Milan, the Fashion Week continues. Between seduction and joie de vivre, despite everything

The air is leaden in Milan. And not just in Milan. We are talking about the climate, metaphorically understood, that our planet found itself experiencing by opening its eyes on this second day of the Fashion Week dedicated to Autumn / Winter 2022-23. Waking up reading news of military attacks and smelling the heavy smell of the third world war, certainly does not predispose the soul to lightness, to forgivable superficiality, to the carousel that turns the head of fashion and its people, happy again to have found themselves after two years of pandemic.

The the show must go on this time it’s really a little hard to swallow. And it becomes more and more as the day unfolds one show after another, paradoxically in a crescendo of colors, glitter, fantasy and fun.

Yet even this time the show continues. And as absurd as it may seem, that’s right.

But how cold it is! It could be the soundtrack of the show’s Max Mara, inspired by the artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp. As this is an autumn collection, rightly so, the brand generously covers its women with quilted duvets and all-over teddy bears to make them feel warm, but also pampered and protected. Of course, a few miniskirts appear here and there, but the legs are covered with soft three-dimensional stockings. In addition to black and gray, the hypervitamin triad of yellow & orange & red. But is there really a need to add that the cult color is camel?

The expectation as ever more palpable is that reserved for the new test of the Miuccia gold pairing Prada & Raf Simons. Oversized jackets combined with very Fifties full skirts, preciously embroidered bombers, coats with tufts of fur in shocking colors on the sleeves. And, again, skirts already an object of desire that rewrite the rules of patchwork, worn with white tank tops. We recognize the brand’s DNA but also the contribution of the creative co-director Raf Simons, in the direction of a simplification that has the flavor of abstraction. Here is one of those cases where one plus one still equals three. To close the show the star actress of Euphoria Hunter Shafer, who well embodies the contemporaneity of this collection.

Chills of turmoil in sauce from the early 2000s Blumarine: Nicola Brognano, creative director at least coherent, continues in his exploration of the historical canons of the brand, pressing his foot on the seduction pedal, even the slightly risque one. Exposed hold-up stockings, lots of vinyl, obviously low waist that can’t be lower, curls to emphasize the soft curves and to draw the body in any manifestation and physical type are the characteristic features of her woman.

Here, by the way: a fact found in the castings of these first days in Milan seems significant to us: there are fewer models on the catwalk. curvy, while those of women with an absolutely and blatantly common build are on the rise. The – pass us the term, we use it just to make us understand – medietà, that is to perfectly fit in a statistically average physical constitution, has conquered the catwalk.

And if we really want to go hunting for trends, then we cannot fail to notice a curious and wide one scattering of brilliance scattered here and there: in the textures of the fabrics, set in the sweaters, in the form of crystals dangling in long chains superimposed on whatever it is, like sequins or glitter, even in the most spectacular make-up garments: to shine is a new diktat. And we also like to think of it as a moral imperative: after so much darkness, you have to know how to sparkle.

Entertainment as always fun from Moschino: this time Jeremy Scott starts from the cryptic ending sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey to go to fish in the archives of the maison and to draw on them with both hands. Two historic collections from 1989 and 1990 designed by Franco Moschino are evoked by knobs, taps, cutlery and other domestic elements, to which old and new are added trompe l’oeil – we admired on the catwalk, in no particular order, cuckoo clocks, trays, clocks, lampshades, carpets, drawers, teapots, chandeliers, clocks, locks, a screen, even a harp and so on … – admirably staged by Gigi , Bella, Mariacarla and the others particularly inspired.

Special mention “show that gave you that half hour of lightness and profound thought of the day together”, a Sunnei: the guests all standing on a long tribute along a street of what was once a suburb, the peremptory order to produce any social content only in slow motion, one taxi after another to turn at the roundabout not far away to download the ‘expected exit order models who do not parade, but run at breakneck speed in front of the public wearing the garments of the collection. We run too much, we always run, we run anyway. Instead, let’s take our time for once. Let’s enjoy it calmly. At least let’s try not to end up crushed in the gears of modern life. Let’s try.