Milan Fashion Week SS27: Fashion is trying to spark joy again

At the end of its SS27 womenswear week, it became apparent that Milan is trying to spark joy. Yet whereas professional declutterer Marie Kondo famously does this by urging you to strip everything back and clear everything out, the Italian fashion houses are broadly stampeding in the other direction, piling it all on in a bid to reignite flailing consumer desire. There is, of course, a precedent for this: the exhilarating success of Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel, now the OG of fashion joy (with the joyful rocketing sales to match), is what every CEO is eyeing; you could also cite the huge goodwill towards Michael Rider’s preppy, primary-coloured Celine. And Milan badly needs it. 

At the Emporio Armani presentation on Thursday evening, the general murmur was that nobody could wait for the arrival of Dario Vitale at the house; after all, the designer, whose appointment was announced just a couple of weeks ago, had sparked another short bout of joy a year ago with his influential, one-off, sucker-punch Versace collection. It was an impression reinforced at the Giorgio Armani show on Sunday, where the senior line in Mr Armani’s ready-to-wear empire showed a standard sequence of monochrome and neutral looks, eventually embellished with sequins, crystals and tassels. 

Here are some takeaways from the biggest and best shows of the week.

TOD’S

Nobody really turns to Tod’s for exhilaration; the Italian house normally speaks to a solidly Milanese respectability. Yet Matteo Tamburini, creative director since 2023, is having fun testing the house’s limits, using ready-to-wear outings to give the brand fresh impetus. In a preview, Tamburini explained that “the collection is an exploration of how two different worlds — formality, and something more graphic, more dynamic — can actually merge, without solving the differences between them”. He wanted to be “a bit more free”. The result aspired to a certain breeziness, both emotionally and literally, with dresses and skirts crafted from panels of leather flapping perkily as the models strode past. Elsewhere: mini skirts, transparent trenches and tight backless tops. Adventures in yellow, red and ochre, and leathers with a prickly pear texture. The core clients in the front row had naturally stayed landlocked in Tod’s core codes of beige, camel and brown. But perhaps Tamburini’s foray into new seas will give them fresh ideas.

GUCCI

“It’s not very meta, is it?” said one colleague as we wandered through Gucci’s vast show set. They had a point: we had schlepped out to a vast conference centre where we were ushered into a vast preview of . . . a Gucci store. This was a taste of the newest brand vision by creative director Demna, soon to be rolled out in its global flagships; a softly austere concoction filled with grey marble, classical friezes and low pouffes. Demna was praised for his consumer culture commentary when at Balenciaga — for being, in other words, “meta”. Here, however, the message didn’t seem hugely nuanced. Put simply: please shop!

Gucci’s extended slump, which badly hit its parent group Kering, has been a talking point for years. Since Demna’s arrival last year, the rate of the decline has slowed. But there has still been a sense of uncertainty around the brand and within the designer himself. His first two shows met a mixed reaction; on Friday, however, he said these had really been trial runs. “It kind of feels like my first show,” he said backstage. “Before, I was buying time trying to figure out what my version of Gucci would be . . . because Gucci is such a complex brand.”

Probably to Kering CEO Luca de Meo’s relief, the designer has finally funnelled the complexity into something quite legible and — yes — joyful. Demna is doubling down on the ritzy, razzy side of the brand, but making it more reassuringly haut de gamme than before. Playing on three characters — the Rebellious Aristocrat, the Eccentric and the Snob — he is gunning on the old-money look, with a Demna twist. He showed men’s looks first then women’s looks, laying out similar stories of debauched preppiness and vampy tailoring. The high society element was reinforced by the casting, with Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Sabine Getty teetering down the runway in knee-high boots (a bit horsey, a bit kinky) or super-pointy heels. Jackets were tightly nipped in with cheekily horned shoulders; coats were statement and dramatic; dresses slinky. It wasn’t a new tune; it was just the notes were played clearer, louder and with more confidence. The crowd responded, in part out of relief. Watching Gucci stutter for so long has been like watching a star actor consistently fumble their lines. The overall sense was that, here, everyone had at least remembered the script.

FERRAGAMO

Maximilian Davis said that the starting point for this collection was the relationship between artists Lee Miller and Man Ray. “I wanted to make sure their intimacy and sensuality was really incorporated through fabrication, embroidery and transparency,” he said. Essentially, he succeeded. He focused on pictures of Miller, the eminent second world war photographer, as she travelled and worked, translating the pockets and belts she used for formal workwear into something far sexier, with rippling coats, skirts and dresses in crocodile, latex and gauze. For a spring-summer collection it was an autumnal palette, all mochas, caramels, olives and blacks, but this didn’t matter; this was something for summer’s ever hotter nights (OK, maybe not the latex).

The pockets, the leather, the sheer, the colour; if Anthony Vaccarello is indeed meant to be exiting Saint Laurent soon, as the rumour mill states, Davis just did a very good job of mailing in his CV. Some of the details felt a bit fussy, but the work is consistently considered and seductive. Here is one designer who actually doesn’t feel the need to spark joy; he’s all about the slow burn.

DOLCE & GABBANA

The Dolce show began with a slightly discombobulating deadpan voiceover explaining its new collection, Stravaganza Siciliana. An ushering in of a “new character” for the house, this Dolce lady was happy sporting a mishmash of styles inherited from previous generations. She might mix antique lace with contemporary, lingerie with eveningwear, and so on. This was then demonstrated on 81 looks, which featured said lace, denim, chiffon, crochet, and leopard print served at least 10 ways. D&G is not a minimalist label, but this maximalist pile-on of baroque bangles and garments was definitely trying to channel some of that Chanel juju (we noted the tweed). The brand, for all its imperial splendour, needs it. Co-founder Stefano Gabbana stepped down as brand co-chair in April and while it has a new co-CEO aboard in Stefano Cantino, the house is grappling with vast levels of debt. Still, a loyal D&G client will certainly have enjoyed the abundance and the defiance that strutted down the runway.

BOTTEGA VENETA

Louise Trotter said she was interested in “the in-between” for her third collection. Having lived in Milan for a year, she noted how the seasons “really matter” here; robing and disrobing various layers was essential to the art of dressing. In this latest outing, one sensed Trotter herself is negotiating her own in-between, looking to weave her minimalist sensibilities with the potential of Bottega, whose reputation for craft encourages bold innovation and bravura flashes of technique. The co-ed show was staged in a white box, with every seat the resin-coated mould of a cardboard white box designed by artist Illya Goldman Gubin. It started in the same clean vein, sending down looks in cream, white and navy. It then gradually got more complicated in texture and tone; deftly cut trousers and elegant lace-ups and loafers (she offered really good shoes) were counterpointed by heftier, more ambitious creations that cocooned the body. Small crocheted bonnets and big raffia bags offset the necessary forays in the brand’s signature intrecciato leather. Kendall Jenner closed the show, perhaps a little favour called in by her boyfriend Jacob Elordi, the brand’s ambassador sitting front row. What else is in Trotter’s in-between? There’s clearly more to explore.