SHOWDETAILS MILANO+PARIS+BEST BRANDS Fall - Winter 2020

The curtain is not falling on Milan despite the doors being closed in recent days. The halls are empty and all is quiet. Yet the shows go on. The runway stretches like a tightrope over these chaotic, worrying days following the coronavirus outbreak. The Milan shows go on unperturbed, filled only with beautifully-clothed models walking impeccably and silently for the benefit of an audience streaming from afar. Because, to quote Walt Whitman, the truth is “that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse”. The collections offered by brands this season are sonnets and poems. Unexpected material compositions. They tell of Equilibrium and purity. They highlight the exactness of a style without excesses that is measured, sober and rigorous. They harness a relaxed, spontaneous allure. They offer…

A quiet state. Silence. Staged in a white room with arch windows similar to an unadorned church emptied of its altars and pews, and containing only a rectangle of wooden chairs, Jil Sander’s show provides a liturgy of white. The models, resembling a silent parade of airy presences, walk the perimeter and then take their seats. The show becomes the territory where positive, peaceful expression is created. The clothes speak the language of simplicity and harmony. Silk dresses, long knit tunics, suits with controlled edges, white shirts and black velvet. Some of the sleeves are puffier, fleeing the rigid theme and breaking away from the immutable equilibrium and purity. Ermanno Scervino highlights certain contrasts: delicacy and severity, fragility and strength, harmony and chaos. He doses rigour and unexpected elements. He…

Milan celebrates magnificence. It owns the secrets of beauty and majesty. It pays homage to textile grandiosity. It praises brocades and silks, crystals and embroideries. Gucci brings unusual pomp to the runway. It focuses on the magic of cinema, relaying the voice of Federico Fellini. It glorifies dressing, imbuing the ritual of the runway with a sacred aura. Starting a liturgy, a performance. Staging a magic box, a transparent carousel. The girls are dressed in lace and velvet. Volume created by frills and ribbons is a key feature. White schoolgirl collars are added to dresses. Majesty comes to the runway. Moschino portrays a rebellious, anti-conformist Marie Antoinette. Opening the doors of an imaginary Versailles, the brand offers corsets, 18th century hairstyles, cascades of ruches and crystals, brocades, embroidered denim and…

Amazon: mythological and gutsy, strong and intrepid. Virgil praises her strength and courage. He dedicates verses to her. In the pages of Aeneid he calls her a “spirited warrior”. He describes her as “wearing a golden belt”. He recognises her in her “fierce and furious” essence. She was a “woman and virgin”. A warrior. She mutilated her breast to better hold her bow. She lived in the wild. She moved about in the swamps and climbed the mountains of the Caucasus. She wandered. She moved towards Anatolia. She was not alone. They were many. Now, they all come back to the Milan runway. Clothed in the mystery of another time. A wild, nocturnal fascination. These are Marni’s girls. Dressed in clothes pieced together from scraps. Covered in coats made from…

Non cala il sipario su Milano. Anche se, negli ultimi giorni, le porte rimangono chiuse. Le sale restano vuote. C’è silenzio. Eppure continuano a illuminarsi i défilé. Continuano a esistere le passerelle, tese come fili di funamboli sopra giorni di caos, di preoccupazione, di emergenza da coronavirus. Restano le passerelle di Milano, imperturbabili, abitate dai passi di modelle silenziose, impeccabili, nei loro abiti purissimi, protagoniste di uno sguardo virtuale, che le segue da lontano, in diretta streaming. Perché, citando Walt Whitman, la verità è “che il potente spettacolo continua e che tu puoi contribuire con un verso”. Sono sonetti, sono poesie le collezioni proposte in questa stagione dalle Maison. Sono componimenti materici imprevisti. Narrano l’Equilibrio e la purezza. Esaltano l’esattezza di uno stile senza eccessi, misurato, sobrio, rigoroso. Custodiscono un’allure…

Stato di quiete. Silenzio. È una liturgia bianca l’estetica di Jil Sander, che sfila dentro una sala candida, con finestre ad arco, simile ad una chiesa disadorna, svuotata di tutto, senza altari, senza panche, ma con una schiera di sedie di legno, ad ospitare le modelle che sfilano, passano, e poi si siedono, ordinate, silenziose, come presenze lievi. Il défilé diviene il territorio dove emanare un’espressione positiva, pacifica. Gli indumenti sono alfabeti di un messaggio di semplicità ed armonia. Sono abiti in seta, lunghe tuniche in maglia, tailleur dai profili controllati, camicie bianche, velluti neri. Talvolta le maniche si gonfiano, sfuggono alle rigidità, spezzano l’immutabilità poetica di uno stile equilibrato e puro. Ermanno Scervino narra i contrasti: la delicatezza e la severità, la fragilità e la forza, l’armonia e il…