Milan Fashion Week: The Best Moments On and Off the Catwalk

London Fashion Week may have been different this year, but if it proved anything, it was that a pandemic cannot quash fashion designers’ creative spirit. And from the looks of it so far, Milan Fashion Week has also risen to the occasion, with a mix of both digital and physical shows.

Here are all the standout moments, from the Fendi spring/summer 2021 collection to Max Mara’s show inspired by rebirth and renewal.

Max Mara women are rebuilding the world

For SS21, the Max Mara woman is all about reconstructing the world, better than it was before, ‘like the indomitable heroines of the Renaissance, in every field’. For this, she needs a new uniform of course. A uniform which looks like a modern version of the tabard: a parka with utilitarian pockets, snap fasteners and drawstrings. It looks like a practical jumpsuit, and a re-imagined trench coat, like wide leg trousers and embellished sweatshirts. And of course, she still needs a killer suit, but with a cape, because she’s a hero after all.

Fendi turns to family

Silvia Venturini Fendi reflected on time spent with her family for her final womenswear collection at the helm of the Italian label. The traditional mixes with the modern, the casual with the glam. Think embroidered house coats and flared tunics, apron dresses in silk duchesse, embroidered tulle and gazar, and formal pieces softened by casual detailing. The familial theme extended to the runway, with models that were mothers, fathers, sisters and sons, indluding Edie and Olympia Campbell, Cecilia and Lucas Chancellor, and Philippe and Dries Haseldonckx.

Dolce & Gabbana recycle and make patchwork cool

For their ‘Patchwork of Sicily’ collection, Dolce & Gabbana recycled fabric pieces from past seasons to create new ones, a beautiful patchwork that pays tribute to each cultural influences that makes up the island in which Domenico Dolce grew up. He said in a video presentation, ‘It’s about not throwing away even the oldest thing. You might have old sweaters, trousers, shirts, and you can recreate from other things something new that is yours. But what’s important to us is that every piece is interpreted by skilled hands.’

Scroll down to see more of the beautiful looks to come out of the Milan Fashion Week SS21 shows.

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Valentino SS21

The individual vision of Pierpaolo Piccioli touches the individual spirit of each person, and what comes out of it is a suggestion of what Valentino can be now, following another perspective. It is about the values that make an ever-evolving identity, not the aesthetic that solidifies it.

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Valentino SS21

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BALLY SS21

For Spring/Summer 2021, Bally presents Elemental Balance, a collection honouring its heritage of craftsmanship with natural materials and legacy details. Presented for the first time in a virtual format and accessible worldwide through our dedicated digital platform at Bally Studio, the new season collection celebrates the enduring, intrinsic power of the handmade.

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BALLY SS21

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MM6 Maison Margiela

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Giorgio Armani SS21

These are timeless thoughts, as narrated by the voice of renowned and multi-awarded Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino in the 20-minutes video-documentary that precedes and introduces the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2021 show, and that, through an emotional edit of images, memories and archive interviews spans decades of Armani's dazzlingly consistent style, before making way to the new collection, broadcasted for the first time on television.

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Giorgio Armani SS21

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Ermanno Scervino SS21

Fashion does not operate in a suspended space, it records time, interprets it, anticipates it through the personal visions of those who create it. The search for a new balance looking forward pervades the Ermanno Scervino collection. With a touch of rebellion. In its own way: made of kindness, harmony in contrasts, attention to detail and the most exquisite manual skills. The ability to use laces with a dry look, to soften leather with carvings and phytomorphic inlays, to treat jute, rough and tactile, like a precious material.

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Ermanno Scervino SS21

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Versace SS21

‘I wanted to create something disruptive, something that could be in tune with what has changed inside all of us. To me that meant dreaming of a new world. A world made of popping colors and fantastic creatures and a world in which we can all coexist peacefully. This collection has an upbeat soul and is optimistic, dreamy, positive… These are clothes that bring you joy.’ – Donatella Versace

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Versace SS21

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TOD’s SS21

Bringing the casual and outdoorsy nonchalance of a collection that captures the spirit of an ideal grand tour through easy shapes and washed, worn out textures. And just like in a song, each instrument alone is somehow naked, so the spirit of simplification, the taste for the elegantly unfinished give character to the pieces, like they have already lived a life.

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TOD’s SS21

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BOSS SS21

The Spring 21 collection captures the current mood within fashion of creativity and renewal, with a focus on craft, color, and artistry. The work of London-based artist William Farr, which unites flowers with found objects, inspires embroidered and printed pieces, while floral motifs and metal eyelet details are seen throughout the collection.

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BOSS SS21

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Sportmax SS21

Telling the story of a soul through the flesh. Exalting the shape of the body, revealing the skin, allowing an electric, hypnotic sensuality to emerge. Light ensembles shaped by surreal silhouettes, give birth to a solar though enigmatic femininity. It is through the poetic words of Walt Whitman that Sportmax conjures the spirit of its Spring-Summer 2021 collection.

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Sportmax SS21

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Etro SS21

In the current world, where the concept of proximity and familiarity takes on a new, powerful meaning, Veronica Etro finds inspiration in the outstanding beauty and in the lively lifestyle of her own country. Fresh, relaxed, spontaneous, the collection revisits the bourgeois spirit of the brand with its always-ironic touch.

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Etro SS21

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Marni SS21

This collection is about making things: stapling, scribbling, clashing bits and pieces all together in the studio. Cropping a coat, slashing a bathing suit to turn it into a tank top, gluing a thick sole to a pair of shoes, adding an extra long zip to a bag to make it look like a torpedo, cutting a tutu in two. Long, short, lean, roomy, frayed, patent, cotton, leather, gauze, and then flowers, stripes and words: it’s a complete deconstruction of shapes, textures and patterns. Beauty makes a pair with rebellion, celebrating the openness of the unfinished.