In a shift in scheduling, this season’s Milan Fashion Week began with Prada’s latest womenswear collection – a fitting position for co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ status as fashion soothsayers (all too often they set the agenda for the entire season with their collections, which are designed with an intellectual rigour). For S/S 2027, they honed in on the skirt, with all 63 looks featuring an iteration of the garment which has long been part of the Prada lexicon. Though we didn’t undertake official field research, it felt like in the coming days the skirt was ubiquitous amongst editors and fashion-show guests – a testament to Prada’s enduring influence on style.
Elsewhere, over what felt like an extended schedule (occasionally, it felt as if the season’s shows could have been compressed into a shorter number of days), there were several intriguing collections, including Demna’s latest outing for Gucci, staged in a meticulously constructed simulacrum of a Gucci store (in the collection, bourgeois polish met a pulsating sensuality), and Louise Trotter’s third outing at Bottega Veneta, which looked to the moment that spring turns to summer for a collection of newfound lightness and ease (though with all the gestures of handcraft synonymous with the Italian house).
Off the runway were the openings of The Situation, designer and editor Ed Buchanan’s new NoLo community space, which will support a new generation of Black creatives through residencies and events, and the opening of former Marni designer Francesco Rizzo’s Bureau of Imagination, an ideas factory which will host residencies of its own, alongside creating clothing, ceramics and silverware collections. With their openings – and the debuts of Dario Vitale at Emporio Armani and Pieter Mulier at Versace next season lingering on the horizon – it feels as if Milan is getting a new injection of creative energy.
Explore our pick of the best shows of Milan Fashion Week S/S 2027 below.
Prada
Prada’s latest show was all about the skirt – on the runway there were 63 in total, one for every look. It is a garment which has long been a part of the Prada lexicon: in 2006, Miuccia Prada said on Charlie Rose that ‘a skirt is like a T-shirt’, and versions have appeared on the runway throughout her career (indeed, in the newly opened retrospective ‘Pradasphere’ in Milan’s Prada Galleria, a whole room is devoted to the skirt in its various iterations). ‘We used the skirt as a framework,’ said Mrs Prada of working with co-creative director Raf Simons on this collection. ‘Like a raw material to express concepts.’
It followed a similar rationale to the pair’s S/S 2027 menswear collection, shown earlier this summer, which used the jean as its foundation. The idea, then, said Simons, was for ‘everything to [be] simple, but it is not,’ likening the process to creating a ‘pasta al pomodoro’ (a dish which uses just a few ingredients to create something extraordinary). ‘There was something compelling about reiteration, about this focus,’ the designers said at the time. ‘It is about being extremely decisive and precise.’
Here, the skirt was reimagined in a multitude of styles: some fastened with embellished Velcro, allowing them to be adjusted to the body (the designers said they liked the contrast of the industrial nature of Velcro with something more decorative), others came in jewellery-like webs of crystal flowers, cotton treated to look like leather, or in pleated latex and nylon in Prada-esque pastel hues. On the top half, a series of what Simons called ‘illogical’ combinations: satin bra tops, corporate shirts, nylon raincoats. ‘You want to be sexy, you want to be luxurious, you want to go to work, you want to be at ease with your kids. There are all kinds of skirts [for that],’ said Simons, with Mrs Prada concurring that for her it is the most ‘flexible’ garment. ‘It’s theoretical, it's conceptual, it's a frame. It’s a contradiction.’ Jack Moss
READ: At Milan Fashion Week, Prada hones in on the skirt
Jil Sander
When Simone Bellotti spoke to Wallpaper* earlier this year as part of our September Style Issue, he said that after an initial collection which sought to capture the feeling of rigour and precision synonymous with the modernist house and its eponymous designer, as he embarked on his sophomore collection – and beyond – he wanted to push Jil Sander into new territory. ‘What can I add to this brand? How far can I go, and what is the moment to stop?’ he said. ‘It takes a lot of experimentation and time. It’s psychological.’
His third collection, shown once again in the brand’s Milanese headquarters, saw him at his most experimental yet. ‘That idea of perfection at Jil, it’s not enough today, because you can find that many other places. Minimalism has become so mainstream,’ he said backstage. This idea of imperfection ran throughout: suit jackets were tailored to purposely splay open, collars were skewed, and fabrics came wrinkled and creased. Other pieces were warped in proportion, like the ultra-narrow, shortened lapels on a single-breasted blazer, while caped and balloning dresses sought what Bellotti called a ‘monumental airiness’.
The idea, he said, was to inject Jil Sander’s sometimes-severe facade with new ‘vulnerability’. ‘Creating a collection is like going to therapy,’ he said. ‘You take things apart to understand what you want to keep. Then you put them back together.’ Jack Moss
Fendi
Maria Grazia Chiuri presented a strikingly of-the-moment collection for Fendi’s S/S 2027 outing: lace-trimmed slip skirts and slinky, negligee-esque dresses which elevated the vintage-inspired trend that has dominated 2026 dressing. Staged within a house of mirrors, the allusions to the body were clear – underwear as outerwear with abundant flashes of skin, reflected and multiplied, forcing, as the show notes summarised, ‘spectators into confrontation, into the discovery of others in the reflected image’.
Sheer hosiery and peep-toe shoes were countered by heavier, textured pieces, such as a fur-trimmed jacket that could have doubled as an abbreviated dressing gown, or a folksy, embroidered gilet cut to knee length. A highly wearable collection, but with more overt sex-appeal than A/W 2026’s pragmatic offering, Chiuri’s first for the house. As ever, the creative director specified an influential feminist figure intrinsic to her design process for the season, but where previous muses have come from the worlds of literature or fine art, S/S 2027’s was more unexpected. The Italian pop culture phenomenon Raffaella Carrà, akin to Cher in her status as a gay icon and penchant for skimpy, spangled – and thoroughly transgressive – looks, was selected by Chiuri for her subversion and embodiment of the collection’s guiding principle: ‘surrender to [a] sense of emotional freedom.’ India Jarvis
MM6 Maison Margiela
There is no manual for what a garment needs to feature in order to fulfil the requirements suggested by its name. A T-shirt is not like champagne, which is only champagne if it’s made in Champagne. And yet there are implicit, tacit rules that inform our understanding and language around clothing – received knowledge that dictates the way a garment should look, or how it should be worn, or what name we assign it. As MM6 Maison Margiela described: ‘A shirt goes on the torso. A skirt starts at the waist. The neckline circles the neck; the shoulder line sits on the shoulders.’ But what if it doesn’t?
Dismantling these unspoken instructions and attempting to undermine, or redefine, a rigid paradigm was the throughline of MM6’s S/S 2027 collection – a respectful nod to Martin Margiela himself. The design collective had doll’s clothes in mind this season, but not the kind of doll you buy ready-made and ready dressed. More like a doll’s outfit a kid might crudely stitch or Pritt Stick together out of pure, unfiltered creativity, and because the supplies are to hand. Belted skirts were worn shimmied up around the chest, and elsewhere a ‘skirt’ was actually a sweater – hips shoved through the V-neck and empty sleeves swinging. A typical blue poplin work shirt was reconstructed into a dress (with doll-like proportions), collar and placket intact but serving no function other than decorative, or, in the menswear, simply moved away from the centre and towards the side of the body.
This season also introduced MM6’s collaboration with Havaianas. Playing on the number six, the footwear included a bare-foot-shaped silhouette with an extra toe, and a shoe made by ‘stacking six differently shaped Havaianas soles into an intentionally irregular platform’. India Jarvis
Max Mara
Through its 75-year history Max Mara has always positioned itself as the working woman’s brand – but mostly the woman in question is an urban dweller, wearing her teddy coat through the city streets, dressed in full camel for her office commute. This week, Ian Griffiths’s seasonal muses were working women, sure, but of a more buccaneering persuasion. The early-20th century explorer Freya Stark, wildlife photographer Osa Johnson, cross-continental driver Eva Dickson, and aviators Amelia Earhart and Beryl Markham, whose work took them across treacherous terrains and undiscovered skies, informed Griffith’s exploration of chic utilitarianism.
Standout looks featured pieces reminiscent of Kristen Scott-Thomas’s The English Patient wardrobe: a riff on a safari jacket belted at the waist, airy shirting with popped-collars, and deftly draped full-length dresses that clung closely to the body. The classic trench coat was reimagined in sheer organza, and a luxurious knit playsuit was carried forward from last season, shrunk down to summery proportions. India Jarvis
Marni
Meryll Rogge continues to prove what an astute hire she was for Marni, with her sophomore runway show for the brand following a critically lauded debut (the truncated menswear offering was shown in a static presentation during the summer). Her eye for colour is perfectly suited to the house’s 32-year heritage, and yet she is also highly attuned to the realities of how people – young, quirky people at least – dress today. Less narrative-driven and more variations on a theme, this season’s show included playful takes on the concept of conceal and reveal, as seen via cut-outs, backless pieces and skin-revealing footwear.
The collection also revealed Rogge’s take on the very contentious capri pants trend (her version featuring bold vertical stripes and definitely not to be worn by the faint-of-heart), and the glorious return of A/W 2026 jumbo sequins, plus a continuation of the playful styling collaboration with Tamara Rothstein, yet another inspired pairing. India Jarvis
Tod’s
‘Tod’s Artisanal Intelligence,’ they call it, cute wordplay belying what is in actuality a very serious, very vital operation – the preservation of extraordinary human craftsmanship and creative heritage. To wit, Tod’s made a point of emphasising the labour of love that the Made in Italy label signifies, by, as in previous seasons, installing artisans on the premises of the show, constructing T Signature bags and Gommino loafers, piece by supple leather piece.
These aforementioned accessories, signatures of the house, were updated for the new season: the bag reinterpreted in a new hobo shape, and iterations of the Gommino featuring metallic detailing, and a perforated motif which was extended into the ready-to-wear. Lightweight knits and stout leather pieces were geometrically punctured, softened by ballooning pants and panelled handkerchief dresses. India Jarvis
Sportmax
The Max Mara subsidiary addressed a pressing concern for the sartorially minded modern woman: what to wear when the temperature soars, as it is wont to do these days. ‘Like glass-blowers in the furnace,’ the press notes stated, ‘Sportmax harnessed heat to shape impossible lightness and nuanced transparencies.’ What resulted was a collection showcasing billowing silhouettes paired with robust hardware – afterall, for hot weather dressing accessories are of paramount importance. Sheer organza became a throughline from the mainline Max Mara collection, interpreted here into blazers, trenches and pants, while heavier nappa leather pieces provide an extra layer for cooler nights and ultra air-conditioned offices. India Jarvis
Gucci
One for runway spectacle, this season Demna constructed a sprawling Gucci ‘store’ in Milan’s vast Allianz Mi-Co events space, one complete with lush pile carpet, a monolithic spiral staircase, velvet banquettes and nods to the classical antiquity which featured as part of last season’s Uffizi Museum-inspired showspace (planes of marble; antique urns; stone frescoes; recreations of Roman statuary). Though this wasn’t pure fantasy, the elaborate set was also a teaser of the Georgian designer’s new store concept for the house, which will be rolled out internationally in the coming months, starting with Paris’ Avenue Montaigne on October 30, 2026.
The choice reflected Demna’s new confidence in the role, one year on since his appointment. ‘My first year at Gucci was dedicated to understanding and formulating what Gucci stands for,’ Demna wrote in a letter to guests, distributed before the show. ‘The conclusion of my research is that Gucci stands for being rooted in the desire to belong to a more glamorous world, and in the audacity to remake that world in your own image.’ With this first major architectural project for the house, it felt clear that he is making roots.
This focus made for his strongest collection at the house yet, thrillingly modelled by his cast of ‘shoppers’ who haughtily perused the store’s rails and cabinets as they traversed the space’s four rooms. The collection itself, said Demna, was about injecting Gucci’s ‘polished bourgeois respectability’ with ‘eccentricity, danger [and] sex appeal’. Cue amped-up fur coats, tailoring which jumped between the louche and the severe, and body-contouring riffs on equestrian attire, alongside elements of prep (polo shirts and tucked-in ties) and a closing series of sinuous gittering gowns, modelled by the likes of Alex Consani and Anok Yai.
Through it all, the Gucci Horsebit emerged as the defining motif – whether sized up and slung around the waist, as a buckle on the back of a jacket, or miniature on a shirt collar – making for what will surely be this season’s definitive status symbol. Jack Moss
READ: Demna opens up shop for his ‘quintessentially Gucci’ sophomore show
Ferragamo
1940s, but make it sexy. A hard task, to borrow from the proliferation of uniforms and austerity that defined wartime dressing and inject it with a distinctly contemporary swag, but that’s just what Maximilian Davis succeeded in doing with this season’s Ferragamo outing, possibly his best so far.
It was through fabrication that this vision was most acutely communicated: translucent rubber that sweated and steamed on contact with the skin beneath; glossy python details, with all the slippery, sensual connotations that come with snakeskin; and sheer silks were luxurious, gathered and draped – what Davis calls his ‘scarf dressing’. The silhouettes and construction offered hints of the 1940s influence, through military details, like pockets which appeared unexpectedly on pencil skirts, and leather utility vests peaking out from underneath tailoring.
Davis also resurrected a Ferragamo original from the era: the F wedge, first introduced by the brand’s eponymous founder in 1947. Elements of the original design inspired curved-heel stilettos, and elsewhere satin mules were bejewelled in Art Deco style. Fetishistic, surreal in places, extremely chic in others. India Jarvis
Dolce & Gabbana
The island of Sicily has long proved fertile ground for Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana (it is also home for the former, who grew up in Polizzi Generosa, close to Palermo). This season, in something of a greatest hits, the pair looked once again to the Italian island, imagining the inhabitants of its grand palazzi wearing a mix-up of clothing that has been passed through generations of women. ‘A grandmother’s jacket, an aunt’s jewel, an old trousseau, embroidered linen, lace and upholstery all bear the traces of lives already lived,’ explained a short film which ran before the models hit the runway.
It made for a collection of eclectic combinations that were nonetheless rooted in Dolce & Gabbana hallmarks: there were broderie anglaise skirts and prints recalling traditional Sicilian table linens; gobstopper crystal embellishment across tattered denim jeans; as well as more body-contouring gowns – some in signature leopard prints – and nods to lingerie and undergarments. This season, though, a more aristocratic edge was lent by tweed twin-sets and extravagant beaded jackets – some of which nipped the waist, Bar Jacket-style – though worn as if their young protagonist for the season was raiding the family wardrobe. ‘Every handed-down reference is brought into the present with joyful abandon,’ concluded the pair. Jack Moss
MSGM
‘The same spirit,’ Massimo Giorgetti mused, ‘under a new sky.’ MGSN wiped its Instagram clean and debuted a new logo in the days preceding Saturday’s S/S 2027. It was a reset of sorts, amidst a collection which was a reinforcement of the brand's established codes and personality – acid brights paired with beige, confetti prints (and confetti finale), restrained tie-dye, and contrasting cuffs and collars, all featured. There was an assuredness and sense of levity running through the 36 looks, which also featured an homage to the late postmodern artist Mario Schifano, whose 1983 quote ‘I’m starting over with myself’ was something like an affirmation for the season. India Jarvis
Bottega Veneta
Set amid a bright-white showspace featuring a sound installation by Florian Hecker (transmitted by a series of 20 speakers which hung from the ceiling) and white, resin-coated cardboard stools by artist Illya Goldman Gubin (on each lay a leather flower by the house’s artisans), Louise Trotter said that this season she was seeking a feeling of refresh. Namely, the moment when spring turned to summer, and you begin shedding layers and embracing lightness. She called it ‘a physical and mental de-robing’, leading to an optimistic offering which shrugged off suggestions that Bottega Veneta – known for its superlative leather work – is more of an Autumn/Winter label. Lightweight silks slipped away from the body; webbed and crocheted fabrics had all the ease of a holiday find; while dresses were cut to drape on the body as if intuitively wrapping oneself in fabric. Accessories, meanwhile, had a craftier air, with Trotter using leather as one might raffia. ‘Summer as a proposition: to wear less, but feel more,’ she concluded. ‘To leave something open for the air to carry.’ Jack Moss]
READ: Bottega Veneta taps sound artist Florian Hecker for its S/S 2027 showspace
Giorgio Armani
The Armani Group stands on the precipice of a new era: from next season, Emporio Armani will be under the helm of new creative director Dario Vitale, the former Versace designer who will also oversee Giorgio Armani accessories (as such, there was no Emporio show this season, with the house instead holding a static presentation at Armani/Teatro). Whether or not this influenced Silvana Armani’s latest collection for Giorgio Armani – the designer is Giorgio Armani’s niece and creative director of women’s collections – there was certainly a celebratory air to proceedings, with the show ending on a glitterball finale to the sounds of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence. (Vitale, whose short but influential tenure at Versace has spawned some of the past year’s viral clothing hits, is something of a home run for the Armani Group – he was no doubt sought by many luxury conglomerates looking to crown a new star designer.)
For Silvana Armani, who will remain at the helm of Giorgio Armani, this collection continued her astute vision for the house’s banner line, which balances hallmarks of the late Mr Armani – louche tailoring; an eastern influence; impressive surface embellishment – with a more easy, feminine line, which Silvana Armani has said is influenced by her status as a rare woman designer in Milan. It made for a breadth of options for the Giorgio Armani woman, from day – easy tailored jackets were paired with neat tailored city shorts; a parka-style pullover and jogging pants were reimagined in silk; the blouson was reimagined in various iterations, including emblazoned with Mr Armani’s face – to evening. For the latter, red-carpet options were in abundance: a slinky black column gown came with butterfly appliqué, while a chainmail sheath dress descended into glimmering crystal tassels. Expect them to become ubiquitous when awards season rolls around again this November. Jack Moss