscrossed by weekend shoppers and fashionistas.
Want to be your own real-life avatar? Check out the latest collection by Dolce & Gabbana, who brought the metaverse onto the runway.
Why leave all the fun to the digital universe, when there is a real-life version of a shiny red mini-dress with exaggeratedly puffy sleeves, or a shaggy Yeti-style coat in bold stripes or checks?
Whatever the real-life avatar, the catchword in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s new collection is sexy. The season’s stable are sheer stockings with garters, that peek out of short hemlines, through sheer lace dresses and even, improbably, from one-legged trousers. Yes, apparently, that innovation will be of some advantage in the D&G metaverse.
Corsets defined the shape of many coats and dresses, and also appeared as silky outlines on fitted black dresses, tops and jackets. For better moving from digital world to digital world, there were sleek fitted tops and leggings with shiny finishes worn under cutout dresses and skirts. Large 3-D-style sunglasses finished the look, along with stilettos. The designers also showed off-beat humor in a series of pod-like garments — coats, jackets and knitwear — designed to be worn protectively over the head, almost like a nun’s habit.
Sharon Stone sat in the front row alongside Sam Webb, Lady Kitty Spencer and Adam Senn and rapper Gunna. She nodded appreciatively at looks as they past, mouthing, ‘’Gorgeous’’ at a strappy faux fur black dress and “Wow” at a furry white number.
The designers recently announced they were giving up fur this year, but that they would continue to work with furrier artisans on synthetic alternatives to maintain the craftsmanship.
Each Marni look appeared out of nowhere, on an undefined runway inside an abandoned warehouse with dirt floors and overgrown with greenery.
The models walked as though stunned through the crowd, each followed by a hooded torchman guiding their way wearing a uniform of trousers with dragging hems and spikey plastic shoes.
The models themselves each wore a creation by creative director Francesco Rizzo, but also an object from their own wardrobe, part of Rizzo’s growing collaboration with a community around the brand that he calls collaborators. Elaborate head-dressings, including teddy bears sticking out of knit caps, twisted felt and wool, or wire devils ears, gave a sort of zombie menace to the slow, irregular procession.
Rizzo himself walked in the show, midway, wearing a geometric sweater he knit himself in two days, distressed trousers from the new collection and a worn tuxedo jacket that belonged to his grandfather.
COLLEEN BARRY, MILAN,MDT/AP
