Like a poker player concealing its hand strength or a chessmaster’s confusing quiet moves and tactical maneuvers, this sophisticated games table by Armani Casa has plenty of tricks hidden up its sleeves.

An art deco-inspired ebony wood table covered in luxurious taupe leather, it features a central top that rotates to reveal a checkered playing surface in ebony and mable wood. Two side drawers are used to store the chess and checkers pieces, while each corner hides a pull-out cup holder.

‘Borgonuovo’ games table by Armani Casa

Named after the Milanese street where Giorgio Armani lived, it epitomises Armani Casa’s focus on exquisite materials and careful detailing. These include satin-finished light brass edging and elements such as the cup holder tabs, which are decorated with the house’s circular monogram, composed of a stylized G and A, reminiscent of a yin and yang symbol.

The art deco palette, leather top and triangular legs also nod to one of the Giorgio Armani’s greatest source of inspiration, the work of French designer Jean-Michel Frank: ‘I deeply admire Frank for his way with shapes and materials, the sense of elegance his work emanates,’ he said in an interview with Paul Smith for Wallpaper* in 2022. ‘It is something I always look at for Armani Casa.’ Both shared a taste for plain-lined but sumptuous furniture made of the best materials.

You could pair ‘Borgonuovo’ with Armani Casa’s ‘Sir’ backgammon set, clad in blue leather printed with the house’s monogram and containing chips in a marble-effect blue and sage green bioresin; or its ‘Tale’ tarot cards, featuring Armani clothes as well as furniture, fabrics, wallpapers and accessories.

Armani Casa has always had a playful streak: previous game-inspired designs include an ebonized oak card table with folding sleeves; a graphic walnut and lacquer side table with stripy square legs; and a large plaid decorated with a chessboard in ivory and brown and accompanying folding felt chess pieces.

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And so concludes another Milan Fashion Week, a season marked by its debuts: across the week, Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her opening vision for Fendi as the house’s first sole creative director, young Belgian designer Meryll Rogge made an expressive debut at Marni, and Demna hosted his first runway show for Gucci – a virile mediation on sex and the body which had everybody in fashion talking. Meanwhile at Giorgio Armani, Silvana Armani – the niece of the late eponymous designer – made her ready-to-wear debut at the house. Though true to Mr Armani’s well-established codes, she said this was ‘a new perspective on the Armani style’ – light, fluid and purposely ‘imperfect’.

Alongside, there were standout shows from Prada – in a feat of quick changes and expert layering, 15 models wore 60 looks without pause – and Bottega Veneta, where Louise Trotter conjured Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini in a riot of colour and texture. While at Jil Sander, Simone Bellotti found new freedom in his sophomore runway show after the rigour and restraint of his debut.

Here, reported by Wallpaper* fashion & beauty features director Jack Moss and contributing writer India Jarvis, the 14 standout shows which defined the week.

Fendi

‘Less I, More Us,’ was the mantra Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri chose for her debut as sole creative director for Fendi, emblazoning it across the runway which stretched the length of the house’s Milanese HQ on Via Solari. Chiuri is fond of such mission statements: for her debut collection as the first female creative director of Dior in 2016, she printed the title of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book-length essay ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ across a T-shirt. Over the nine years which followed, she would champion numerous women artists and collaborators.

Her mantra at Fendi is perhaps a feminist one too, despite the fact that Chiuri also showed menswear on the runway (and will be equally in charge of the house’s mens- and womenswear lines). It was, in part, a reference to the collective force of the formidable Fendi sisters: Alda, Carla, Paola, Franca and Anna Fendi, who took over from their parents, house founders Edoardo and Adele Fendi, in 1946. Speaking before the show, she said that people speak too often of Karl Lagerfeld’s influence – the designer was creative director of the house for 54 years – and not enough of the sisters, who employed him and would work alongside him until the company was sold to LVMH in 1999. ‘I would like people to remember all that they created at Fendi,’ she asserted.

Chiuri, who began her career at Fendi in 1989, working with the sisters until her own departure in 1999, said she credits her working ethic to them: ‘They were my mentors. They gave me my career. And I felt part of their teamwork.’ In the show, the idea of collaboration came through projects with women artists SAGG Napoli (colourful football-like scarves were created alongside the Naples-born artist) and the estate of Mirella Bentivoglio, whose slogan-like works appeared across garments. But the idea of a collective ‘us’ stretched to dissolving the divide between mens- and womenswear, too, the designer said: ‘Feminine and masculine cease to be categories of opposition and become adjectives used to describe shared qualities,’ envisioning not two separate collections but ‘one wardrobe’.

As such, the A/W 2026 outing – which eschewed theatrics in favour of a more pragmatic approach – moved between sleek, elongated tailoring and flourishes of romance, from layers of sheer tulle and lace (some evocative of her work at Dior). Meanwhile fur – the founding material of the house – came back to the fore, with Chiuri introducing the ‘Echo of Love’ project whereby clients can have their old furs transformed in an act of circularity. Across vivid two-tone chubby fur coats and patchworked fur handbags, all the materials had been sourced from leftovers in the house’s fur department – another act of practicality over spectacle. ‘Fashion is not entertainment. Fashion is a job. I am that kind of designer,’ she said. Jack Moss

READ: ‘Less I, more us’: Maria Grazia Chiuri lays out her vision for Fendi in Milan

Jil Sander

After a brilliant debut last season, Simone Bellotti continued to cleverly hone his vision for Jil Sander with a sophomore collection which he said was inspired by the idea of ‘home’. Presented in the house’s stark Milanese HQ – this season, warmth was added by the addition of a rust-coloured carpet which had been installed the length of the upper floor – the former Bally designer said he was thinking about home as an ‘an emotional space where one lives, feels safe and belongs to’, leading to a collection which diverted from restraint and rigour of last season towards something freer, more eclectic. Indeed, the designer said this was a collection about ‘flow, flou [and] movement’, with Bellotti imagining garments imbued with a life of their own through an intriguing use of pattern cutting – whether raised shoulder lines, curving seams, folded waistlines, or intentionally puckered tailoring (the slashes through garments also returned from his debut). Meanwhile evocative moments of colour and pattern added visual richness: flashes of electric blue and leopard print met fabrics evocative of interiors – a nod, Bellotti elucidated, to his father’s career as an upholsterer. ‘The question this season is whether abandon can convey restraint,’ he said of this newly liberated approach. Jack Moss

MM6 Maison Margiela

One of life’s great pleasures is watching other people, and what better place to sit and do it than a train terminal? It’s a pleasure that MM6 Maison Margiela tapped into for its A/W 2026 show – one designed around the comings and goings of passengers in an ‘archetypal train station’, in this case Milano Centrale. An archetype is a recurrent, even constant, principle, whereas a station is innately transient – how do the two meet? At MM6 it was with ‘a veritable spectrum of individuality’, and ‘sartorial actions rooted in the genuine appreciation for garments as they are, looking for ways to see them anew, which is where the fun lingers.’

What does that look like? It looks like pea coats with bunched and scrunched hems, loosely tacked to reveal quilted or flannel linings. Clashing stripes with check – something you might serendipitously pair when hurrying to get dressed. Backless khaki trench coats and skirts. And lots of tucking: hair tucked into jumpers, jumpers tucked into jeans, jeans tucked into high-gloss Wellington-style boots.

There was a strong equine theme too – afterall, 2026 is the year of the firehorse, a symbol of forward movement and independence that is characteristically MM6 – from horse motifs printed on oversized T-shirts and teddy fleeces, to full cotton flounced skirts with a decidedly American frontier feel. A train station welcomes all kinds of people going all kinds of places, after all. India Jarvis

Prada

This season, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons played a clever runway trick: instead of the usual 40-or-so models cast in a given season, the pair chose just 15 to walk the A/W 2026 show. In an impressive act of timing, they wore 60 looks in total, walking the runway four times each in quick succession, achieved through removing a layer of clothing during each quick change. When you realised the conceit (for me, I wondered if Bella Hadid had a doppelganger or secret twin after what seemed like an impossibly quick reappearance on the runway), it made for one of the most thrilling Prada shows of recent times – there was a near-breathless energy to the spectacle. (Indeed, chatting to one of the models backstage, she said she had never sweated so much, or walked so far, in a runway show during her career.)

But this was no gimmick: post-show, the co-creative directors said the collection was a reflection of the way that women wear clothing on a given day – the removal of a coat to reveal a cocktail dress, the addition of a scarf. ‘It’s about life, and how you dress each day with the clothes you have,’ said Simons. ‘About real, human people.’ The garments themselves were infused with Prada-isms: purposeful marks of wear (some appeared stained or creased; others saw layers of fabric torn away to reveal another beneath) met an insouciant, bourgeois-inflected glamour in embroidered stockings, feathered and beaded footwear and a use of satin and organza. A feeling of utility, meanwhile, came in uniform-style tailoring and riffs on classic outerwear styles, from the parka jacket to the raincoat. ‘As a woman, your life is layered – each day demands not only a shifting of clothes, but a richness of identities within yourself,’ said Mrs Prada. ‘You make choices, you decide who you want to be.’ Jack Moss

Max Mara

Is a growing interest in the history and aesthetics of the Middle Ages a reaction to the hyper-digitised, blue-lit world of today? An idealised fantasy of a pre-capitalist society? Or perhaps a byproduct of the popularity of the romantasy genre? Whatever the answer, for Max Mara’s Ian Griffiths​, whose unlikely seasonal muse was the 11th-century diplomat and military commander Matilde di Canossa, ‘there is something so strikingly of the now about so-called Dark Age design’.

Griffiths’ interpretation of pre-enlightenment era clothing saw tunics in luxurious, butter-soft suede, ankle-skimming cashmere coats and hooded garments reminiscent of the coif shapes worn by Di Canossa and her contemporaries. Standout pieces included a caramel-coloured bias-cut silk gown with a mohair, funnel-necked yoke; a suede muff worn belted around the waist; and a taupe wool playsuit accessorised with the gathered suede, elbow-length opera gloves that were seen throughout the show. Griffiths has been with the house since graduating from London’s RCA in 1987, and over the four decades which have followed, there is nobody who knows the Max Mara woman better than he. The A/W 2026 collection offered new-yet-medieval twists on the tried and tested house codes, which keep this woman returning to the brand, season after season. India Jarvis

Emporio Armani

Following the death of its eponymous founder in the autumn of 2025, Emporio Armani took an understandable hiatus from showing at menswear week in January, but returned for A/W 2026 with a combined men’s and women’s runway outing. ‘Maestro’, as the collection was titled, was not only a narrative device, but an ode to Mr Armani himself – the eminent composer, conductor, and virtuoso of fashion symphonies for almost 50 years.

The imaginative backdrop for the season was, according to show notes, a music school, and the maestro – and maestra, for this is a co-ed conservatoire – who stepped out in Leo Dell’Orco and Silvana Armani’s first jointly developed collection wore loosely tailored overcoats and baggy denim, and student-y accessories including baker boy caps, backpacks, and ties just visible beneath oversized striped knits. Leg warmers styled over patent leather pumps evoked the chill of a rehearsal auditorium, whereas the show’s second act saw rather more performance-ready pieces in the form of draped velvet, wide-lapelled tuxedo jackets, and starched white collars (a recurring motif in Milan this season: most notably in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s riff on Claudine à l'école at Fendi).

For the finale – the crescendo, if you like – the models turned out in Lydia Tár-esque monochrome. Tight leggings or flowing slacks on the bottom, white dress shirts on top, each with a different button, brooch, pin, collar, or embroidered flourish. ‘A simple and rigorous statement – now more than ever rebellious – of modernity and self-awareness,’ that could only be Armani. India Jarvis

Marni

The Belgian designer Meryll Rogge chose to collaborate with Formafantasma on the runway set for her debut show as creative director of Marni. Transforming the house’s Milanese headquarters with wood-effect panelling and fabric-covered benches – recalling a banal office space, or entranceway to a Milanese apartment block – the space was punctuated with mirrored panels which had been painted with ‘fragments drawn from quotidian life’, from office chairs to cigarette lighters. ‘The structure of the set suggests a bourgeois interior wooden frame, hints of domestic architecture – but fragmented, slightly taken apart. It feels familiar yet unsettled, as if a room has been carefully disassembled and reassembled in another order,’ Formafantasma’s Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin told Wallpaper*.

It linked with Rogge’s vision for her tenure at the Italian house: to create something which felt both familiar and contemporary, evoking Marni’s founding principles with her own distinctive twists. ‘I have a very personal connection to Marni,’ she said. ‘It’s a brand that shaped my design sensibility during my formative years, and through the show I wanted to acknowledge that sense of familiarity.’ It made for an astute opening outing: there was the irreverent spirit of founder Consuelo Castiglioni in its eclectic combinations, not only in its amalgam of nostalgic prints, swinging paillettes and boldly graphic jewellery, but also in the way a sweater might be worn with a cocktail dress, or a colourful sporty parka over a suit and tie. Rogge’s own twist on the Marni protagonist was a newfound toughness, figured in some great leather trousers and skirts, some with Western-inspired detailing. In their slung-on sensuality – imbued with a certain 1980s nostalgia – they might well fill a gap for those who are already missing Dario Vitale’s Versace. Jack Moss

READ: Formafantasma created the ‘familiar yet unsettled’ show set for Meryll Rogge’s Marni debut

Sportmax

If there are a few thematic ideas that inevitably crop up and play out in different ways by different brands in any one season, then for A/W 2026 one such example could be travel. At Loro Piana and MM6 Maison Margiela the vehicle of choice was a train; at Sportmax, the journey seemed to be taken by air. ‘Dynamism’ was the word they used, but ‘aerodynamism’ may be just as apt – as the brand itself puts it: ‘There is no clutter weighing the Sportmax woman down.’

Dresses were close-fitting and body-skimming but with movement in the draping, worn with long wraps which fell backwards over the shoulder like wings. Some of the weightier outerwear nodded to aviator-style jackets with their gargantuan lapels and collars, and contrasting textures and fabrics. Clutches were spheroid, almost discus-shaped; one could imagine them flying through the air with ease. Flashes of skin were visible beneath a kind of jumbo mesh effect leather, used for tops which were worn as a base layer beneath more autumn-winter suitable coats and gilets. Speed and movement were the defining characteristics of the collection – even the show itself was a particularly fast-paced affair – as the show notes said, the Sportmax woman has ‘places to go’. India Jarvis

Gucci

Prior to his debut runway show for Gucci, the mononymous Georgian designer Demna said he had been searching for the ‘Gucciness of Gucci’, a trip which took him to the Tuscan city of Florence, where the house was founded as a leather goods company in 1921. There, he visited factories and the archive, though it was stood in front of Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Gallery – just a few hundred metres from the Palazzo Gucci on Piazza della Signoria – that Demna had his lightbulb moment. ‘Standing in front of it, I felt overwhelmed,’ he wrote in a letter distributed before the show. ‘The beauty in it was unconditional; it was absolute. It made me realise how deeply the Italian Renaissance shaped everything I understand about art, about proportion, about desire, and about beauty. When I left the museum and stepped into Piazza della Signoria, the first thing I saw was Palazzo Gucci. In that moment, I understood the place Gucci holds within Italian culture.’

It was part of the reason why he staged the A/W 2026 collection amid an imagined museum constructed in Milan’s Palazzo delle Scintille, clad in marble and populated with plaster recreations of ancient sculptures (the vast statues had been 3D-scanned and crafted by Tuscan artisans to appear as if hewn from marble). This was a veneration of Gucci as an expression of Italian style and insouciance: after the show, he said this opening act was simply about capturing a feeling, rather than anything more intellectually overwrought. ‘I hope I made you feel Gucci today,’ he said, expressing a desire for Gucci to become an ‘adjective’. ‘That was my main purpose with this show.’

The essence of ‘Gucci-ness’ that Demna landed on was one of unbridled sensuality, a morning-after-the-night before glamour which borrowed from Tom Ford’s transformative tenure at the house in the 1990s (all the way down to a recreation of his 1997 double-G G-string, which here appeared as an in-built thong in a gown worn by Kate Moss to close the show). Other garments had been constructed without seams or with curved hemlines in order to emphasise the relationship between body and garment, while muscled male models burst out of skin-tight T-shirts and jeans. Slung on jackets, lean tailoring, and a final flurry of shimmering evening gowns completed the look. ‘[I think] it’s because of my relationship with myself, to my own body, to the way I want to see myself,’ he said. ‘I want to feel like that. I want to feel sexy.’ Jack Moss

Tod’s

It takes deft craftsmanship to imbue leather with real lightness – after all, leather is better known as a material of protection and toughness. But Tod’s’ A/W 2026 ready-to-wear was characterised by a levity of touch that could only be the handiwork of a house that makes an art out of leather (and a designer who’s got pedigree when it comes to this particular material).

In Matteo Tamburini’s latest, leather may have been the protagonist, but the plot itself was all about artisanal excellence – a fact reinforced by the real craftspeople stitching, folding, or carving objects in the entryway to the venue at Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea – cherry-picked by the brand for their impressive skill. Amongst these were brothers Vincenzo and Manuel Aucella, coral artisans and cameo carvers who represent the fourth generation of a family tradition that began in 1892 (that’s around 30 years before Filippo Della Valle started the shoe-making business that would later become Tod’s).

As for the clothes themselves, feather-light asymmetrical leather dresses fluttered with all the delicacy of a silk handkerchief, blanket-style outerwear enveloped luxuriously about the shoulders, and saddlery techniques and hand-finishing synthesised tradition and modernity. Overall, the effect was a masterclass in Italian craft and sprezzatura. India Jarvis

Ferragamo

The 1920s were a formative decade for Salvatore Ferragamo: in 1927, he founded his eponymous footwear company in Florence after returning from Los Angeles, where he worked as a shoemaker for the burgeoning film industry in Hollywood. The British designer Maximilian Davis has found fertile creative ground in the decade, with recent collections channelling what he sees as the ‘liberated elegance’ of the era – one in which conventions of dress were interrupted and marginalised groups found new freedoms (last season, Davis evoked the Harlem Renaissance, the proliferation of Black art, culture and intellectual output from the New York neighbourhood in the 1920s).

This season, in one of the curving Giovanni Muzio-designed upper galleries of the Triennale di Milano museum – dimly lit and sheathed with floor-to-ceiling curtains – he evoked the 1920s speakeasy, ‘a locus of liberation; a space where conventions of class and identity are disrupted’. As such, a louche, after-dark mood infused the collection – negligées, molten-gold dresses and vampish stilettos all featured – while riffs on maritime attire were a nod to those who frequented such drinking spots. Though the evocation of the sailor also nodded to the notion of travel which informs the Ferragamo story – the transformative experience of moving away from your home in search of something new.

‘That’s something that both Salvatore and my own family experienced – he left his home in Italy for America before returning home, and my family moved from Trinidad and Jamaica to Manchester,’ said Davis. ‘They all crossed the water to discover new beginnings.’ Jack Moss

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana’s A/W 2026 collection was an assertion of brand identity, said designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, all the way down to a front-row cameo from Madonna – perhaps the most well-known house muse and the current face of The One fragrance. The musical powerhouse watched on from the front row as the pair performed their own greatest hits: an outing near-entirely in their signature vampish black, replete with house hallmarks – lingerie-inspired silhouettes, hourglass LBDs, and, of course, plenty of lace. Though perhaps most desirable this season was the tailoring: if best known for their body-contouring dresses, the pair have always possessed a strong sartorial prowess, here encapsulated in some brilliant tuxedos which nipped at the waist and flared across the shoulder, inspired by archival silhouettes from the 1990s (they would make a great Oscars look for those wishing to eschew the traditional princess gown). Post show, Domenico and Stefano were keen to make clear that drilling into the archive was not about ‘nostalgia’ but ‘presence’, ‘a language built on roots that are still alive – Sicily as emotion, black as strength, lace as intimacy, tailoring as authority,’ they said. Jack Moss

Bottega Veneta

The particular joy of good fashion is that it’s a work of art you can actually touch – and with Louise Trotter’s sophomore collection for Bottega Veneta, touch is exactly what you want to do. The shaggy, curvaceous shapes she creates out of fibreglass need to be felt to be believed. Great piles of shearling cry out to be fondled. Even less immediately showy pieces, like a tailored grey coat with exaggeratedly round shoulders and cinched waist which was made from a thick, almost foamy looking fabric, was just begging to be squished between the fingers.

It’s the mark of a talented designer that to describe their work as ‘wearable’ doesn’t just mean ‘commercial’, or, worse ‘boring’. The Sunderland-born designer, whose previous creative director roles were at Lacoste, Joseph, and Carven, makes clothes that are infinitely wearable, but here the word might mean things that feel really wonderful to actually wear. On the practical side: pieces have pockets, shoes are flat, and bags are roomy. The more flamboyant garments are countered by easy tank tops and shirts. But more than that, there is a sensuality and tactility that sets Trotter’s work apart. Is this the byproduct of being one of the few women making womenswear at the head of a luxury house? Whatever the case, there’s no doubt that she is one of the most credible designers working today.

The A/W 2026 collection carried what Trotter described as a ‘suggestion’ of Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini – two of 20th-century Italy’s most erudite and subversive exports, and unlikely friends. Both figures have been brought back to the forefront of the cultural conversation in recent years – operatic prima donna Callas was played by Angelina Jolie in a 2024 biopic, and before that her life and lonely, premature death was dramatised on stage in an opera project conceived by Marina Abramović and co-starring Willem Dafoe. Dafoe, in turn, has played Pasolini, the poet and filmmaker whose brutal murder, presumably at the hands of far-right thugs, was commemorated on its 50th anniversary in the autumn of 2025 through a series of cultural programming and new publications. If these sound like unlikely characters to influence a ready-to-wear collection, consider that Callas and Pasolini had more in common than just tragic ends: formidable artistic talent, potent sexuality, and confident personal style amongst them. For Trotter’s debut last year she described her use of intrecciato as a conceptual device as well as a literal braiding technique – by citing these two artists she is articulating a continuation of that weaving principle, but also making a bold declaration of what Bottega Veneta, under her stewardship, is going to be. India Jarvis

Giorgio Armani

The Armani Privé show in Paris marked the debut collection from Silvana Armani, the late Giorgio Armani’s niece, who worked closely with the designer in his lifetime and was a fitting successor to uphold his legacy. On Sunday in Milan, she made her ready-to-wear debut at Armani, selecting the house’s headquarters on Brera’s Via Borgonuovo to show the A/W 2026 collection (the address was also the site of Mr Armani’s personal Milan home). At the time of the Privé show, we wrote that she had presented a collection ‘not of divergence but of continuance’, and the same could be said of this collection – it felt recognisably Armani in its louche, unstructured tailoring and interplay between Eastern and Western tropes of dress – though there was a greater feeling of softness and ease. Indeed, Silvana Armani said she was looking for lightness in both construction and spirit: jackets were assembled without padding, wrapped silhouettes appeared thrown on, and the slouchier, pleated trousers – held in place with wide belts – felt contemporary in proportion. She called it ‘a new perspective on the Armani style,’ one which she said was informed by being a woman, designing for women. ‘It is fluid, enveloping, perfectly imperfect.’ Jack Moss

Much has been written about the contemporary relevance of haute couture, a rarefied dressmaking medium that is built on tradition and strict rules (to call yourself a couture house, you must adhere to those set out by La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode). It remains best defined by its impossible flights of craft – each garment must be stitched entirely by hand in a process that can take hundreds of hours – and its elite cortege of clients, which numbers (by estimate) around 5,000 worldwide. ‘Couture is really a dying craft; it’s nearly extinct. There are only a few houses doing it,’ said Jonathan Anderson at his Dior couture debut this week. Such is its need for protection, he asserted, that after the show, he would open ‘Grammar of Forms’, an exhibition in the runway space allowing visitors to see his work in conversation with original designs by Christian Dior. ‘[I want] to demystify couture and inspire the next generation to ensure its future,’ he said.

The standout collections of Haute Couture Week S/S 2026

Though rarely has Haute Couture Week – which concludes in Paris today (29 January) – demanded so much attention. This was largely down to its two new custodians, Anderson at Dior and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, both of whom would show their first couture collections during the event (their respective houses, two behemoths of Parisian style, are synonymous with haute couture, its design language filtering down to everything from ready-to-wear to cosmetics and perfume). Both seemed to shake off the weight of expectation in collections that expressed converging visions of contemporary couture – Blazy instilled everyday garments with an ethereal lightness through meticulous acts of craft (think: a hand-painted silk mousseline trompe l’oeil pair of jeans), while Anderson presented a ‘Wunderkammer’ of ideas in a bold collection full of intriguing forms and bold flourishes, from pom-pom cyclamen earrings to enormous coloured stoles.

Elsewhere, Daniel Roseberry’s latest Schiaparelli collection revelled in the joy of creation; Alessandro Michele staged a ‘peep show’ at Valentino; and at Armani Privé – in the first couture show since Giorgio Armani’s death – Silvana Armani, Mr Armani’s niece, took the reins this season in her own debut show. Here, we unpack the best shows of the week.

Schiaparelli

There is an enjoyable sense of spectacle to a Schiaparelli show, which in its 10am Monday morning spot heralds the start of Haute Couture Week. The models – who always seem to be having fun – parade around the Petit Palais in American artistic director Daniel Roseberry’s always theatrical creations, striking poses that spark nostalgia for the more outré runway shows of the 1980s (there is always good music, too: this season, the euphoric Jamie XX remix of Robyn’s ‘Dopamine’). This season, those creations spanned sculpted tops that sprouted spiking horns or enormous scorpion’s tails; sharp, wide-shouldered blazers adorned with plumes of feathers reminiscent of a bird’s wing; and delicate lace flowers that hovered and floated away from the body. There were some beautiful details besides: a flared dress in millefeuille tulle, which looked as if it had been cut away in chunks, and floating panels of degradé organza, dyed as if by bleeding ink.

Roseberry said that this season he had been inspired by a recent trip to the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s famed ceiling: ‘a wild, visually rambunctious, vulnerable and romantic imagining of God, religion, faith, and the human condition’. The eclecticism of this season came from a desire to replicate the ecstatic feeling of the creative act, one that he imagined Michelangelo experiencing as he created his most well-known fresco. ‘I stopped thinking for the first time in years of how something should look, but instead about how I feel when creating it,’ he said. ‘That was it. The entire emotional heartbeat of this season became not what does it look like, but how do we feel when we make it? What a relief that was. What a revelation.’

Dior

There was a palpable anticipation in the room for Jonathan Anderson’s first couture collection for Dior, one compounded by Rihanna, whose late arrival only upped the anticipation. Under an upside-down meadow of wild cyclamen – inspired by a posy brought to him by former Dior creative director John Galliano – the collection that followed was a bold ‘Wunderkammer’ of ideas, which began with the curved form of a vase by ceramic artist Magdalene Odundo (a longtime collaborator of the designer). Her work inspired the ballooning shape of the opening gowns – constructed from ultra-lightweight silk and wire, they seemed to levitate away from the body – while the rest of the collection drew on creative mementoes, from Galliano’s posy of cyclamen (which here transformed into pom-pom earrings) to a series of found objects that became embellishment, whether historic cameo brooches or shards of meteors and fossils.

The idea, said Anderson, was for a dialogue of the past: an elevation of the precious and the rare (after all, haute couture is all about the singular and the one-off). ‘There’s this element in the show of how to upcycle things,’ he said in a preview before the show. ‘Like, how do we take something and reinvent it? Things are found, and then reassembled.’ This idea of reassembly ran throughout: sinuous bias-cut gowns recalled Galliano’s signature silhouette during his time at Dior, while a sculpted black coat, jutting out at the waistline, seemed to nod to Raf Simons’ own couture debut at the house (the Belgian designer was womenswear creative director from 2012-2015). But other pieces felt entirely Anderson’s own: inspired by nature, looks became sculptural marvels: satin protruded from the waistline of a skirt; flared gowns were constructed from delicate shards of pearlescent mother-of-pearl, while bell-shaped tops ballooned around the body to create otherworldly forms.

‘I think what is nice is that [as a team] we’re exploring – it is not about working out the idea before we start, or working out the end customer, because ultimately, we don’t know what people want,’ he says, likening the couture arm of the house to a creative ‘lab’. ‘That’s the whole point. I think the idea of designing things is to make people want something they didn’t want. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt at Dior, it’s just about putting ideas out [there].’

READ: Jonathan Anderson’s historic Dior couture debut was a bold ‘Wunderkammer’ of ideas

Chanel

Matthieu Blazy’s brief tenure at Chanel so far has seen the French-Belgian designer embrace joy and levity over the weight of history. ‘I just wanted to have fun,’ he said after his debut ready-to-wear show last October, a feeling immortalised by model Awar Odhiang’s twirling runway finale, one of the year’s most memorable fashion moments (she wore a skirt adorned with hundreds of kaleidoscopic silk feathers).

With his first haute couture show, he sought a similar feeling of lightness, staged amid a fantasy-land set of enormous mushrooms and toadstools, as well as fluttering candy-pink trees. In the collection, that lightness was physical: the opening looks saw the classic Chanel suit rendered in featherweight silk mousseline rather than its usual tweed, while trompe l’oeil silk mousseline trousers were painted to recall denim jeans (a version of the ‘2.55’ handbag was also constructed from the fabric).

He said it came from an impulse to strip it all away and attempt to get to the heart of what Chanel is: ‘What makes Chanel, Chanel? What is the essence and essentialism of the house? How do you bear its soul?’ As such, he largely eschewed the theatrical towards the simplicity of a wardrobe – these were clothes that women could actually wear – though elevated through truly extraordinary moments of craft. There was tweed that sprouted with plumes of feathers; bouncing streamers of fabric at the hems of skirts; or the final bridal look, a simple collared shirt and skirt adorned with hundreds of petal-like mother-of-pearl paillettes.

Blazy said it was an ode to what he sees as the heart of Chanel – the communion between maker and wearer. As such, each model chose something personal to be stitched into their look – from a treasured initial to a symbol of luck. ‘[I] consider this collection almost as a break,’ said Blazy. ‘Something magical, something that makes you dream, something poetic, a calm moment of quietness, almost like a Sunday morning.’

READ: At Chanel, Matthieu Blazy lets the light in with a fairytale first haute couture collection

Armani Privé

It was to be the first Armani Privé show without Giorgio Armani at the helm: this past September, he passed away aged 91 after an extraordinary 50 years in fashion. Like at the Giorgio Armani menswear show in Milan – which was helmed by longtime creative partner Leo Dell'Orco – this was a Privé collection not of divergence but of continuance, mining previous signatures of the haute couture offshoot, from sinuous crystallised gowns to Eastern influences (heavily inspired by Japan, Mr Armani saw his design vernacular as a conversation between East and West).

Away from the more high-profile debuts at Chanel and Dior, this too ushered in a new design lead: Silvana Armani, Mr Armani’s niece, took the reins this season, having worked alongside her uncle for over four decades. She titled the collection ‘Jade’, using the precious stone to inform the collection’s largely green palette, shifting from Armani-esque tailoring (for their haute couture twist, ties came in sheer organza) to gowns that flared below the waist using clever petal-inspired pleats. Look out for them on the Oscars red carpet this coming March – in their ethereal beauty, they have winner written all over them.

Valentino

Alessandro Michele prefaced his latest haute couture collection for Valentino with an ode to the house’s eponymous founder, Valentino Garavani, who passed away aged 91 last week. ‘What we do today takes place within a history not of our making, in a house long inhabited, rich with traces and gestures,’ he said in a letter distributed to guests. ‘To work within this space means accepting both its weight and its grace. It means recognising that every form exists only in relation to what made it possible, that every creative act is also an act of custody.’ (As well as Garavani, Michele also name-checked his forebears Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli.) Garavani’s legacy, Michele continued, was ‘an ethics of making… a practice grounded in the belief that to create is to care for, and that beauty consists in radical, patient attention to bodies and forms.’

The collection had been finalised before Garavani’s death, and was full of the gestures that made the Roman couturier’s work so enduring: a lust for the theatrical, a note of sensuality and romance, as well as more formal references, from ruffles and feathers to the bold red of the opening gown, Garavani’s favoured hue (such was its ubiquity in his work, it was deemed ‘Valentino Rosso’). The show set comprised a series of circular chambers through which models walked; guests watched through a series of peepholes opened by a butler at the start of the show (they were based on the 18th-century Kaiserpanorama, a subject of critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin’s work). It allowed pure focus on the looks themselves: an appreciation of that extraordinary act of making, undertaken by Michele in communion with the petites mains of the couture atelier. ‘Valentino’s legacy remains what it has always been,’ said Michele. ‘An idea of beauty conceived as a noble form of responsibility toward time, bodies and the world we are given to cross.’

This has been a watershed year in fashion. A quarter of the way through the 21st century, 2025 saw the industry hit refresh: in September alone, 15 designers made their debuts as creative directors of fashion’s major houses, ushering in a bold new era in style (and, as with any such change, prompting passionate – and oftentimes divided – online commentary).

Here, as selected by the Wallpaper* style team, are the 25 fashion moments that defined the zeitgeist in 2025 – from a viral Marty Supreme track jacket and Saint Laurent’s thigh-high wader boots, to big-name buyouts, runway returns and, of course, all those debuts.

Willy Chavarria made his mark in Paris with a powerful duo of shows

In January, CFDA Award-winning designer Willy Chavarria chose to shift his runway show from New York, where he lives and works, to Paris. A striking first show, held at the American Church on Quai d’Orsay, came just a few days after Trump’s inauguration, with Chavarria – whose runway shows have long been a clarion call for the rights of immigrants and the queer community – soundtracking the show with Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon imploring the incoming president to ‘have mercy’ towards marginalised communities. ‘It was so beautiful, and it fell exactly in line with what we were doing,’ he told Wallpaper* of the speech. ‘I wanted to show that everyone is welcome, and to do that in a church seemed like the most pronounced way of showing queer people, trans people, in this environment where they were the saints’. His sophomore Paris show, this summer, was similarly impactful: it opened with 35 kneeling men wearing white T-shirts made in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a reference to those being unlawfully detained by ICE in the United States.

READ: Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion’s old guard’

Faux fur and shearling took over the runway

Not a moment, per se, though the proliferation of faux fur and shearling on the runway – spanning both the men’s and women’s collections – was one of the year’s undeniable style takeaways (so much so, we even spotted it on the spring/summer runways). ‘When worn, it becomes a heady meeting place of signifiers – luxury, wealth, power, but also protection, armour against the elements, an ancient and primal urge to be swaddled in the spoils of the hunt,’ we wrote earlier this year of the renaissance of fur – albeit in imitation fabrics – which seemed to a response to the tumult of contemporary living. Indeed, at Prada, where co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a collection of ‘Raw Glamour’, ‘fur’ coats – constructed from cleverly manipulated shearling – had strange protusions at the collar or were trapped under plastic. ‘We asked ourselves, what is femininity today? It is a constant questioning,’ said Mrs Prada. ‘It is not my job to be political, but when you open a newspaper – oh my God! Our job is to think about what clothes a woman can wear, about what kind of femininity makes sense in this moment.’

READ: Faux fur and shearling dominated the A/W 2025 runways – these pieces capture the material’s ‘raw glamour’

Alessandro Michele entertained with a showstopping haute couture debut for Valentino

Haute couture was always going to be a medium which suited Alessandro Michele, the former Gucci creative director who now heads up Valentino. For his first couture collection for the house – presented this past February – the Italian designer, known for theatrical runway shows and richly imaginative collections, hit new heights, employing the ‘petits mains’ of the Valentino atelier to create a series of showstopping gowns. In a style typical to the deep-thinking designer, they were explained in the book-length collection notes through the language of philosophy and semiotics – Homer, James Joyce and Italo Calvino were all mentioned – with each gown representing a ‘list’ of words and influences (‘[lists] confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe,’ Michele wrote, quoting Umberto Eco). These surreal lists scrolled across the show’s set on a series of ticker-tape screens as the dramatic looks wandered across the stage, a millefeuille of satin, lace and tulle – eclectic, intricate and, as fashion sleuths showed after the show, rooted in the Valentino archive. ‘To attempt to describe each look – and its multitude of elements – would require a pages-long list of its own,’ we wrote at the time. ‘It was best to simply let yourself be entertained.’

READ: Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for Valentino

Martine Rose held her first gallery show – an ode to Bronski Beat’s radical energy

During London Fashion Week in February, Martine Rose hosted her first gallery show at Sadie Coles HQ, revisiting her 2016 film Everything Must Change – a Sharna Osbourne-shot short starring Bronski Beat frontman Jimmy Somerville. ‘Pop charts at the time I was introduced to Jimmy Somerville’s voice were dominated by gay musicians: Erasure, Bronski Beat, Marc Almond,’ Rose told Wallpaper*. ‘Mainstream pop by out and proud gay men making serious, respected pop music – not tokenistic – which can never be replicated. It was a radical time for music, all about individuality, no stylists, all genuine expression.’ It’s a statement that captures the radical, subculture-infused energy of Rose’s own work: later that year, in June, she staged a one-off show in an abandoned west London job centre, adorned for the occasion in boudoir-style ruffled curtains. ‘I was exploring this new shrunken silhouette,’ she said after the show. ‘Everything feels a bit cinched, a bit too tight, slightly awkward, but somehow still sexy, I hope.’ It is this idiosyncratic approach – at once strange, sexy and real – which has made Martine Rose one of London’s defining voices, doing things her own way for close to two decades.

READ: Martine Rose’s first gallery show celebrates the radical queer energy of Bronski Beat

Calvin Klein returned to the runway with a new ‘sexitude’

In February, Calvin Klein hosted its first runway show since the departure of Raf Simons in 2018 (under him, the runway collections went under the moniker Calvin Klein 205W39NYC; now, they are back to being called Calvin Klein Collection). In one of the year’s first notable debuts, it was former The Row designer Veronica Leoni who took the helm, seeking a mood of sensual minimalism she dubbed ‘sexitude’ – a nod to the pulsing undercurrent of eroticism which ran through the brand’s advertising campaigns and collections in the 1990s. ‘When it comes to sexiness, it’s more like an attitude,’ the Italian designer said backstage. ‘You own it in the way you wear the clothes. I think it’s really intimate being sexy – regardless of the silhouette, the amount of skin, it’s about the confidence.’ The collection came with the blessing of Mr Klein himself, who watched on from the front row. ‘He told me he was happy he had found a new coat to buy,’ she said. ‘I’m really proud for him to feel at home again.’

READ: For her Calvin Klein debut, Veronica Leoni stripped it all back

Fendi celebrated its centenary with a blockbuster show in Milan

2025 was a definitive year for Fendi: not only did it mark a century since the fashion house was founded in Rome, but, after the departure of artistic director of womenswear and couture Kim Jones in October 2024, the beginning of its new chapter. As such, in February, Fendi opened the doors to its newly renovated Milanese headquarters for a celebratory runway show, seeing house scion Silvia Venturini Fendi take the reins for the blockbuster spectacle which included a cast of Fendi muses, past and present. The granddaughter of house founders Adele and Edoardo Fendi, Venturini Fendi started at the house in the 1990s under Karl Lagerfeld, and would go on to head up menswear and accessories, though this was just the second time she had also designed the womenswear line (the first was after Lagerfeld’s death in 2019). Talking to Wallpaper*, she said that it was an honour to head up such a definitive show for both her family and the house – but was adamant this was not about living in the past: ‘I tried to avoid any precise reference because, to me, anniversaries are beautiful, but you don’t want it to be a retrospective or nostalgic’. After presenting a second co-ed collecti on in September, she stepped down from the creative role to become ‘honorary president’. Her successor will be former Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri in a much-rumoured move.

READ: Silvia Venturini Fendi on luxury, lineage and looking to the future: ‘If it reminds me of something we’ve already done, we move on’

Prada agreed to purchase Versace for $1.375 billion

The subject of much speculation and rumour after Donatella Versace stepped down from her role as creative director the month prior, in April, it was confirmed that the Prada Group reached an agreement to purchase Versace after the Italian house was put on sale by former owner Capri Holdings earlier in the year. Agreeing to a deal of $1.375 billion for 100 per cent of the company – well below the initial $2 billion asking price – it marked a definitive move from the Prada Group to establish an Italian luxury conglomerate (The Prada Group comprises Miu Miu, Church's and Car Shoe; in 1999, it purchased controlling stakes in Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, though they were later sold). ‘We are delighted to welcome Versace to the Prada Group and to build a new chapter for a brand with which we share a strong commitment to creativity, craftmanship and heritage,’ said Patrizio Bertelli, Prada Group chairman and executive director, at the time (the deal was completed in December). ‘We aim to continue Versace’s legacy, celebrating and re-interpreting its bold and timeless aesthetic; at the same time, we will provide it with a strong platform.’

READ: Donatella Versace is stepping down as creative director

The Met’s Costume Institute explored the figure of the Black Dandy

In a year which was notable for its slew of fashion exhibitions – from the confection-like gowns of ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ at London’s V&A to a Rick Owens retrospective featuring a lifelike sculpture of the designer ‘urinating’ water into a trough below – the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Costume Institute exhibition in May still demands the most attention. This is largely because of the accompanying Met Gala – the starry event heralds the exhibition’s opening – though it is also down to the Costume Institute’s head curator Andrew Bolton’s eye for finding intriguing subject matter in the Met’s extensive archive. This year, he drafted Monica L Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, to help curate the exhibition, which traced the sartorial history of the Black Dandy from the 18th century to the present day. Titled ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, alongside historical garments, it featured the work – or personal wardrobes – of Virgil Abloh, Andre Leon Talley and Grace Wales Bonner, among others, with set design for the arresting exhibition courtesy of artist Torkwase Dyson. ‘I clocked into how people have fashioned themselves as a manipulation of autonomy and ownership in which clothing is a resistance,’ she told Wallpaper* of the design, which riffed on her signature trapezoid sculptures.

READ: Torkwase Dyson’s set design for ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ at The Met meditates on ownership, charisma and histories

Saint Laurent’s viral knee-high boots heralded menswear’s dark, sensual mood

At Cannes film festival, while promoting queer ‘dom-com’ Pillion – a film which explores a dom/sub relationship between a shy parking attendant and a biker – Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård donned a thigh-high leather wader boot by Anthony Vaccarrello for Saint Laurent. Shown at the house’s runway show earlier that year, it became one of the viral accessories of the year, worn by everyone from Pedro Pascal to Marc Jacobs, and ubiquitous in magazine spreads. Inspired by an imagined meeting between two men who designed the aesthetic of the 1980s – Yves Saint Laurent and Robert Mapplethorpe – the collection captured a mood of dangerous sensuality which ran throughout the season, from Prada’s patchworked leathers to Maximilian Davis’s S/S 2026 Ferragamo collection, inspired by the languid sensuality of Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Vaccarello dubbed it a ‘menacing, seductive elegance’ – classic menswear with an inflection of kink.

READ: Inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe, Saint Laurent’s surprise menswear show captured ‘a menacing, seductive elegance’

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake channelled la dolce vita in Florence

It would prove one of the most memorable show locations of the year: unfolding against a painterly Florentine sky at sunset, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake staged its S/S 2026 show at Medicea della Petraia, a former Medici residence on Monte Morello in the rolling Tuscan countryside. A guest of Pitti Uomo menswear fair, the Issey Miyake offshoot used the occasion to introduce a new roving format of runway show: eschewing its usual place on the Paris Fashion Week schedule (its position has been taken by IM Men, another brand in the Issey Miyake family), it will show in a series of locations around the world in the coming seasons. As such, collections will draw inspiration from local landscapes: here, it was done via an evocative use of colour, utilising hues sourced through trips the design team had taken around Italy (from ’Cinque Terre Yellow’ to ‘Zucchini Flower Orange’). The result was a collection which fused Italian charm with Homme Plissé’s pioneering fabrications: played out in the villa’s winding, maze-like gardens, it was impossible not to be seduced.

READ: With an ode to Italy, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake brings its brand of fashion magic to Florence’s Pitti Uomo

Rick Owens spread the love with a Paris retrospective

‘I’m surprised I got so far,’ Rick Owens told Wallpaper* in a wide-ranging conversation to mark the opening of ‘Temple of Love’, a career-spanning retrospective at Paris’ Palais Galliera. A celebration of the American designer’s singular approach – one laced with both subversion and wit – the exhibition took attendees on a trip from his early years on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1990s (a recreation of his Los Angeles bedroom of the time appears in the exhibition) towards his blockbuster spectacles at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo (indeed, in June, an opening party took place just after his S/S 2026 menswear show, with guests simply having to cross the road from one institution to another). ‘Michèle [Lamy, Owens’ wife] kept telling me, ‘You gotta stop calling it a retrospective!’ She doesn't like the finality – I'm leaning into it,’ he said. ‘A retrospective implies a decline, it makes you think about legacy and mortality and ageing, and how long do you stay relevant, and how important is that? I don't have the answers to any of those things, but I am thinking about them and addressing them publicly.’

READ: ‘I’m surprised that I got this far’: Rick Owens on his bombastic Paris retrospective, ‘Temple of Love’

Jonathan Anderson rebooted his brand – and debuted at Dior

It was a busy June for Jonathan Anderson. Alongside his much-anticipated debut show at Dior – a menswear offering for S/S 2026 presented at Paris’ Hôtel National des Invalides, which astutely reworked formal dress codes – the Northern Irish designer also revealed a rebooted vision for his eponymous, London-based label JW Anderson, which propelled him to renown after it was established in 2008. Doing away with the label’s usual seasonal runway shows, the new vision centres on the idea of the shop: in Paris, during haute couture week, he constructed a simulacrum of a new store concept by architects Sanchez Benton which included not only a fashion collection (a greatest hits of sorts, seeing signature pieces imbued with a greater commitment to craft) but a curation of intriguing objects and curiosities, from ceramics and vintage gardening tools to furniture, art, even honey. 'I like change. I have wanted to change things around for two years now, and finally I feel at one with who I am today and what the brand means,’ he told Wallpaper*. ‘It’s things that I either want to wear or want to live with.’

READ: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut: ‘bringing joy to the art of dressing’

Craig Green returned to the runway – and to Paris

After just over a decade in business, Craig Green remains one of British fashion’s definitive voices – a singular creative force whose imaginative collections transform humble menswear archetypes (workwear, uniforms, biker jackets) through imaginative construction and unusual fabrications, oftentimes evoking sculpture. This year, he made his return to Paris Fashion Week, having shown a year prior in his London studio, and elsewhere via lookbook (Green is one of a handful of designers who seem to be flourishing outside of the typical fashion calendar). The show was one of our highlights of the year: a poetic, free-thinking collection inspired by The Beatles, psychedelics and 1960s bed sheets – albeit in his typically inventive style. ‘Creativity how everything moves forward,’ Green told us in the October 2025 ‘Long View’ issue of Wallpaper*, in which we documented the process behind the collection. ‘You need creative thought for things to progress, and for new things to happen. You have to have the freedom to make mistakes, to create work and not live in fear.’

READ: ‘You have to be fearless’: inside the free-thinking world of Craig Green

Glenn Martens unveiled his vision for Maison Margiela

The task was unenviable: as the new creative director of Maison Margiela, Belgian designer Glenn Martens would not only have to follow the house’s namesake – arguably the most influential designer of recent times – but also John Galliano, his predecessor, whose final collection, which conjured a troupe of contorted dolls on the drizzly moonlit banks of the Seine, was a true fashion epic. But Martens, who comes with a pedigree of his own after zeitgeist-defining stints at Y/Project and Diesel, was more than up for a challenge. His own creatures were sheathed in masks (a nod to a Margiela hallmark, that of anonymity) and appeared pulled through the the walls of history – quite literally, with a melange of jacquards, Renaissance motifs and embossed leather (inspired by 16th-century Flemish wallpaper), evoking the faded grandeur of abandoned stately homes (indeed, the show set was a series of ‘palatial interiors’ printed on crumpled and crased paper). We called it a ‘thrilling’ debut, a task of ‘reinvention and reconstruction – a precarious balance of what to take and what to leave behind’.

READ: Glenn Martens’ thrilling Maison Margiela debut was a balancing act between past, present and future

Fashion East celebrated a ‘rowdy and raw’ 25 years of nurturing emerging talent

In September, Fashion East’s S/S 2026 runway show doubled as a celebration: 2025 marked 25 years of the Brick Lane-based talent incubator, which was founded by Lulu Kennedy to help forge the careers of London’s rising stars. The roll call of names which have passed through its doors is proof of its success: Jonathan Anderson, Martine Rose, Kim Jones, Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner are all alumni of the unique scheme, which has long encapsulated London’s unique brand of young talent – defiantly creative, ‘rowdy and raw’ (as Kennedy herself described in a letter distributed to guests at the show). Taking place at the ICA, this season’s show – comprising collections by Nuba, Jacek Gleba and Mayhew – doubled as a Nike-sponsored exhibition tracing Fashion East’s impressive quarter century through its memorable clothing and ephemera, from Green’s ‘broken-fence’ chestplates to a leopard-print cake by Mowalola. Later in the year, in December, Kennedy and her creative partner Raphaelle Moore collected a Special Recognition Award at the 2025 Fashion Awards. ‘We’re proud to have created a unique space where designers have both the freedom to create fearlessly, and a family unit to uplift them,’ they said.

September’s fashion week saw almost too many debuts to count

2025 was fashion’s big reshuffle, seeing an unprecedented number of designers making their debuts at fashion’s biggest houses – from Dior to Chanel, Gucci to Celine. It was September fashion month, though, that was a true changing of the guard moment, with over 15 designers presenting their first collections as newly installed creative leads. These spanned an energetic and playful debut from Nicholas Aburn at Area in New York (the former Balenciaga designer riffed on the figure of the party girl in irreverent style), Simone Bellotti’s masterful first outing at Jil Sander, which saw him astutely explore ideas of modernity and lightness (staged in the brand’s white-walled Milan headquarters, it was a true clean slate momet), or Pierpaolo Piccioli’s typically heartfelt first collection for Balenciaga (an appearance from the Duchess of Sussex ensured column inches).

Elsewhere, notable debuts included Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, Glenn Martens at Maison Margiela, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe and Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier. And, while these debuts were largely lauded – particularly by critics – fiercer debates broke out online in the depths of Instagram comment sections. ‘I have read some really heinous comments about the work of many designers in these last few days,’ wrote Perfect magazine’s Edward Buchanan, former design director of Bottega Veneta, in a much-shared post. ‘It is not always perfect, and it is not always what you personally imagined it to be. You don’t have to like everything… but why not celebrate and talk about what you love?’

Though in Paris, it was Chanel and Dior which commanded the most attention

There were two debuts, though, which commanded the most attention: Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut for Dior (he had previously shown his first menswear collection in June) and Matthieu Blazy’s opening act for Chanel. Shrugging off the weight of expectation, both collections provided an astute and contemporary viewpoint on the future of two of fashion’s most storied houses – Anderson through a fearless ‘recoding’ of the house’s archive in his idosyncratic style (we said it was a collection of ‘bravery, vision and instinct’), Blazy through a collection of unbridled freedom and optimism (a twirling Awar Odhiang in a gown of kaleidoscopic feathers, the model who memorably closed the show, encapsulated the ‘triumphant’ mood). After Chanel, which marked the end of fashion month, we said that after all of the debuts, it finally felt like a ‘weight had been lifted’. ‘There will be no more anticipation or speculation, no more guessing games or gossip. The designers are in place, and a new chapter of fashion has begun – from there, the hard work begins.’

While Demna marked his Gucci debut with a Demi Moore-starring film

In what proved an astute move, the Georgian designer Demna – previously of Balenciaga – got ahead of the season’s other debuts by presenting his first collection as creative director of Gucci on the first day of Milan Fashion Week, allowing him a moment in which he dominated the narrative (and, of course, social media). Revealed first through a lookbook of Gucci ‘archetypes’, rewritten in his typically irreverent and subversive style (he called it a ‘bold, sexy new chapter’ for the house), it was followed up by a Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn-directed short, premiered at Milan’s Palazzo Mezzanotte. Titled The Tiger, it starred Demi Moore as the fictional ’head of Gucci international and chairman of California’ whose world begins to unravel at a family gathering. Even cleverer? Demna will get another ‘debut’ in 2026 when he holds his first runway for the house during Milan Fashion Week, in February.

READ: Gucci reveals its ‘bold, unapologetically sexy’ new era under Demna

The fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani

In early September, the fashion world mourned the death of Giorgio Armani, an arbiter of Italian style who founded his eponymous house half a century ago, in 1975. One of fashion’s great success stories, Mr Armani began the label using funds made from selling his old Volkswagen Beetle; on his death, he left behind a multi-billion dollar empire spanning not only fashion but homeware, hotels, restaurants, fragrances and cosmetics. To mark his death, after a private funeral held earlier in the month, well-wishers gathered at Milan Fashion Week in September for his final Giorgio Armani show. Originally intended to celebrate 50 years in business, it took place at Brera’s Pinacoteca di Brera, where an accompanying exhibition unfolded in the galleries above. As ever, the S/S 2026 collection – modelled on a cast of Armani models past and present and watched on by muses Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton and Cate Blanchett – encapsulated Mr Armani’s brand of soft elegance, culminating with model Agnes Zogla in a glimmering gown adorned with his face. Afterwards, guests milled the galleries, where the designer’s work took its fitting place amid the great Italian masters – from Bellini to Raphael.

READ: In Milan, the fashion world gathers to say goodbye to Giorgio Armani at his final show

A Virgil Abloh exhibition celebrated his landmark legacy

Just over four years since his death, American designer Virgil Abloh leaves behind a towering legacy – one which was celebrated this September in Paris with the opening of an exhibition at the Grand Palais. Open for just a few days (cue a sold out booking system and snaking queues around the block), the exhibition opened the doors to his prolific archive of objects, clothing, ephemera, furniture and art, displayed across sprawling tables and shelves as if stepping into his headquarters. Indeed, one senses the polymathic designer – who made history as the first Black creative director of Louis Vuitton – would enjoy the exhibition’s approach, which eshewed the behind-glass formality of the traditional museum (only self-restraint stopped you from picking up the objects on display). Titled ‘Virgil Abloh: The Codes’, the idea is for it to go on display around the world. ‘This is a true celebration of Virgil's vision and ethos,’ said the late designer’s wife, Shannon Abloh. ‘This offers an invitation to the world to engage and to build upon his ideas.’

READ: Inside the Paris exhibition cataloguing Virgil Abloh’s extraordinary archive

Grace Wales Bonner is appointed at Hermès

In late October, Hermès announced the appointment of Grace Wales Bonner as the house’s head of menswear, replacing Véronique Nichanian who made the choice to step down from the role after a record-breaking 37-year tenure (the longest of any working creative director at a fashion house). It felt long overdue for the British designer. An LVMH Prize-winning designer whose deeply felt collections for her eponymous label Wales Bonner – exploring themes of Black masculinity, migration and luxury – have consistently won plaudits for rich storytelling and meticulous craftsmanship, leading many to question why she hadn’t been chosen for a creative director role sooner (she had been rumoured for roles at both Louis Vuitton and Givenchy which went to Pharrell Williams and Sarah Burton respectively). On social media, there was a rare positive consensus on the decision: in her own post, the designer, who was born in South London to a British mother and Jamaican father, expressed her ‘deep honour’ at being chosen for the role. ‘It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers,’ she wrote.

READ: Lauded British designer Grace Wales Bonner is the new head of menswear at Hermès

1980s ‘architect of glamour’ Antony Price returned to the runway

The fashion critic Alexander Fury – who is an avid collector of his work – has called Antony Price, a British fashion designer who came to prominence in the 1980s, as ‘criminally underrated’. Best known for creating the visual universe of Roxy Music, and staging similarly dramatic runway shows in the decade, the ‘architect of glamour’ made a welcome runway return in November, courtesy of a one-off salon show with London-based label 16Arlington. Staged in the latter’s east London studio, the high-profile cast – from Lily Allen to Adwoa Aboah – prowled the runway in the high-voltage creations, puffing on cigarettes before posing for photographer Felix Cooper. ‘I personally felt Antony never really received his flowers,’ Capaldo told Wallpaper*. ‘To have been able to witness such a legend at work has probably been one of the most incredible and pivotal moments in my career. It's been really magical.’ Sadly, it was announced that Price passed away at the age of 80 on 17 December 2025.

READ: ‘Architect of glamour’ Antony Price makes a high-voltage return to the runway with 16Arlington

Dario Vitale said goodbye to Versace

It was to be one of fashion’s shortest tenures – just a few short months after his debut, in December, it was announced that Italian designer Dario Vitale would be exiting Versace. The former design director of Miu Miu, and the successor to Donatella Versace, the news came as some surprise: Vitale’s debut show at Milan Fashion Week, though divisive, had won over critics and was already being worn by celebrities (Olivia Dean wore custom Versace for a recent SNL appearance, while Addison Rae was also an early adopter). We said that Vitale had ‘stripped back conceptions and ushered in an energetic new vision: sexually charged and ‘reckless’, one that harkened back to the dress codes of Gianni Versace without nostalgia.’ On social media, the announcement came with some disappointment at the way in which designers are given so little time to make their mark: ‘There’s a disturbing pattern across the fashion industry: giant companies, plucking creative directors, placing them on a pedestal, parading them as the future, and then discarding them just as quickly,’ wrote casting director Anita Bitton in a much-shared Instagram post.

In Vienna, there was a chance to see Helmut Lang’s fashion archive for the first time

Though he exited the industry 20 years ago, Helmut Lang’s influence on fashion remains palpable. A definitive figure of the 1990s, he proposed a vision of sensually-charged minimalism and utility which continues to define the way that we dress today. He also changed the way we consume fashion, too: his memorable New York runway shows stripped back the artifice of the 1980s and its elevated runway, drafting friends to walk alongside supermodels, while stripped-back campaigns were captured by a young Juergen Teller. This revolutionary spirit is celebrated in ‘Séance de Travail 1986-2005’, an exhibition which opened in December at MAK in Vienna, which marks the first time Helmut Lang’s fashion archive is on show to the public – from memorable garments to archival film, ephemera, even recreations of elements from his equally definitive stores (Lang donated his archive to the institution in 2011). ‘Looking at Helmut Lang’s store architecture, it became obvious: his stores were all about directing the gaze. This is also what exhibitions need to do, but here it was essential. A photo wouldn’t suffice; you have to experience it,’ curator Marlies Wirth told Wallpaper* of the exhibition, which is designed to immerse you in the Lang universe – all the way down to the floor, which features a seating plan from a runway show.

READ: Inside Helmut Lang’s fashion archive in Vienna, which still defines how we dress today

Marty Supreme birthed the year’s viral garment – thanks to Timothée Chalamet

The Marty Supreme press tour has already come with some memorable sartorial moments – the film’s star Timothée Chalamet and girlfiend Kylie Jenner in matching orange Chrome Hearts for one – though it was more humble track jacket which went viral in December (the Josh Safdie-directed film is out on Christmas Day in the United States). The nylon windbreaker, created by the film’s production company A24 alongside California-based label Nahmias, was part of a merch drop for the film – adorned with ‘Marty Supreme’ and three gold stars, Chalamet has barely taken it off since. Pop-ups in New York and London have seen queues around the block to lay their hands on the $250 jacket – with resale sites selling the garment for up to for up to £4,366 (that’s over 20 times its original price). It speaks not only to A24’s marketing prowess, but also to the rise of movie merch – at the end of 2024, Mary Cleary explored its rise for Wallpaper*. ‘How it will continue to play out is yet to be seen, but one thing is almost certain: movie merch will continue to take over fashion,’ she wrote – and was right.

The volcanic island of Pantelleria, 62 miles off the coast of Sicily, has long been a haven for Giorgio Armani, whose sun-soaked villa – constructed from two renovated dammusi, a traditional dwelling on the island – has been a perennial summer refuge for the designer (he spends every August there).

Now, Pantelleria provides a dramatic backdrop for the second chapter of Emporio Armani’s collaboration with Stockholm-based label Our Legacy, photographed by British photographer Alasdair McLellan in an evocative series of images backdropped by remote volcanic vistas, serene coves, and sun-baked roadways.

Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani reworks the archive

The somewhat unexpected collaboration – Emporio Armani is known for a sleek, sportswear-inflected modernity; Our Legacy has a more grungy, undone aesthetic, inspired by subcultural dress codes – began in 2023, with a cat-adorned collection which found common ground in vintage Emporio Armani cuts and silhouettes.

Chapter two mines a similar mood: part of our legacy’s ‘Work Shop’, an ‘experimental hub’ of the Swedish brand, the collection reworks archival Emporio Armani fabrics and silhouettes in Our Legacy’s easy, undone style (slouchy silhouettes, raw-cut hems, worn-in finishes and the like). The collection features both mens and womenswear, the latter for the first time.

Other pieces nod towards Mr Armani’s inspiration from East Asian style: stand-collar jackets, wrapped kimono-inspired cuts and Japanese florals all feature in the collection. A new version of Our Legacy ‘Cigarr’ slip-on mule, meanwhile, is designed to recall hotel slippers.

‘To design within the boundaries of what already exists is a challenge – but also an opportunity,’ says Cristopher Nying, Our Legacy’s creative director. ‘These fabrics carry history. Seeing them return in a new form made the entire process unexpectedly rewarding.’

‘I love things that age well,’ adds Mr Armani. ‘Things that don’t date, that stand the test of time both in terms of durability and wearability.’

Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani is available from 16 May 2025, at the Armani/Manzoni store in Milan, various Dover Street Market and Our Legacy locations, alongside selected stores worldwide.

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Milan Design Week 2025 saw the fashion contingent put on its most comprehensive showing at the design fair to date, taking up residence in some of the city’s storied landmarks to do so.

From Gucci’s ‘Bamboo Encounters’ staged in the cloisters of San Simpliciano and Aesop’s ‘The Second Skin’ exhibition in the sacristy of the Chiesa del Carmine, to Loewe at the Palazzo Citterio and Prada Frames taking over the iconic Milano Centrale station, the showcase proved a heady melting pot of sensorial immersions and design collaborations.

Here, Scarlett Conlon highlights the standout fashion moments of Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2025 – from Loewe’s playful artist-designed teapots to a blockbuster Charlotte Perriand exhibition from Saint Laurent.

Georg Jensen’s ‘Gelateria Danese’

Danish design house Georg Jensen provided Milan Design Week’s most palatable pit stop: Gelateria Danese, an ephemeral ice cream parlour that drew inspiration from the interiors of Copenhagen’s Palace Hotel (opened in 1910, Georg Jensen provided furnishings and silverware) while referencing Milanese café culture. On the menu was traditional affogato (coffee was sourced from local roastery Prolog), while an array of ice cream flavours were dreamed up by Copenhagen-based Italian chef Chiara Barla. Each was served on Georg Jensen silverware, from coupes to tub-shaped cups, as well as spoons taken from ‘The Artisans Series’. ‘You’ll find pieces you’d typically associate with ice cream, but instead of being disposable, they’re crafted in silver,’ said recently appointed creative director Paula Gerbase. ‘Not only creating durable objects, but elevating the fleeting moments we use them in.’

The Row’s first homeware offering

In signature understated style, The Row launched ‘Home’ at Salone. Comprising a collection of three handwoven throws and a quilted blanket, the Olsens’ first foray into luxury home design was presented elegantly draped over steel and bronze rails by Julian Schnabel in the frescoed rooms of what will shortly become the New York-based brand’s Milanese HQ. Created with artisans in Kashmir, India, each blanket takes between 600 hours to craft and employs a different weaving technique from which they take their name: the Classic, The Row Weave, and the Himalayan Weave, arriving in four colourways – mink, ivory, brown and black. Lightweight at less than 14.5 microns and discreetly embroidered with the brand’s initials, they stand to become one of the year’s most coveted IYKYK home improvements.

Prada Frames boards a restored Gio Ponti train

As the city’s most majestic portal, Milano Centrale station proved the perfect location for the fourth edition of Prada Frames, ‘In Transit’. The annual event curated by Formafantasma that invites panellists from all areas of design, including architecture, engineering and environmental planning, into thematic dialogue has become one of the most popular attractions at Design Week, taking place in iconic landmarks around the city. This year, attendees were invited into the station’s Padiglione Reale that once served as the waiting room for Italian royalty and heads of state before boarding the Arlecchino train designed by Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti in the 1950s and recently restored by the Fondazione FS Italiane (out of the entire original fleet, this was the only one viable to be brought back to its former glory). Over the course of the week, discussions on digital, global, material and hacking infrastructures, along with interrogations of infrastructures of power, played out on board, seeking to examine ‘the impact of digital revolutions and global distribution networks on daily life’. Once again brilliantly introduced and contextualised by Alice Rawsthorn, several key takeaways included the necessity for infrastructure to collaborate rather than colonise, integrating ancestral knowledge to reframe industrial design, and the urgent need to re-evaluate industrial infrastructures to work in conjunction with the natural world rather than see them as separate entities.

READ: Aboard Gio Ponti's colourful Arlecchino train in Milan, a conversation about design with Formafantasma

Stone Island’s ‘sonic experience’

Stone Island invited visitors to its ‘sonic experience’ called ‘Friendly Pressure: Studio One’, staged in collaboration with Friendly Pressure, the London-based sound system studio founded by Shivas Howard Brown. A study of the textures of sound, the week-long programme of events took place in spaces that had bespoke hi-fidelity audio systems installed by Friendly Pressure in direct response to the precise dimensions of the space to rouse emotions akin to ‘the golden age of recorded music, treating sound as both a sensory and physical experience,’ the brand relayed. Studio One, where the events took place, was inspired by Carlo Scarpa, while inside soundproofing by Soundwave Jasmine and CC-Tapis rugs ensured the desired sound dispersion. Mirroring Stone Island’s sartorial approach to how materials respond to their environment, an allegorical experience emerged, parallelling reactions to touch and sound.

Louis Vuitton’s latest Objets Nomades series

Louis Vuitton revealed its 2025 home collection by staging a takeover of the neoclassical residence of Palazzo Serbelloni in the centre of Milan alongside its Objets Nomades series. Featuring designs from leading artists that the Paris fashion house has collaborated with over the years – including Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon and Atelier Biagetti – it drew special attention to the work of futurist artist Fortunato Depero and Charlotte Perriand, whose textile work for the house was realised for the first time. Elsewhere, a special-edition trunk celebrating the house’s original design icon, the Malle Vaisselier, opened to reveal a service of refined porcelain and delicate glasses. It was the more whimsical items on display that drew the most attention: the Odyssée table football and a pinball machine inspired by the A/W 2025 fashion show by creative director Pharrell Williams were designed for Studio Louis Vuitton by Estúdio Campana and balanced the splendour with a cheeky wink.

Miu Miu’s ‘Literary Club’

The doors to The Miu Miu Literary Club opened once again during Salone, inviting guests into the Circolo Filologico Milanese that had been given a modernist Miu Miu makeover. Conceived under the direction of Miuccia Prada and curated by writer and researcher Olga Campofreda, the theme for this year was ‘A Woman’s Education’ and saw two days of panel discussions exploring the subjects of girlhood, love and sex education through the pages of Simone de Beauvoir’s 1954 coming-of-age novella ‘The Inseparables’ and Fumiko Enchi’s groundbreaking 1957 novel charting female desire, ‘The Waiting Years’. On day one, author Lou Stoppard moderated a panel discussion exploring ‘the power of girlhood’ in the context of De Beauvoir’s work with Lauren Elkin, Geetanjali Shree, and Veronica Raimo, and on day two Kai Isaiah Jamal delved into Enchi’s with through the lens of ‘love, sex, and desire’ with Nicola Dinan, Naoise Dolan, and Sarah Manguso, both championing the voices of female literary voices past, present and future.

Valextra’s ‘travelling sculpture’ with Zaven

Milanese leather goods brand Valextra is famed for sitting at the intersection of fashion and design with an archive dating back to 1937 that includes collaborations with AG Fronzoni and the first Compasso D’Oro award. For its Salone project this year, it continued its Vocabulario Project, inviting the Venice-based design studio Zaven to work with one of its most famous creations from the last century and recontextualise it through an idiosyncratic lens. The result is the ‘Costa 70 x Zaven’ suitcase, an identical re-creation of the Giovanni Fontana-designed luggage that dates back to the 1960s filled with a series of abstract resin objects that Zaven designed to be engineered into a build-it-yourself home sculpture. ‘Responsive and thought-provoking design has been at the core of Valextra’s DNA since 1937 and Zaven mirrors our own passion in realising objects of excellence in both a functional and meaningful way with this exceptional reinvention of an archival icon,’ says Valextra CEO Xavier Rougeaux.

READ: Valextra’s collaboration with Zaven is a ‘travelling sculpture’ with its own suitcase

Brioni bottles a rare fragrance with Lalique

If time is regarded as one of the greatest luxuries, then Brioni bottled it for Salone. A project four years in the making was unveiled at its Via Gesu flagship to mark Brioni’s 80th anniversary. Beloved for its exquisite attention to sartorial detail, the brand unveiled the Dualité Crystal Edition Perfume in collaboration with Lalique, an ode to artisanal craftsmanship and the art of olfactory. The glass bottle – of which only 18 are available – stands at nearly 40cm high and features an internal sculpture that was created using the cire-perdue method, the lost-wax technique first used by René Lalique in 1893 and passed down through generations of glassmakers. Inside, the Extrait de Parfum scent was created by master perfumer Michel Almairac over a seven-year-period and features notes of green apple, violet, Ambroxan, and rare iris butter. ‘This collaboration between our maisons became one of shared passion, representing everything we stand for: a dedication to time, the selection of precious raw materials, exquisite artisanry and the difference that human touch makes,’ says Brioni design director, Norbert Stumpfl.

Luca Faloni collaborates with Winetage

Luca Faloni partnered with Winetage, the fellow Italian brand that upcycles wine barrels into original design objects, to create a daybed upholstered in its exquisite brushed linen fabrics. Crafted from wood that still bears the red-wine stains and aromas from years of maturing the best Italian vintages, the daybed is furnished with padded tubes in fruity Bordeaux-red tones. Designed to spotlight the best of Made in Italy, the finished product combines fashion, wine, and design, providing the perfect resting spot to indulge in all three.

Missoni Home opens new Milan store

Missoni Home might be a mainstay in many a Milano dwelling, but it didn’t have its own spot in the city it calls home until this design week. Beside the brand’s Via Solferino showroom, the first dedicated Missoni Home boutique opened this week with its interior decor riffing on several of the brand’s most distinctive signatures, including degradé-painted pillars, zig-zag wallpaper, and its joyful rainbow colour palette, featuring a special curation of its expansive home offering.

Tod’s celebrates Made in Italy craft

As one of Italy’s most recognisable design icons, the Tod’s Gommino driving shoe holds a special place in the Made in Italy playbook. For Salone, the brand released a limited edition of the driving shoe (above) and unveiled a special coffee-table photography tome, ‘Italian Hands; Artisanal Stories From Italy’. A celebration of the processes and products that are exported all over the world, it features prominent Italian tastemakers alongside the artisans with whom they collaborate and promote – including master Murano glassblower Giberto Arrivabene, master of terracotta Rosario Spina, artisan of brass and bronze Ernesto Carati; and pesto connoisseur Christian Belforte. ‘This book is a tribute to those who, every day, with passion and commitment, contribute to keeping a fundamental part of our cultural identity alive,’ says Tod’s group president Diego Della Valle. ‘It is a recognition of those who know how to enhance craftsmanship, making it a symbol of authentic, timeless quality, even for new generations.’

Gucci’s Bamboo Encounters

Few materials are as synonymous with Gucci as bamboo. One of the fashion house’s defining motifs since it was first used on its iconic handbag in 1947, its legacy defines the innovation inherent to the Florentine brand. For Milan Design Week this year, the house invited seven artists to give their take on the material in their own mediums for its installation ‘Gucci Bamboo Encounters’. Curated by 2050+ founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and staged in the cloisters of the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, works ranged from a sculpture by Swedish-Chilean artist Anton Alvarez and a collection of baskets featuring hand-blown glass accents by Palestinian architect, artist, and researcher Dima Srouji, to a jubilant collection of bamboo kites by the Dutch design collective Kite Club. They were joined by artists Nathalie Du Pasquier, Laurids Galleé, and Sisan Lee, each of whom explored the shapeshifting possibilities of this chameleonic material.

READ: Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli on curating Gucci Bamboo Encounters at Fuorisalone: ‘We didn’t want to produce commodities’

‘La Prima Notte Di Quiete’ by Loro Piana and Dimoremilano

Loro Piana may have staged its design week event in the Cortile della Seta courtyard of its Milan headquarters, but there was nothing familiar about this space. Realised in collaboration with design duo Dimorestudio (founded by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci), the usually light-flooded space had been transformed into a decadent 1970s film set meets affluent Milanese penthouse accessed via a cinema foyer draped in red theatre curtains. Invited through the curtains, visitors were presented with a fully furnished home, featuring furniture designed by Dimorestudio for Loro Piana Interiors alongside exquisite vintage pieces upholstered in Loro Piana’s luxurious home textiles and art from Tornabuoni Art, Cardi Gallery, and Galleria Gracis e Secci Gallery. Immersing visitors in the space for four-minute intervals was a soundtrack curated by music composer and multimedia artist Nicola Guiducci that ranged from excerpted dialogue on a rainy evening to a phone ringing and a piano playing that both heightened the cinematic experience.

Saint Laurent’s homage to Charlotte Perriand

When it comes to the design world, Yves is never far from Saint Laurent. For its design week installation, creative director Anthony Vaccarello looked to one of the design heroes of the French fashion house’s founder, Charlotte Perriand, commissioning four pieces of furniture she conceived between 1943 to 1967 that have only existed as sketches or prototypes until now. Comprising the rosewood and cane sofa designed for the Japanese ambassador’s Paris residence in 1967; the rose and cherrywood Mille-Feuilles table that she made a reduced-scale model of in 1963; the Indochina Guest Armchair she designed for her own home in 1943; and the Rio de Janeiro bookcase she designed in 1962 for her husband Jacques Martin’s apartment, the collection has been produced in full scale for the very first time for Milan Design Week. Standing in homage to the design talents of both Perriand and Saint Laurent, each piece in the collection will be available on an exclusive made-to-order basis following the showcase.

Versace’s celebration of the ‘Art of Living’

The Versace brand may be undergoing creative changes following the announcement last month that Donatella Versace would be stepping down as creative director, but its extravagant proposition for home design remains steadfast at its Milan Design Week presentation, The Versace Art of Living. Described as a ‘universe that brings a fantasy of poise, extravagance and heritage to life’, the star of the show this season was the reinvention of the ‘Harem’ chair, its steel frame made bountiful with the addition of thick padded satin cushions and, of course, a large gold Medusa head, alongside an update the of the 1994 wooden chair the ‘Vanitas’, upholstered in velvet. The house referenced Versace’s last fashion show at the event, stating that, like its ready-to-wear offering, ‘to embody Versace is to embrace a way of living at once proudly historied and decidedly modern, and to live it – to wear it, eat from it, sit on it, sleep in it – with uncompromising intention.’

Dolce & Gabbana’s ode to ‘love and hospitality’

The master of Southern Italian charm, Dolce & Gabbana, brought the verdant coastal landscapes of its founders’ native Sicily to the northern design capital for Salone with Verde Maiolica, a porcelain service in green and white. Celebrating the handmade craftsmanship of the region, its botanical design finds its roots in the Mediterranean shrub, while the collection – comprising tea and coffee sets alongside tableware, flatware and glassware – ‘represents and narrates the tale of love and hospitality’, relayed the brand at its Via Broggi cocktail presentation.

Fendi Casa’s collaboration with Lewis Kemmenoe

Fendi Casa continued its Design Miami collaboration with British designer Lewis Kemmenoe in Milan, seeing him take over the windows of its Via Manzoni flagship with his large-scale abstract panels. Acting as a metaphor for the savoir-faire behind the Rome-based brand’s furniture, they encapsulated the duality of the new interiors collection that is at once sumptuous and minimal. New to its line-up this year was ‘Cover’ sofa, designed to be ‘dressed up or down’ – a sartorial reference to reliable wardrobe staples; the ‘Twist’ chair by Stefano Gallizioli, a wood structure upholstered in leather with armrests resembling the swirls of a ribbon; and the modular ‘Later’ sofa, designed by Ceriani Szostak and inspired by the rationalist architecture of Fendi’s iconic Rome HQ that is famously both imposing and inviting.

Issey Miyake’s ‘Type-XIII Atelier Oï’ lighting

Issey Miyake invited guests to its Milan flagship to unveil ‘Type-XIII Atelier Oï’, the fruits of its collaborative project between the Swiss design studio Atelier Oï and A-POC Able Issey Miyake, which explores the seemingly limitless possibilities of its iconic ‘A Piece of Cloth’ concept. Unveiling lighting prototypes that use one piece of wire and a piece of cloth in several formations, the house presented two distinctive series. The first, the ‘O Series’, draws inspiration from the Japanese art of Ikebana, with five sculptural lights designed to take on the same decorative presence as flower arrangements that can be easily moved around the home with the recycled polyester ‘Steam Stretch’ material used in A-POC Able’s clothes-making process appearing to blossom in spontaneous directions. The second, the ‘A Series’, pays homage to Miyake’s iconic 1997 APOC show that saw a formation of models take to the runway connected by one continuous roll of fabric. Here, a pre-knitted roll stretches out to create a three-shade interconnected light installation that can be cut to size to suit the space it is destined to take pride of place in.

READ: A-POC Able Issey Miyake’s lighting collaboration with Atelier Oï is based on its philosophy of ‘a piece of cloth’

Hermès’ brilliant white box

In a departure from the darkened rooms of recent years, Hermès turned its La Pelota venue into a brilliant-white box. ‘To design an object, to make it, a box is needed,’ visitors were told before stepping into the stark space. Designed by Charlotte Macaux Perelman, architect and artistic director of Hermès collections for the home, the cavernous box-like room presented four polyhedron shapes descending from the ceiling and emitting a fluorescent glow beneath.‘Like a sculptor's marble block, [the box] contains the object, the idea we have of it, and the dream it inspires,’ the house continued. Each of these suspended structures featured this year’s ‘Objects For The Home’, including the ‘Contrepoint Dinner Service’ by Nigel Peake and Pivot D’Hermès side table by Tomás Alonso alongside the ‘Double D’Hermès’ jugs and ‘H Partition’ throws by Studio Hermes. Positioned both inside the cavities and on cutout shelves along their surface, the intersection between an object of function and admiration was brought to the fore.

READ: A bit of all white: Hermès unveils its latest home collections in Milan

Armani Casa’s ‘Oriental Inks’

After two years of delighting Milan Design Week-goers by throwing the doors open to his historic Palazzo Orsini home on Via Borgonuovo, Giorgio Armani opted to redirect attention back to the sprawling Armani Casa flagship on Corso Venezia to mark 25 years of Armani Casa and unveil its new homewares collection, ‘Oriental Inks’. Working in collaboration with De Gournay, iconic items of furniture in the permanent Armani collection were transformed with exquisite silk and beaded embroidery and gold-leaf appliqué depicting bamboo, dragons and jungle landscapes, chosen for being ‘auspicious symbols of strength, flexibility and endurance’ designed to transport their owners – and admirers – elsewhere. The ‘Amedeo’ bed, in particular, took over 200 hours to embroider its monkey-inhabiting canopy scene. ‘The display and the new pieces, authentic examples of the highest level of craftsmanship, are visible through the windows to anyone passing by,’ shared Mr Armani. ‘I quite like the idea of a surprise that captures attention, a suggestion that broadens horizons, now that horizons are often becoming narrower.’

Loewe’s artist-designed teapots

Former Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson may have left the building, but one of his proudest legacies lives on at design week. Marking its ninth craft exhibition during the city-wide showcase, the brand presented ‘Loewe Teapots’ featuring 25 different interpretations of the ubiquitous vessel by 25 international artists and the last curation from Anderson to be presented by the Spanish house. From the coral-like glaze application of South Korean artist Jane Yang-D'Haene’s pot to the surrealist two faces of Spanish ceramicist Laia Arqueros Claramunt’s design, the collection ranged in depiction from classic ceramic to convention-defying proportions, with each piece representing the intimate ceremony in which a teapot takes the lead.

READ: 25 artists reimagine the teapot at Milan Design Week 2025

Dior expands ‘Ode to Nature’ collection with Sam Baron

Dior Maison worked with French artist Sam Baron to expand its ‘Ode To Nature’ collection with three one-metre-high glass vases that were every bit as intricate as one of the French fashion house’s couture creations. Each depicting its own garden of intertwining branches, petals and foliage, the bodies of the hand-blown and hand-constructed vessels were inspired by the first Miss Dior amphora perfume bottle from 1947. Starting as a ribbed glass tube, each was gently blown and fired over several hours to create the distinctive shape before the exacting process of applying the delicate decorative details could begin. Designed to conjure the bouquets of flowers that founder Dior insisted on having in his salon, each of the three designs is available in a limited edition of eight – Monsieur Christian Dior’s lucky number.

Stay tuned for more of the best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2025.

In his 90th year, Giorgio Armani is enjoying something of a renaissance. There was a glitzy runway show in New York to celebrate his birthday year, the opening of Palazzo Armani in Paris last month, and a surge in interest from younger consumers who are hunting out his 1980s and 1990s designs on fashion resale sites. That’s not to mention a slew of other critically lauded runway shows, some high-profile celebrity ambassadors (Demi Moore wore Giorgio Armani Privé to win her Golden Globe for The Substance), and plans for further celebrations later this year as Giorgio Armani – the eponymous label which started it all – turns 50. ‘Creating is my reason for existing,’ he told Wallpaper* – after his latest Armani Privé show, in January – of his seemingly endless reserves of energy.

Inside Emporio Armani’s luxurious takeover of Selfridges’ Corner Shop

Opening today (11 February) is the designer’s latest outpost: a one-stop Emporio Armani store in Selfridges’ ‘Corner Shop’ space. Its design, says Mr Armani, is inspired by Emporio Armani’s Milanese concept store at Manzoni 31, a vast outpost of the label that also houses a restaurant and Armani/Libri bookstore. Situated on the London department store’s ground floor, the new space evokes the distinct Armani aesthetic – a kind of monumental minimalism melded with Milanese elegance and warmth – through its textural assemblage of glass, concrete, bamboo and chrome, alongside crisp white lighting and a series of floor-to-ceiling screens displaying imagery from the brand’s recent campaigns.

The store will centre around the house’s S/S 2025 collections for men and women, as well as a trans-seasonal denim offering and an array of accessories ‘embodying a modern sophistication’. Alongside will be a number of installations for shoppers to discover – Mr Armani says he imagines people ‘meandering’ through the space – including Armani/Fiori, an arm of the label that creates dramatic floral displays inspired by the Japanese art of Ikebana (a vast bamboo structure in the window is decorated with bold red anthurium flowers). Meanwhile, an outpost of the Armani/Libri bookstore will feature a curation of books spanning fashion, design and architecture (Stefano Boeri’s Gio Ponti e Milano and Josh Sims’ Icons of Style are two of the titles on sale).

The ‘Corner Shop’ space – which has previously been taken over by Prada, Loewe, Jacquemus, On and Celine – will also allow for culinary indulgence with an outpost of Armani/Dolce, the house’s chocolatier. Not only allowing shoppers to purchase the latest Armani/Dolci by Guido Gobino collection – the award-winning artisanal chocolatier has created a rich assortment of pralines, delicate chocolate discs and ‘Giandujotto’, a hazelnut chocolate that originates from Piedmont – the Armani/Dolce space will also serve hot drinks and pastries, making it a welcome haven away from the furore of Oxford Street.

Emporio Armani at Selfridges Corner shop is open until March 9, 2025.

400 Oxford St, London W1C 1JS.

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In January 2005, 20 years ago this month, the Italian designer Giorgio Armani began Giorgio Armani Privé, the rarefied couture arm of his eponymous Milanese label. Debuting in Paris, the home of haute couture, its name was chosen to suggest ‘rarity and uniqueness... a personal aesthetic pleasure’. But Privé, which is taken from the French word for ‘private’, also evokes the intimate process of an haute couture fitting, whereby garments are adjusted to the exact contours of the client’s body in the hidden realm of the couture salon.

‘Haute couture allows me to step into a realm of captivating fantasy and experimentation. It is both a dream and a service – it’s not about creating clothes for beautiful photos or memorable editorials but designing for a real clientele,’ said the 90-year-old Mr Armani prior to his latest Privé show, held in Paris yesterday evening at the house’s newly inaugurated ‘Palazzo Armani’. An opulent building on Rue François Premier in Paris’ affluent 8th arrondissement, it houses the Privé couture atelier and design studio (a more modern section of the building will become Armani’s Paris offices). ‘It is an outpost of the Armani world with local character,’ says Mr Armani. ‘I am immensely proud of it.’

20 years of Giorgio Armani Privé

Dating back to the mid-19th century, the palatial former home was a private residence until 1912, the years since seeing the 2000 sq m space house various brands before being purchased and renovated by Armani. Yesterday evening, guests were led upstairs past an impressive original marble staircase – its mix of marbles reminiscent of a Venetian palazzo – towards one of the upper floors, whereby a pearlescent runway snaked between a series of rooms, evoking a traditional haute couture salon show (lines of clear plastic chairs ran around the space’s edges).

The lavish rooms, which feature impressive gold mouldings and stuccoes restored under Armani’s direction, were a fitting setting for the designer’s S/S 2025 Privé collection, which as ever was a rich melange of surface embellishment, sculpting lines, and lustrous fabrications, albeit delivered with Mr Armani’s typical insouciance and ease. Referencing a number of Privé’s ‘greatest hits’, the designer said he was once again inspired by the idea of a journey from East to West, with references to the Japanese kimono and obi-belt featuring throughout, as well as nods to the fabrics, colours and silhouettes of Polynesia, North Africa, China and India. He chose the collection’s title, ’Lumierès’, for the way it is designed to catch the light.

The anniversary comes with a whole slew of other milestones for the label in 2025, following last year’s celebration of the designer’s 90th birthday, which included a high-wattage show in New York. Notably, it is 50 years of Giorgio Armani, the label which began the designer’s empire, but it is also ten years of Armani/Silos, the Tadao Ando-designed exhibition space in Milan, 25 years of Armani/Casa, and 15 years since the opening of the first Armani hotel.

With no doubt plenty more milestones to come – the designer has long eschewed any suggestions of retirement – Mr Armani took his victory lap at the end of the show, accompanied by a model wearing one of his gleaming, crystal-adorned creations. ‘I would describe these [past 20] years as the story of another Armani – freer and more glittering – but still unmistakeably the Armani that everyone knows. Haute couture is fashion when it becomes art,’ he concluded, having received a rousing crescendo of applause. ‘Creating is my reason for existing.’

Follow our coverage of Haute Couture Week S/S 2025.

armani.com

‘Haute couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality,’ said Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry on Monday morning (27 January), as he opened Paris Haute Couture Week S/S 2025 with a show titled ‘Icarus’. He chose the tragic mythical figure to represent his own ‘quest for perfection’ in the medium, ‘a quixotic struggle, a climb, to reach an ever-higher level of execution and vision’.

Execution and vision are the bedrock of haute couture, which represents the industry’s very pinnacle of craft and making, a rarefied art form, undertaken entirely by the hand of the couture atelier and led by a designer’s singular vision. As such, the week – which is currently taking place in Paris – attracts a glamorous slew of attendees, from Hollywood celebrities to the dramatically attired clients themselves, who travel from all around the world to view the couture houses’ latest fantastical creations (to gain such status, a house must be approved by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, and have a dedicated haute couture atelier of at least 15 full-time employees creating at least 35 looks by hand twice a year).

Coming in the wake of Paris' Men’s Fashion Week, Haute Couture Week S/S 2025 has seen shows from the titans of Parisian fashion – among them Dior, Chanel and Schiaparelli, as well as Armani Privé and Valentino (the latter, on Wednesday, marked the much-anticipated couture debut of designer Alessandro Michele). Here, as the week concludes, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss selects the best shows of the week.

The best of Haute Couture Week S/S 2025

Jean Paul Gaultier by Ludovic de Saint Sernin

As the latest in a series of guest designers to take over Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture line (and if the whispers are to be believed, the last), Brussels-born, Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin titled his S/S 2025 collection ‘Le Naufrage’, which translates from French as ‘shipwreck’. For this once-in-a-lifetime moment, de Saint Sernin, who is known for his sensually charged garments (a recent collection saw him collaborate with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, while perhaps his signature piece is a pair of men’s underwear which laces up along the back), began by thinking about a Seal and Mylène Farmer video in which the pair are lost adrift at sea. As such, the collection, which was full of Gaultier hallmarks (from impossible corsetry to dramatically sculpted silhouettes) had a dishevelled, windswept glamour, played up by the models, who prowled the runway at the house’s longtime headquarters in a theatrical manner. A sailing ship headpiece recalled an archival Gaultier style from the mid-1990s, while an underwear-clad male model in angel wings was a nod to the house’s particular brand of camp. If the rumours that the guest designer project is to come to an end are true, it is a shame: from Simone Rocha to Haider Ackermann, the collections shown under this unique way of collaborating have brought a thrilling new energy to the house. Last night, de Saint Sernin was no exception.

Valentino

Anticipation was high for Alessandro Michele’s debut couture collection for Valentino, which was staged in central Paris’ Palais Brongniart on Wednesday afternoon (29 January 2025). ‘48 dresses, 48 lists,’ the Italian designer wrote in the hefty press notes left on attendees’ seats prior to the show, explaining that he was inspired by Umberto Eco’s assertion that the list is a tool to ‘confine the infinite extension of the existing within a meaningful framework… to bring some order to the chaos of the universe’. Here, he used the list to attempt to harness the infinite opportunities that the haute couture atelier affords a designer (the petite mains who work on the collection represent the pinnacle of dressmaking, with a near-limitless potential for creation). So as the models walked across the long black stage, a stream of rolling words and phrases ran across a screen behind them, from notes on silhouette, fabric and colour, to philosophical musings, historical figures and personal reminiscences. They allowed an insight into the way Michele had designed the eclectic, era-spanning collection, which in his dizzying style shifted between enormous flared gowns, waterfalls of tulle, and showstopping surface embellishment. In his words: ‘a constellation of visions… a plurality of interconnected worlds. Each dress is not just an object It’s rather the knot of a net of significance, [recalling] eras, cultures and echoes of past stories.’ It was a thrilling opening act.

READ: Inside Alessandro Michele’s showstopping debut haute couture show for Valentino

Giorgio Armani Privé

‘Creating is my reason for existing,’ said Giorgio Armani prior to his latest Armani Privé show, which marked 20 years of the couture arm of the Milanese house (the line was started in January 2005). The celebratory show also inaugurated Palazzo Armani, a sprawling new residence in Paris’ 8th arrondissement that will house the Privé atelier and studio (a more modern addition to the 19th-century building will also become Armani’s offices in the city). Presented on a pearlescent runway that snaked through the palazzo’s upper rooms (evoking a traditional haute couture salon show), the collection had a celebratory air. Titled ‘Lumieres’ for the way it was designed to catch the light, in typical Privé style it was a collection rich in surface embellishment (here, a shimmering assemblage of crystals and coloured gems), lustrous fabrications, and a fluid line that drew inspiration from Eastern dress. The 90-year-old Mr Armani – who will celebrate a slew of other anniversaries this year, including 50 years of his original Giorgio Armani label – looped the runway to a rousing ovation at the end of the show, arm-in-arm with one of his glittering model muses.

READ: Armani Privé celebrates 20 years with a glittering show staged at the house’s opulent new Paris palazzo

Chanel

Celebrating 110 years of Chanel haute couture, the Parisian house staged its latest runway show on an enormous set of undulating ramps in the centre of the Grand Palais, created by the American designer Willo Perron. From above, they recalled the house’s emblematic double-C motif, but also an infinity sign – a symbol of the house’s status as the oldest couture house still in operation, and the ‘infinite excellence of haute couture’. It also was an assertion of the fact that, despite Matthieu Blazy not commencing his much-anticipated role as creative director until later this year, that Chanel is a house which is more than able to stand on its own (here, the collection was designed by an in-house team, alongside the petites mains of Chanel’s historic couture atelier). Presented in the fresh winter sunshine – which flooded the Grand Palais space through the vast domed glass ceiling, recently renovated for the Olympics – this was a collection of lightness and youth, seeing the team embrace a bolder palette of crimson red, royal blue and purple, alongside the satisfying softness of pastel pinks, greens and yellows. The inspiration, they said, was Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s embrace of colour in the 1980s, which was highlighted in the 2023 V&A exhibition of her work (she is more readily associated with black and white). Indeed, there was something of the 1980s to the silhouettes, too, like a billowing satin cape or a bold shoulder line in the collection’s tailoring, though there was a delicacy to tweed suits edged with folds of tulle and floating organza dresses adorned with feathers. It felt like a breath of fresh air.

Dior

This season Maria Grazia Chiuri stepped through the looking glass for a fantastical collection which drew inspiration from Alice’s journey through Wonderland. It spoke to what Chiuri called a renewed freedom this season, and there was certainly something in the exploration of silhouette – largely centring on a dramatically flared crinoline waistline – which felt like a departure for the Italian designer, whose signature at the house so far has largely been more columnar, rooted in traditions of classical Greek and Roman dress. The A-line shape was derived from the house’s archive – Chiuri has often referenced lesser-known moments in Dior’s history in her collections – seeing her draw inspiration from the flared ‘Trapèze’ line that was designed for Dior in 1958 by Yves Saint Laurent (the French couturier spent a brief two years at the helm of the house after Christian Dior’s death).

It led to a series of richly adorned mini dresses with jutting crinolines that fell away into strands of ribbon adornment or were overlaid with tulle. Suggestions of flora and fauna – echoed in a fantastical show set by artist Rithika Merchant – came in delicate 3D floral motifs on featherweight ruched tulle, while open-fronted tailoring, nipped at the waist, was reminiscent of 17th-century dress. Indeed, Chiuri said the collection had emerged from obsessive research on historical fashion; the aim, she elucidated, was to ‘disrupt the order of time, taking us back to a dimension that belongs neither to past nor future, but to fashion itself and the idea of transformation associated with it’. In this hopping through eras – or, indeed, stepping through the looking glass – Chiuri felt liberated to create perhaps her richest couture collection yet.

READ: Indian artist Rithika Merchant on her fantastical show set for Dior couture

Schiaparelli

The invitation for Daniel Roseberry’s latest Schiaparelli outing was a golden feather, cast in metal, a reference to the Greek myth of Icarus, from which this season’s show took its name. ‘How high can we as couturier’s go?’ said Roseberry, using the close-to-sun allusions to create a collection that paid ode to the great couturiers of our time, among them Yves Saint Laurent and Azzedine Alaia (‘I didn’t want to copy their work; I wanted to learn from them,’ he said). Silhouette was the focus: extraordinary sculpted gowns, darting inwards at the waist and outwards at the hips, recalled the work of Charles Frederick Worth, while others flared under the chest using crinoline-like structures that bounced as the models walked (or, indeed, twirled and posed in a manner reminiscent of traditional haute couture presentations). Elsewhere, equally architectural tailored jackets – replicating the nipped-waist silhouette of midcentury couture – fell away into waterfalls of tulle, while an opera coat worn by Alex Consani was adorned with fronds of feathers and hung seductively off the shoulder.

Roseberry called the silhouettes ‘rigorous’, and there was certainly a new clarity to his vision this season, which began with a series of vintage ribbons the designer had collected from the 1920s and 1930s. Alongside inspiring the colour palette – one of buttery beiges, brown, and mink grey – they also had him considering how such objects of beauty in the past could be translated to the present day. Why, he questioned, does modernity have to mean minimalism and reduction? ‘Can’t the new also be worked, be baroque, be extravagant? Has our fixation on what looks or feels modern become a limitation? Has it cost us our imagination?’ he questioned. Instead, with this collection, he sought to hit new heights, embracing rich adornment and dramatic, over-the-top construction – a recognition of haute couture’s status as fashion’s pinnacle. ‘Haute couture aspires to reach great heights; it promises escape from our complicated reality. It also reminds us that perfection comes at a price. How high can we couturiers go? As high as the sun – and the Gods – allow us.’

David Lynch, the unparalleled visionary behind canonical films such as Blue Velvet (1986), Wild At Heart (1990) and Mulholland Drive (2001), passed away this week (15 January 2025) at the age of 78. On Wallpaper.com, we pay tribute to the auteur by remembering his guest editorship at the magazine in October 2010.

Craig McClean has also written an obituary, recalling an anecdote from his meeting with Lynch: ‘That morning, we sat in the concrete cube that was this multidisciplinary artist’s painting studio, one of a series of similar structures slotted into the Hollywood Hills that comprised his home with his fourth wife, the actress Emily Stofle,’ he says. ‘We were, of course, drinking coffee,’ McClean continues. ‘And yes, it was damn fine, not least because it was a cup of David Lynch Signature Cup Organic House Roast (signature notes, according to my genial and welcoming barista from beneath a shock of silver quiff, ‘sweetness, smoothness, no bitterness even if it’s just pure, straight black espresso, packed with flavour’).

Lynch directed a four-minute-long commercial for his namesake coffee brand in 2011, featuring a close-up shot of a Barbie head held between his fingers. 20 years prior, he created a Twin Peaks-inspired series of adverts for the Japanese brand Georgia Coffee, featuring cast members from the TV series including Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Dale Cooper, Mädchen Amick as Shelley Johnson and Catherine E Coulson as the Log Lady.

Clearblue pregnancy tests and Alka-Selzer antacid tablets; Parisienne cigarettes and the PlayStation. These are just a few more products Lynch had a hand in marketing via short commercials. But here, Wallpaper* reflects on the times Lynch turned his signature surrealist lens to perfume advertisements for Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Lancôme, Jil Sander, Karl Lagerfeld, Dior and Gucci.

David Lynch’s dreamlike perfume commercials

Calvin Klein (1988)

Following on from the acclaim of Blue Velvet, David Lynch was commissioned to produce his first-ever commercial by Calvin Klein for its fragrance Obsession. Released in 1988 as a series of four black and white shorts titled Awake, Dangerous, Explore and Kissed, each tells the stories of four pairs of lovers (one of which is played by Heather Graham and Benicio Del Toro). Every film was inspired by a different novelist – Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Gustave Flaubert and F. Scott Fitzgerald – and included a voiceover reading excerpts from their writing.

Giorgio Armani (1992)

Giorgio Armani selected David Lynch to create the campaign film for his 1992 fragrance Giò. According to lynchnet.com, Mr Armani ‘personally’ phoned up the director asking for a concept, which Lynch then sent to him in the form of a short poem. The resulting advert Who is Giò? is a Lynchian neo-noir, with model Lara Harris playing a mysterious femme fatale flitting in and out of parties and around the backstreets of an unnamed city, as the paparazzi follows her trail.

Yves Saint Laurent (1992)

Giorgio Armani wasn’t the only designer seeking the talents of Lynch, with Yves Saint Laurent calling on him to dream up a commercial telling the story of the best-selling house fragrance, Opium. This time using colour - alongside his quintessentially dream-like dissolves and double exposures - a woman in a gold dress, with long red fingernails complimenting the perfume’s lacquered bottle, ascends the stairs to an apartment. Upon applying Opium to the nape of her neck, she is overcome with ecstasy.

Lancôme (1993)

Isabella Rossellini became the face of Lancôme in 1982. She would meet David Lynch a few years later during the casting process for Blue Velvet, where he remarked on her uncanny resemblance to Ingrid Bergman (not knowing that Bergman was her mother). Rossellini and Lynch entered into a relationship, with Rossellini also playing the role of Perdita Durango in Wild at Heart alongside a cast that included Nicholas Cage, Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. Although parting ways romantically in 1991, they remained life-long friends and collaborators, with Lynch capturing Rossellini on film once more in 1993 for Lancôme’s fragrance commercial for Trésor.

Jil Sander (1993)

The Instinct of Life, David Lynch’s 1993 campaign film for Jil Sander’s now-discontinued fragrance Background, is set in a vast, arid landscape. Amidst smoke machines and vivid coloured lighting, a lone protagonist chases a black panther throughout the night, ultimately befriending the animal as the sun rises. It seems as though Lynch was trying out techniques for Lost Highway (1997), which was shot in California at Silurian Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. (Lynch once said in a 1999 interview with Movieline that he liked to take on commercial work to ‘learn about the latest technology, tools that normally wouldn’t be available to me’ for later use in feature-length films).

Karl Lagerfeld (1994)

Daryl Hannah never worked with Lynch on any of his feature films. However, she did collaborate with the director as the 1994 face of Sun Moon Stars, a fragrance by Karl Lagerfeld created by the designer for his namesake brand. In the commercial, Hannah assumes a role reminiscent of the Marilyn Monroe-esque ‘Hollywood blonde’, a character trope so often used by Lynch. Here, the actor is seen in a dream-like state, swathed in lilac silk and floating around a cosmic backdrop as she longingly muses on the solar system.

Dior (2004)

In 2004, during his tenure as the director of menswear at Dior, Hedi Slimane tapped David Lynch to direct the fragrance commercial for Fahrenheit. Set to a snippet of As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls , a 20-minute-long jazz fusion track, Swedish actor Andreas Wilson is seen hurtling upward in a clinical chrome elevator as he begins to hallucinate, seeing visions of the natural world. When Wilson reaches the destination floor the doors open, revealing a heavenly expanse of orange sky. (Slimane’s long-time collaborator on make-up for campaigns and shows Aaron de Mey posted a tribute to Lynch on his Instagram, remembering this campaign shoot).

Gucci (2009)

David Lynch filmed his last perfume commercial in 2008 for Gucci (which also happened to by the first television ad for the Italian house). It starred models Raquel Zimmermann, Natasha Poly and Freja Beha Erichsen as the faces of new fragrance Gucci by Gucci. Above, watch the commercial in full, which was filmed in Paris and set to Heart of Glass by Blondie. Below, find a BTS look at the making of the campaign, which provides an intimate glimpse of the maestro at work and the uplifting atmosphere he cultivated on set. (He said in a 2017 interview with GQ that he never ran a working environment on fear). Highlights include Lynch smoking as he perfects a shot of cascading glitter and at a wrap party with the cast and crew – a moment in which their feeling of love and admiration for the director is palpable.

‘A soft suit is just as practical as a tracksuit but, in daily public life, much more appropriate,’ says Giorgio Armani, the 90-year-old fashion designer, who, in one glorious swipe of a sentence (there will be more later), begins to lay bare some of where we happen to find ourselves with menswear in the autumn of 2024.

Saint Laurent’s A/W 2024 menswear collection, shown in Paris in March at the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection – the Tadao Ando renovated modern art museum in the 1st arrondissement – offered further illumination. An opening double- breasted suit jacket that was generous in shape – everything falling impeccably from a wide and stern 1980s shoulder, worn with a loose-cuffed trouser and tie – set out a convincing case for a tailoring mood pertinent with languid elegance. Creative director Anthony Vaccarello subsequently explained that this collection’s tailoring was based around the idea of the haute couture technique ‘flou’, in which the sole purpose is to make a garment as fluid as possible.

New elegance: unpacking tailoring’s new momentum

Despite the obvious nod to the past wardrobe of Yves himself, this collection’s ease – you could imagine it being worn by the dancers of Pina Bausch’s company for example, and they have always been persuasive on the fluidity of suiting – offered a way to do elegance that, even if it was a somewhat full-on proposition, did not feel stuffy. It’s a path that we are increasingly seeing mined by exciting emerging voices in custom tailoring, such as New York’s Ralph Fitzgerald or Swedish duo Atelier Saman Amel, who are putting their own stamp on the future of tailoring and dressing up.

The idea that suiting goes in and out of frontline fashion can become a flaccid conversation, with suiting and tailoring largely seen as the muscular guts of menswear. ‘The demise of the suit has been talked about for decades, and yet it survives; the tailored jacket still has a role to play; eveningwear has actually become more popular in recent times because I believe there is a renewed desire to be elegant,’ Armani says, on point. ‘To me, a suit remains the epitome of efficiency, modernity and ease. I find it more relevant now than ever before. But for sure, everything is a lot more comfortable than it was years ago.’ I ask him why Armani suits are having a moment – which they are. ‘Armani suits are popular because they never look stiff or unnatural.’

Tailoring does not exactly stand still – it’s always evolving – but equally, there are times when it gathers momentum. This season is one of those times. It’s been brewing since Covid. But there is a definite incoming shift toward the idea that formal is the new casual, which is not to say that you’ll suddenly want to wear a stiff three-piece suit at breakfast or return to in-depth conversations regarding the merits of Don Draper’s tie-pin. Rather, it is more about how formal menswear codes or classic garments can infiltrate a daily wardrobe and make it feel fuller. This new seasonal mood is also as much to do with styling things up or down, as it is about the clothes themselves.

That said, there are also plenty of bold new tailoring proposals flying about when you look. From directional designers such as Martine Rose – a suit blazer that knots in front, below its lapels, for example – to Magliano, founded in 2017 by Luca Magliano, whose work is bringing a breath of fresh air to Italian menswear with a mission to liberate the wardrobe from binary stereotypes while celebrating queerness.

Magliano’s A/W 2024 collection, shown on the steps of the Nelson Mandela Forum in Florence, saw his fantastically eclectic cast (experiencing tailoring with fresh eyes is made easier when you witness it embodied by characters rather than regular models) lead out with a lightly tailored single-breasted jacket stripped of a formal lapel and collar with seemingly random button placements. It was styled with mismatched, loosely cut trousers and a white T-shirt. Other experiments revolved around interesting twisting and tying ideas as jacket closures.

‘Reconstructed suiting’ was this season’s theme at Junya Watanabe Man. Watanabe has a strong reputation for consistently skewing men’s dress codes and, for A/W 2024, the designer showed blazers that had sliced open trousers attached to them to form a new kind of jacket silhouette. In one particular fusion, Watanabe brought together jeans and a blazer, forcing the formal-casual conversation into something with bite. After the show, Watanabe emailed a typically short point of consideration: ‘I wish for men of different generations to wear these suits.’ And surely they will.

‘In terms of the overarching mood within men’s clothes, I feel there is definitely a ‘return to elegance’ movement happening,’ says Dag Granath, one half of Atelier Saman Amel, who founded their custom tailoring house in 2015. ‘Silhouettes are becoming more sophisticated. I feel that the interest in sensationalism is over and people are focusing more on beauty now.’ A Saman Amel suit is made completely by hand and will take around 35 hours to make.

Having just opened their second atelier in London’s Mayfair – the first being in their hometown of Stockholm – Granath says they try not to think too much about a formal-casual dichotomy. Rather, their approach is to collaborate with their clients to create clothing that just effortlessly works. ‘Tailoring is moving away from being about occasions or having to wear it only for specific reasons,’ says Granath. For A/W 2024, their ‘Curated Looks’ – a series of proposals and ideas for clients to take inspiration from – are largely made from fabrics of their own development with a rich, dark palette of navy and charcoal, midnight brown and taupe.

Earlier this year, Davies & Son, the oldest operating tailor on Savile Row, worked with another incoming tailoring visionary, Satoshi Kuwata, who, with his label Setchu, won the prestigious LVMH Prize in 2023. Together, they have created three bespoke non-gender-specific outfits that take the rigours of Savile Row tailoring and marry them with Kuwata’s signature starting point of origami and the way in which a kimono can be folded and stored in a box.

‘I am not interested in designing for trends,’ says Kuwata, who recalls that his initial love of suiting came from seeing his father wearing them when he was young. When he finally made it from Japan to Savile Row, he says it was love at first sight. He eventually trained at Huntsman, as well as at fashion houses such as Givenchy. His genderless double-breasted ‘Origami’ jacket, inspired by vintage workwear and Savile Row cutting, features multiple folds to sublime effect. ‘A timeless approach is very important to me,’ he says.

‘A suit can be worn by all,’ Ralph Fitzgerald offers in answer to what makes a suit a great piece of design. Fitzgerald, based out of New York’s Chrysler Building, is making quite a name for himself (Marc Jacobs is a client), ‘cutting suits high up in the clouds in the most beautiful and iconic skyscraper’. Growing up in London, Fitzgerald says his early interest in clothes came from his mother taking him to London markets. His first suit, mod in style, was from Adam of London, in the Portobello Green Arcade. He trained under Douglas Hayward, of Mount Street Tailors, who dressed the likes of Roger Moore, Michael Caine and Steve McQueen, before working on Savile Row for Kilgour and Huntsman. He set up his own practice in 2023.

‘It’s a London cut, with a nipped waist, low button position and lower gorge,’ Fitzgerald says of his aesthetic, which also favours a strong shoulder and lightweight construction. ‘I love to work with cloth with texture over decoration – it’s importanthow the fabric plays with and absorbs light,’ he says. ‘I’m constantly collecting rare and unique fabrics; vintage cashmere, alpaca, flannels and twills.’ Fitzgerald says he’s been cutting a lot of double-breasted suits and tuxedos this year. ‘I believe men will always enjoy getting dressed up to the nines.’

As someone more likely to wish to dress like a figure in an Egon Schiele painting than up to the nines (the latest Schiele sartorial obsession being a 1910 portrait of publisher Eduard Kosmack wearing a murky green-brown, slope-shouldered jacket with no obvious fastenings that is housed at the Belvedere museum in Vienna), I find Fitzgerald’s energy inspiring. ‘I want my clients to be able to walk into any room and have no second thoughts or doubts,’ Fitzgerald says. One of fashion’s greatest attractions has always been its power to transform, and not just the way we look but also the way we feel, the way we move. The best tailoring has always been particularly momentous in that regard.

Models: Adam Khan and James Copestake at Xdirectn, Robert Knighton at Next London, KC McNaughton at Perspective, Zayd Ansa at First, Yom Peter at Genesis, Titas at Head Office, Thomas Garrick at Present, Tony Gilpin at Cococasts, and Oliver Rhys Henderson Casting: Cococasts. Grooming: Mayuko Nakae using Oribe. Photography assistants: Colm Moore, Joseph Barrett. Fashion assistant: Hayley Downes. Hair assistant: Motoharu Imaizumi. Skin assistant: Kosei Kitada. Production assistants: Minna Vauhkonen, Archie Thomson, Ady Huq. Special thanks to Rapid Eye.

This article appears in the September 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Fiat is 125 years old. Founded in July 1899, the company recently held a series of celebrations for itself at the iconic Lingotto building in Turin, designed by Giacomo Matté-Trucco and completed in 1923. As part of the anniversary events, the company released this special edition of the fantastic Fiat 500e, the all-electric variant of the dainty reboot of the 500 that still makes up the bulk of the company’s sales.

Billed by many (ourselves included) as one of the best city cars on the market, this new edition has been developed in collaboration with none other than Giorgio Armani, one of the icons of Italian fashion. As Armani turns 90, he has delivered the goods with this ultra-chic iteration of the 500e, which presents the second collaboration with the brand (a one-off 500e was revealed back in 2020).

Fiat 500 Giorgio Armani: impeccably tailored

Made in Turin, the new 500e Giorgio Armani is available in two different colour ways, Dark Green and a ceramic ‘Greige’, an Armani-special blend of grey and beige. With tasteful colours in hand, the chic silhouette of the 500e is further enhanced by the special wheel trim, which feature a stylised ‘GA’ logo, a graphical design that stands apart from conventional wheel design.

Inside, the little Fiat has been given a sumptuous interior that belies its scale, with fresh patterning on the seat inserts, along with laser-cut wood on the dashboard. The material approach is intended to evoke the art of tailoring, and everything is finished off with Armani’s own signature on the dashboard. Other kit includes the premium JBL audio system and a glass roof.

Fashion and automotive design pairings come along every so often, from the heady days of Lacoste’s classic collaboration with Peugeot back in the 1980s, to Paul Smith’s work with Mini. The Fiat 500e Giorgio Armani is a welcome addition to the canon.

Fiat 500e Giorgio Armani edition, details at Fiat.com

A new injection of energy came to Milan Fashion Week Men’s this season thanks to something of a British invasion: Martine Rose, who is largely inspired by underground subcultures in her idiosyncratic menswear collections, made her debut week on Sunday afternoon (16 June 2024), while heritage house Dunhill also joined the Milan schedule, seeing Simon Holloway present a collection he described as ‘radically classic’. Elsewhere, London-based label JW Anderson continued to show its menswear collections in the city, this season creating a collection titled ’Real Sleep’ inspired by the slumber state of hypnotherapy.

Other talking points of the weekend included Sabato De Sarno’s sophomore menswear collection for Gucci, which this season shifted to Monday morning (17 June 2024) and took place at Triennale Milano, the design gallery first constructed in the 1930s (it continued De Sarno’s desire to foster a link with the arts, having shown his Cruise 2025 collection at London’s Tate Modern last month). Prada, meanwhile, took over the timeline with a typically transporting set created alongside OMA/AMO – this time, a ‘fairytale ravescape’ featuring a cabin on stilts that had been erected in the Fondazione Prada space – backdropping what was one of the season’s defining collections. 

The schedule was rounded out by the titans of Milanese style: among them Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna, Fendi and Armani, while Massimo Giorgetti celebrated 15 years of his Milan-based label MSGM.

Here, Wallpaper* selects the highlights from Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025. 

The best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025

Zegna

A field of linen had been recreated in an enormous sound-stage-like venue on Milan’s outskirts, close to the city’s Linate airport, for Zegna’s latest runway show. Artsistic director Alessandro Sartori said that he wanted it to feel like the blades of linen – here constructed from featherweight strips of metal – were invading the otherwise industrial space. This shifting between man and nature was the catalyst for the collection, said Sartori, which was at once precise and organic, seeing sharply defined tailoring meet natural earthy hues of terracotta, beige and warm yellow and languid silhouettes. Much of the collection was crafted from linen – ‘Us, in the Oasi of Linen’ was the collection’s title – making use of the house’s near-unrivalled production and innovation with the material, which is also far more sustainable that other natural fibres like cotton. ‘[Linen is] as malleable and sensual as the idea of summer dressing we are prompting,’ the designer said, noting that it ‘moulds to individual personalities… [for men] who play buoyantly with their own appearance.’ This included the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, something of a house muse for Sartori, who closed the show with an elegant runway turn.

Gucci

This season, Sabato de Sarno shifted Gucci’s menswear show to its final Monday, choosing the Triennale Milano, the city’s 1930s-built design gallery, as a new venue. The clean white lines and light-filled atrium of the Giovanni Muzio-designed space provided something of a fresh slate for De Sarno, whose sophomore menswear collection felt like his strongest vision for the Italian house yet. There was an optical clarity to the season’s looks, which had been inspired by surfing, here figured in graphic short-and-shirt sets, swim slippers and luminous wraparound sunglasses which sat around the neck on Gucci-adorned straps like chokers. The mood was youthful: super-abbreviated shorts (an ode, perhaps, to house ambassador Paul Mescal, who sat front row in his own pair of Gucci short shorts), sheer net polo shirts and the poppy colour palette all skewed younger than the winter season (befitting this mood, 400 students were in attendance for Milan’s fashion and design schools). As has become a signature of De Sarno, flourishes of embellishment were used to elevate everyday garments, like the extraordinary beaded polo shirts or dangling tassels of beads across shirts and jackets, which lent a feeling of material richness to an otherwise streamlined collection.  

Giorgio Armani

Mr Armani presented his eponymous menswear collection this season without any accompanying notes, preferring to let the clothing speak for itself. It is something that the designer – who turns 90 next month – has done across his five-decade-long career as a figurehead of Italian design, preferring to eschew seasonal gimmicks and complex runway sets for a mood of considered design and quiet elegance. Watched on by a Hollywood front row (another thing Mr Armani is synonymous with) which included Russell Crowe and La La Land director Damien Chazelle, this was an exercise in Armani-isms: unstructured tailoring in louche, generous proportions, diaphanous shirts and waistcoats, and a simple palette of Armani greige and navy. A mood of travel also permeated the collection – another hallmark of the designer – here figured in hazy palm-tree-frond prints and straw or cotton sunhats. Joined for his bow by team members Leo Dell’Orco and Gianluca Dell’Orco, the designer known as ‘Il Maestro’ received a warm standing ovation from the Teatro Armani crowd.

JW Anderson

The slumbering between-state of hypnotherapy was the starting point for Jonathan Anderson’s latest collection, a free association of ideas that saw the Northern Irish designer at the peak of his creative powers, balancing the strange and seductive in polished style. Looks emerged at first in threes: three duvet-like quilted jackets, three oversized utility gilets, three blown-up knit cardigans. Their play on proportion continued throughout – other silhouettes were stretched or shortened, and an enormous tie was gleefully oversized – while protrusions of coloured satin, or a series of bulbous padded T-shirts, lent a sculptural feel. Elsewhere, surreal motifs emerged like repressed memories or dreams, whether Guinness-adorned sweaters (Anderson said he remembered its unexpected advertisements growing up in Northern Ireland) or knitted dresses adorned with images of houses, as if lifted from a children’s storybook (on one, a tiny three-dimensional bird sat on the shoulder). Part of the inspiration for the liberated, freewheeling mood was a recent trip to Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival: ‘The experimentation with clothing among younger generations is incredible,’ said Anderson. ‘The eye has changed within menswear and within womenswear. People want something that is really challenging.’

Martine Rose

Prior to the Martine Rose show – which happened just after Prada, and just a few hundred yards away – people questioned just how the London-based designer might bring her idiosyncratic, underground-infused brand of menswear to Milan, in what would be her first showing on the city’s fashion week schedule. Would she succumb to the city‘s sartorial polish? Presented in a former industrial building, the floor scattered with Martine Rose flyers – like those you might have found for a 1990s rave – the answer was a resolute no. Models stomped and slithered around the space with prosthetic noses (purposely haphazard) and wearing matted wigs so long they almost dragged along the ground. Men wore pencil skirts and fishnet stockings, or tailored trousers cut to appear like chaps (the crotch part was leather, an inversion of the expected), while for women the padded protection of a motorcycle jacket became the bust of a dress. Martine Rose signatures recurred throughout – shrunken football shirts, warped tracksuits, zip-away denim – alongside the requisite nods to nightlife and its dress codes. ‘When you’re young, you think that when you grow up your tastes are going to mature with you,’ she told Wallpaper* prior to the show. ‘This is the sort of irony.’ 

• Read our exclusive interview with Martine Rose

Prada

This season, the Fondazione Prada’s Deposito space had been installed with a new dwelling – a small white hut, raised on stilts, and with a long walkway leading down to the curving white runway below. From its windows and door, left slightly ajar, pulsated the sound of Faithless’s Insomnia, while flashing lights suggested a party was happening within, just out of sight. Here in this ‘fairytale ravescape’, said co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, was a collection which mused on ‘freedom, youthful optimism and energy’, something the former reiterated backstage after the show. ‘Youth is the future… it is hope,’ she said ‘We wanted to do something that would express youthful optimism because the times are so bad.’

The pair did so in pieces which appeared to have ‘lived a live, that are alive in themselves’. Silhouettes were dynamic: purposely creased, warped, shrunken and exaggerated, ‘like clothes you already live with,’ said Simons. Sleeves were short, as if garments had been borrowed or swapped between people. Shirts were skewiff and twisted around the body – like after a long night – while narrow trousers sat low on the waist and pooled at the ankle. Other pieces were made to question the reality of what you were seeing, demanding a second look. Like trompe l'oeil Breton T-shirts, where the stripe was warped and distorted, or low-slung leather ‘belts’ which were actually set into trousers. Enormous visor sunglasses – their lenses decorated with photographs of raves, Roman statuary and American highways – and prints by the artist Bernard Buffet, the latter appearing ‘like a concert T-shirt’, added a surreal, disorientating edge. 

The pair said that it came down to working with intuition, of following what they were drawn to without asking why. ‘Sometimes when you are older you start to overthink, and you limit yourself. When you are young, you just go,’ said Simons. ‘We wanted to create clothes that have lived a life, that are alive in themselves,’ the pair concluded. ‘There is a sense of spontaneity and optimism to these clothes - they reflect instinctive but deliberate choices, freedom.’

Dunhill

A serene Milanese garden, close to the city’s rarefied shopping street Via Monte Napoleone, provided the setting for Simon Holloway’s sophomore collection for British heritage brand Dunhill, here shifting to the Italian city after showing last season at London’s National Portrait Gallery. This was a continuation of that debut, seeing Holloway once again explore the tropes of British dress – particularly those over a summer season of sporting and society events – in pursuit of what he called ‘radical classicism’. As such, he ran a gamut of typically British looks, from the casual – a suede utility jacket worn with driving gloves, cable-knit sweaters and pleat-front jeans – to the sporty – rugby shirts and shorts, striped varsity socks – and the unapologetically grand, like the collection’s final look, a black morning suit worn with an ivory silk scarf and cane. ‘These are not basic clothes for going into the office,’ said Holloway. ‘These are clothes for enjoyment, for a life well-lived.’

Emporio Armani

Unbridled horses frolicking in the surf, purple fields of lavender: the projections on the wall of the Teatro Armani showspace set the scene for an Emporio collection titled ‘Freedom in Nature’ which saw Mr Armani supplant his man for the season from his usual urban sprawl and into the wilds. The mood was one of adventure and abandon: shirting was plunging and worn with voluminous pants and heavy boots – the latter a nod to equestrianism – while superfine tailoring recalled safari jackets and kimonos. A focus on the waist ran throughout, whether in the belted utility jackets or the loops of leather which narrowed the waist of the designer’s louche, lightweight tailored blazers. It ended with the scent of lavender as a stream of lederhosen-clad men promenaded the space with baskets full of the springtime-blooming flower. Here, nature might have been somewhat tamed, but it nonetheless made from a transporting closing milieu, with the models surrounding Mr Armani – this season joined by Leo Dell’Orco and Silvana Armani, who look after the house’s men’s and womenswear collections – for his usual ovation, this year all-the-more celebratory in anticipation of his 90th birthday next month. 

Fendi

Fendi left behind its usual showspace in the house’s Via Solari HQ (renovations and an expansion are currently underway), transporting guests to a studio lot-like showspace on Milan’s outskirts. It lent the presentation a grander scale, a feeling mimicked by the enormous mirrored blocks which danced around the runway as if operated by remote control, reflecting both audience and models across their spinning surfaces. Silvia Venturini Fendi, who heads up the house’s menswear and accessories collections, said that this season she was inspired by a deep dive into the Fendi archive. The Roman house will turn 100 this year, and the designer created a celebratory crest comprising four of the house’s motifs, including the famed double-F emblem, which here adorned sweaters and shirts. It lent the collection a varsity feel – Venturini Fendi talked before the show about wanting Fendi to feel like a team, or club – where striped knit rugby sweaters and ties met plaid jackets, school blazers and a playful riff on the football shirt. This was a uniform for the Fendi clan – and its wide-reaching international fanbase – to sport with pride in its centenary year.

Dolce & Gabbana

‘Italian Beauty’ was the title of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s latest menswear collection, which saw the duo make a subtle gear-shift from the sharp, reduced line of recent seasons towards something softer, inspired by effortless Italian summers and actors like the louche Marcello Mastroianni. Raffia, a distinct hallmark of Italian furnishings, was one such motif, used here to create airy summer jackets and oversized polo shirts, while ever-astute tailoring – here largely double-breasted and worn with pleated trousers which narrowed towards the hem – harked back to the 1950s. Elsewhere, the collection was enlivened with flourishes of embroidery and embellishment, like the sprays of delicate red flowers which aodrned crisp white trousers and jackets.

MSGM

It was 15 years ago that Italian designer Massimo Giorgetti founded MSGM, a landmark celebrated with his latest menswear show held in a former industrial garage on Milan’s outskirts on Saturday morning. The crisp, optical collection, which looked towards the sea for inspiration, was backdropped by explosions of primary-colour paint against a series of Perspex boxes which lined the runway. They were an ode, Giorgetti elaborated, to an early collection he drafted an artist to daub with paint after fearing it was too safe. It also referenced the broad strokes of colour and graphic motifs the designer has evoked over the last decade and a half, here conjured in a vivid array of pattern, from riffs on nautical stripes and colourful daisies to painterly prints of seaside scenes. Indeed, Giorgetti said it is in his cliffside home in Liguria, close to Portofino, where the ideas for the collection percolated. As for the mood, this was a Mediterranean summer at its most evocative: ‘the rocks, Mediterranean pines, agaves, the scent of salt and resin,’ he listed, transporting guests – in Giorgetti’s typically uplifting fashion – from a cloudy Milan to the Italian riviera. 

Stay tuned for more from Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025.

Unlike its burlier sporting counterparts, tennis has long been synonymous with good style – whether the bygone elegance of classic tennis whites, the nostalgic glamour of Björn Borg and his 1970s counterparts, or the more outré uniforms of the contemporary power player, from Rafa Nadal’s searingly hued tank tops, Serena Williams’ catsuits and crystals, to Naomi Osaka’s panoply of designer endorsements.

Though it is safe to say that the past few months have pushed tennis fashion deep into the mainstream, largely down to the release of film director Luca Guadagnino’s tennis romp Challengers, starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as a love triangle on and off the court. On-screen, their tennis uniforms – from emblazoned college wear to sleek grand slam attire – looked particularly seductive thanks to the eye of Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, who served as costume designer; on the red carpet, Zendaya served up a stream of tennis-themed looks, whether glimmering pleated mini dresses or vertiginous white heels that skewered miniature tennis balls.

And, ahead of its Cruise 2025 show in London which took place in May, Gucci revealed Australian Open champion and current ATP world number one Jannik Sinner – and his now-trademark on-court Gucci holdall – as its latest campaign star (as of this week, the Italian house also released a dedicated tennis collection). It comes as the sport is in the midst of a particularly blockbuster summer: last month, Spanish wunderkind Carlos Alacaraz won his third Grand Slam at the French Open, on Monday (1 July 2024), Wimbledon begins in London, while the Olympics in Paris will see the tennis competition held on the famed clay courts of Roland Garros.

It makes it a prime time for fashion brands to embrace the zeitgeist with tennis-inspired collections of their own. Here, from Giorgio Armani’s grass court uniform – made to coincide with the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic which takes place at London’s historic Hurlingham Club this week – to a Challengers-inspired T-shirt from Loewe, we pick the fashion brands serving a tennis ace this summer.

Fashion brands serving up tennis style

A Gucci collection which conjures the nostalgic glamour of 1970s tennis stars

In May, Gucci announced Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner – and current world number one – as its latest campaign star (see below). Now, ahead of the arrival of Wimbledon, the house has revealed a full tennis collection which harks back to the 1970s, a decade when Gucci embraced the sport with releases like the perennial Tennis 1977 sneaker. As such, expect pieces infused with a nostalgic glamour, albeit reimagined in current creative Sabato de Sarno’s sleek, contemporary style, from pleated white tennis dresses for women and sporty polo shirts and pullovers for men, alongside the requisite accessories, including sweatbands, an updated version of the Tennis 1977 sneaker, and a racquet holder in the Gucci monogram which is guaranteed to turn heads at the country club. Each is adorned with Gucci’s signature green and red ’web stripe’ detail, while an accompanying campaign stars rising British tennis stars Emma Cohen and George Loffhagen.

Gucci’s ‘Tennis Special’ collection is available from selected Gucci stores and gucci.com.

A court-ready Uniqlo collection from Jonathan Anderson and Roger Federer

Not content with outfitting the still-ubiquitous Challengers – and creating a viral Loewe T-shirt to match (see below) – Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has also revealed a new Uniqlo collection made in collaboration with 20-time grand slam champion Roger Federer, who wore the Japanese brand on court for the latter part of his career. First introduced in September 2023, the ‘Roger Federer Collection by JW Anderson’ combines high-tech sporting fabrications with Anderson’s eye for good design. This year’s collection is inspired by the tennis uniforms of the 1970s and 1980s (also a touchpoint for the on-court attire of Josh O’Connor’s Patrick Zweig in Challengers) and features striped-collar polo shirts, nylon shorts and V-neck marl T-shirts, alongside more contemporary technical training jackets and sweatpants. It has been a busy month for Federer – who retired in 2022 – with the enduring tennis star also starring alongside his prolific Spanish rival Rafael Nadal in a campaign for Parisian house Louis Vuitton. Anderson, meanwhile, revealed his latest Loewe collaboration with Swiss sportswear brand On with a campaign starring on-the-rise American tennis star Ben Shelton (to tie it all together, Federer is also one of On’s major investors and a brand ambassador).

Uniqlo’s ‘Roger Federer Collection by JW Anderson’ collection is available at uniqlo.com. The latest Loewe x On capsule collection can be purchased from mytheresa.com.

A Giorgio Armani collection inspired by the Hurlingham Club’s Tennis Classic

Each June, the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic takes place at London’s Hurlingham Club, an exhibition tournament on its famed grass courts that serves as an unofficial warm-up tournament for Wimbledon (this year’s participants include Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe, Daniil Medvedev and the surprise appearances of Novak Djokovic, a last-minute addition). Alongside the glamourous proceedings – the Hurlingham competition has become a fixture on London’s social calendar – Mr Armani has also created a capsule collection of clothing to dress the ball boys, umpires and ground staff at the event. Crafted in simple cream, deep navy and white, the louche, unfussy collection is an exercise in Mr Armani’s nonchalant design codes – epitomised here in easy, unstructured tailoring, crisp white shirting and roomy, sportswear-inspired shorts, for men and women. Completed with the circular Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic motif, the collection is strictly limited-edition – it is available at the Hurlingham Club in a special pop-up, and for a short time in Giorgio Armani’s London boutique on Sloane Street.

The Hurlingham Club collection is available at Armani’s Sloane Street boutique and at Hurlingham Tennis Club now.

A monogrammed Gucci tennis bag worn by grand slam champion Jannik Sinner

The 22-year-old Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner – who made it into a select club when he beat Daniil Medvedev earlier this year to win the Australian Open and has since been crowned the ATP world number one – has long been courted by the Italian fashion house Gucci, first attending the house’s Cruise show in 2022 and becoming an official ambassador later that year. His allegiance has been expressed with his choice of on-court tennis gear, swapping the usual sportswear-branded nylon holdall favoured by players for a custom-made Gucci monogram duffle bag, which is now available for sale. In May, Gucci revealed Sinner as its latest campaign star in a series of on-court images by Riccardo Raspa – a surefire sign of the player’s soaring profile (it also puts him on par with Spanish rival Carlos Alcaraz, who has fronted campaigns for Louis Vuitton). The nostalgic mood of the images – emblazoned with ‘Gucci is a feeling’, a slogan from a 1980s campaign – is made to capture the house’s longtime links with the sport, which included the perennial Tennis 1977 sneakers.

The Gucci ‘Maxi Duffle Bag’ is available from gucci.com (£1460) and Gucci stores.

A Brunello Cucinelli tennis capsule instilled with the designer’s distinct brand of sprezzatura

Brunello Cucinelli brings his eye for luxury to a new tennis capsule, no doubt ready to be spotted on court in some of the world’s most exclusive locales this summer. Spanning menswear, womenswear and kidswear – as well as a handful of lifestyle products, from racquet holders to tennis bags – the collection continues Mr Cucinelli’s easygoing sartorial codes, inspired by his native Italy. As such, expect sartorial riffs on the tennis uniform: whether white polo-shirt dresses with gently pleated skirts, crisp pleat-front men’s shorts, or an array of cable-knit sweaters and cardigans (in keeping with Brunello Cucinelli’s brand of sprezzatura, try draped over the shoulder or tied around the waist). A Brunello Cucinelli-branded cotton cap – complete with tennis racquet embroidery – completes the look. ‘[It’s] dedicated to those who live tennis as a lifestyle,’ says the brand.

Brunello Cucinelli's ‘Tennis Sets Capsule Collection’ is available from Net-a-Porter and brunellocucinelli.com, alongside selected stores worldwide.

A Loewe T-shirt from Luca Guadagnino’s sensual tennis thriller ‘Challengers’

Not strictly tennis attire, we know, but it does hail from Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, the erotically charged tennis movie which stars Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as three rising tennis players caught up in a will-they-won’t-they love triangle set in the run-up to the 2019 US Open (sexual frustrations are taken out on the ball in the film’s high-octane on-court scenes). British designer and Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson was behind the movie’s costumes, including this ’I Told Ya’ T-shirt swapped between Zendaya’s Tashi and O’Connor’s Patrick as they dual it out in sport and romance. ‘As an audience, you're never quite sure who to root for, and clothes are an instrument of that,’ said Anderson, who based the T-shirt on one worn by JFK Jr. To coincide with the film’s release, Anderson has created a Loewe version of the T-shirt, as well as a sweatshirt version, in white or marl grey.

The Loewe ’I Told Ya’ T-shirt (£225) and sweater (£475) are available from loewe.com and selected Loewe stores worldwide.

A tennis-inspired collaboration between Aries and Fila which sees two worlds collide

British skate brand Aries brings its playful, subculture-infused style to a collaboration with Fila, one of the longtime behemoths of the sport, having dressed Björn Borg in his 1970s heyday (and arguably shaped tennis style forever). Shaking up the classic tennis whites, expect zip-front bandage skirts adorned with the Aries and Fila logos, striped sweatbands, and co-branded T-shirts and jackets. The idea of the collaboration was to capture a sense of ‘Italian-ness’ – Sofia Prantera is from Italy, though now lives and works in London – featuring a soft-pastel palette of pinks and greens which are faded through garment dyeing, a longtime fascination of Prantera’s that is also synonymous with Italian streetwear. Eschewing tennis’ occasionally stuffy connotations, the accompanying campaign features sibling musical duo Sons of Raphael, who scored Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Aries x Fila is available from ariesarise.com.

A preppy on-and-off-court uniform from Tory Burch’s Tory Sport

American designer Tory Burch introduced Tory Sport in 2015, crediting the sporty off-shoot as the beginning of a more creative approach to her eponymous mainline label in the way it encouraged her to experiment with shape and form (‘the concept of being ”on brand” and that wasn’t interesting to me because it inhibits creativity... so, over the last five years, I’ve smashed that concept,’ she told Wallpaper* in January). Though Tory Sport runs the gamut of sporting pursuits – each piece instilled with the preppy, playful hallmarks which define the label – recent arrivals have included her take on tennis wear, a nostalgia-tinged collection of white pleated skirts, dropped-waist dresses and 1970s track jackets, some complete with tennis racquet motifs of the Tory Burch monogram. Recalling the hazy glamour of New England summers, the tennis collection is completed with the ‘Convertible Tote’, complete with a removable zip pocket with space for two racquets.

Tory Sport is available from Mytheresa and toryburch.com.

As Salone del Mobile 2024 and the wider Milan Design Week got underway this week in the design capital, one thing quickly became clear: the majority of the fashion contingency among the schedule was in a reflective mood.

While some brands looked to design masters past, others mined their archives: Bottega Veneta worked with the Le Corbusier Foundation to re-interpret its LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool; Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with the Gio Ponti archive to create an exclusive porcelain collection; and Gucci presented archival re-editions in its now-signature Ancora red from the likes of Tobia Scarpa and Venini.

Elsewhere, Hermès and Armani placed their new furniture and design creations beside the sartorial objects that inspired them (with Giorgio Armani sharing personal photographs that span his career) and Loewe worked with its Craft Prize alumni to create 26 unique lamps that spotlighted the time-honed craft techniques that still exist around the world.

It’s a move that reflects a recent trend in their primary medium of fashion, where reminders of iconic codes are increasingly served up to highlight the importance of respecting the signatures that stand the test of time.

Here, in our comprehensive round-up, is the Wallpaper* edit of the best fashion moments at Milan Design Week 2024.

Fashion moments at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2024

Armani Casa

Held once again in Palazzo Orsini on Via Borgonuovo (also known as Armani HQ), Armani Casa’s Salone installation took visitors on a journey of the places founder Giorgio Armani has been most inspired by during his illustrious career. His travels have taken him far and wide – all over Europe, as well as Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Morocco – and over the years, homages to the craft and skill he has discovered in each have appeared in his ready-to-wear collections. For this installation, called ‘Echoes From The World’, he placed his exquisite couture creations and his own personal collection of souvenirs (from Samurai swords to kimonos) alongside new pieces of furniture such as the Venus console with a hand-painted lacquered glass top backed in gold-leaf to give a luminous shimmer in the room dedicated to China and the blue velvet bed in the room celebrating Morocco that took months to make (only seven centimetres of this fabric can be woven in a day and this bed took 12 metres of material). A highlight waiting at the end of the show was a room with supersized images from Armani’s private photo album in a few of the locations celebrated here. ‘For this edition of the Salone del Mobile, I imagined a “cinematic” journey to the countries that have always inspired me: places and cultures that spark highly personal reworkings,’ shared Armani, adding: ‘I like to present myself to the public in the most authentic and direct way possible.’

Hermès

Taking over the sprawling La Pelota space for the week, Hermès presented ‘Topography of Material’, an installation conceived ‘to create a dialogue between roots and movement, between materials and know-how’, shared the brand. Suspended below foot-level on a diagonal catwalk of sorts, guests were welcomed by 16 intersecting floors that brought together 16 different types of stone, ten types of earth, four types of wood and many variations of terracotta brick all sourced from either Italy or France arranged in intricate ways to celebrate the skill of timeless handcraft. It formed a powerful introduction to the presentation of objects itself as this year Hermès made a point to highlight its own enduring codes. Behind a 35m-long and 6.m-high suspended black wall lay objects from the house’s archive juxtaposed with recent masterpieces and objects making their debut. For example, the silver Timour choker necklace from 2002 sat beside the new Diapason D’Hermès chair designed by the Hermès Studio this year in homage to the piece of jewellery; the original Mangeoire pouch from 1949 (used to feed horses) stood beside the new Derby leather buckets, also launched this year; and the Drag travel bag from the 2010s was presented next to Jasper Morrison’s Equilibre chair for Hermès from 2020. As intended, it effectively presented the virtues in time-honed skills and luxurious designs that retain a forever relevance.

Valextra

Valextra worked with Bergamo-based Studio Temp (with whom it also collaborated for Casa Valextra) on its Valextra Vocabolario concept that transformed its John Pawson-designed Via Manzoni flagship into the Valextra Spa. The idea was to highlight the exceptional care that goes into each of Valextra’s leather goods, from the hands that craft them to the after-care that the brand offers its clients. Inside a huge, simulated sauna, guests were invited to sit and observe the brand’s artisans hand-painting its signature black lacquered Costa edging onto handbags in real time. In the pink-carpeted space around, the brand’s new Assoluto collection – a three-piece capsule crafted from Econyl – was unveiled as machines worked in real time to 3D-print the new Iside Onda handbag. Combining state-of-the-art handbag development and best-in-class customer service through a radical architectural lens, it beautifully captured the DNA of this Milanese brand.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta presented ‘On The Rocks’ at the Palazzo San Fedele, a special location for the house as it was the setting for creative director Matthieu Blazy’s first show and is its soon-to-be HQ. Partnering with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier, the brand honed in on the iconic LC14 Tabouret Cabanon stool that it described as ’a timeless icon of Le Corbusier that embodies the excellence of the Cassina carpentry workshop’. First conceived by the designer for his Côte d'Azur cabin, it was inspired by a washed-up whisky box he found on the shores beneath the residence, hence the title of the installation, which saw several iterations piled high, one on top of the other, reminiscent of a jagged coastline. This isn’t the first time Blazy has affiliated himself with the object; at his recent A/W 2024 womenswear fashion show set, guests sat on bare wooden versions. For Salone, they came in the same rendering but also covered in the brand’s famous intrecciatio leather to create 160 limited editions.

Loewe

Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson primarily worked with alumni from the brand’s prestigious Craft Prize on his first-ever lighting installation at Salone del Mobile. Staged at Palazzo Citterio in the heart of the Brera Design District, the presentation featured one-of-a-kind lighting designs from 24 artists who the brand has either worked with or supported in the past. Remarkably, it was the first time that any of the featured makers had worked with light, which accounted for the originality on display. From Enrico David’s curved Onyx table lamp that features the face of a woman on closer inspection and Dahye Jeong’s spherical structure using an ancient weaving technique using horsehair, to Young Song Lee’s hollowed-out calabash fruits covered in twisted mulberry-tree paper and Dame Magdalene Odundo’s cinched leather hanging lamps (above), each captured the celebratory spirit of Loewe in the world of craft and design that promotes and helps preserve the most exquisite techniques from all over the world. While each of the 24 pieces was for sale at the start of the week, by 5pm on the second day the majority were – predictably – all snapped up.

Gucci

Gucci’s creative director Sabato de Sarno’s ‘Ancora’ campaign continues to thrive in Milano as the brand unveiled Gucci Design Ancora in its newly reopened flagship on Via Montenapoleone. Entering through a carpeted staircase surrounded by lacquered walls in the dark red ‘Ancora Rosso’ hue that is a signature of the De Sarno era at Gucci, visitors were presented with an antidote in acid green when they reached the top. Inside this starkly saturated mini maze, architected by Guillermo Santomà, were five objects De Sarno had chosen from several Italian masters over the years that had been re-issued in the Ancora-red hue for the occasion. The Le Mura sofa by Mario Bellini for Tacchini from 1972; the Clessidra rug from an iconic design of Piero Portaluppi made by CC-Tapis; the Storet tallboy by Nanda Vigo for Acerbis in 1994; the Opachi vase by Tobia Scarpa for Venini in 1960; and the Parola lamp by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for FontanaArte in 1980 each stood in their own space to be admired from all angles. ‘Through Design Ancora, Gucci doesn’t simply celebrate old icons, it creates new ones,’ said Michela Pelizzari, founder of P:S Agency, which co-curated the project. ’The aura emanating from the brand spotlights five pieces by Italian masters that are perfect from a design standpoint but less known to the general public.’

Thom Browne

For his Salone del Mobile debut, Thom Browne took over the Palazzina Appiani to unveil his collaboration with the 160-year-old home textiles expert Frette with his performance, entitled Time To Sleep. True to his reputation for subverting traditional settings and concepts into unexpected scenarios, Browne placed six identical beds under the frescoes in the Hall of Honour and had models undress themselves before getting into bed. In the models’ getting dressed, rather than undressed, to sleep, Browne intended to ‘challenge the audience to question the role of dress in public life’, highlighting that the act of sleeping is just as important as the hours we are awake. ‘I think it's so much more interesting, and it elevates the product launch, when you create an installation that transcends the specific world that it’s in,’ Browne told Wallpaper* during rehearsals for the performance. The collection, which is available immediately, comprises sheets, blankets, terry-towel and cashmere robes, bath towels, and a quilted bath mat in crisp white cotton-sateen. ‘The reason I wanted to work with Frette is because they’re the best at what they do,’ added Browne.

Saint Laurent

The Paris-based house turned the clock back to 1953 and the private collection of Anala and Armando Planchart who commissioned the legendary architect Gio Ponti to mastermind their hilltop Venezuelan villa overlooking Caracas. On finishing the project, Ponti commissioned artisans from his native Italy to help furnish the space and turned to Ginori 1735 to create a collection of porcelain plates featuring motifs from around the villa and the couple’s initials. It is these plates that creative director Anthony Vaccarello curated and had reissued by the ceramic experts for Saint Laurent’s special installation in the cloisters of the Chiostri di San Simpliciano. Displayed in oscillating tubes on a raised platform that mirrored the height in which they originally lived in Villa Planchart Segnaposto, the presentation marked a coming together of multiple design icons.

Prada

Once again collaborating with FormaFantasma (above), Prada staged its Prada Frames seminar discussions on the theme of Being Home. Throughout the week, luminaries in different fields came together – including Paola Antonelli, Brigitte Baptiste, Kate Crawford, Jack Halberstam and David Van Severen – to cover myriad topics that were contextualised by Alice Rawsthorn. Each of the 17 sessions took their leave from different rooms around the home: for the bedroom, Gulsum Baydar and Philippe Rahm discussed the bedrooms role as a comfort zone; for the living room, Jayden Ali and Jack Halberstam were in conversation with Andrés Jaque exploring the rituals of diaspora communities in architectural spaces; and in the library, Isabella Rossellini and Mary Kuhn examined the relationship between humans and nature in the home, past and present. Staged each year to invite people out of their everyday lives and explore new and alternative analysis of familiar situations, it continues to be a highlight. Read more about Prada Frames.

Issey Miyake

60,000 bamboo skewers were used to create the one-of-a-kind carpet collaboration between Issey Miyake and the Dutch collective We Make Carpets. Famous for transforming everyday objects into artistic works of beauty, the artisans channelled Issey Miyake’s own skill at finding the sweet spot of robust-delicacy with the piece that was created by inserting the skewers one by one by hand into a thick piece of foam. The resulting patterns emerged organically as their dipped ends started to create surface patterns. Issey Miyake praised the group’s tenacity in making something meaningful without the need for ‘fancy gadgets and advanced technologies’, praising their labour-intensive and synchronised teamwork in bringing the piece to life. Transported flat to Milan city centre from where it was crafted in the Netherlands, in a nod to the national emblem it was presented resting on wooden beams crafted from tulip trees at the Via Bagutta flagship.

Versace

‘If These Walls Could Talk’ is an apt name for Versace’s Salone del Mobile presentation staged in its original atelier, the Palazzo Versace on Via Gesu. As many a fashion aficionado will know, it is at this residence that many of the fashion house’s famous catwalk shows have taken place over the years (including that 1991 show that birthed ‘the supermodel’) and where many of its globally recognised logos and icons were first designed, including the Medusa, Barocco and Greca emblems. They were omnipresent through this presentation that guided visitors from room to room, with even more opulence around each corner – an experience heightened by an audio experience created in collaboration with Radio Raheem for each space. They featured pieces new and reworked including The Medusa ’95 Conversational Sofa, the La Greca Bed and the Lady Desk, each a conversation starter in the space they stood.

Loro Piana 

Paying tribute to the late Milanese designer and architect Cini Boeri, Loro Piana showcased the most iconic pieces from her archive and presented them in its famously luxurious interiors fabrics. The collaboration with the official archive of Boeri, marks not only what would have been the year of Boeri’s 100th birthday, but the year Loro Piana also celebrates its centenary. Honouring Boeri’s insistence that furniture should be engaged with at all times, visitors to the presentation were encouraged to touch and sit on the pieces as they moved through the space. ’The thinking of Cini Boeri is extraordinarily contemporary,’ shared Francesco Pergamo, Director of Loro Piana Interiors. ’Just as extraordinarily contemporary remain the pieces we have chosen to exhibit together with Arflex and Archivio Cini Boeri, and to dress with our fabrics.’ Featured in the presentation are the famous modular Strips system, that won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro in 1979, the corresponding bed, the Bobo and Boborelax armchairs and the Botolo Chairs that have been covered in the brand’s ‘cashfur’ and made in a limited edition of 100. ’The dual centenary of Cini’s birth and the founding of Loro Piana has offered us the opportunity to contribute to the appreciation of the architect's figure,’ added Pergamo, who revealed plans to work with the archive on additional projects over the next three years.

Fendi Casa

Welcome to the world of Fendi Casa where the family keeps growing. This year, the Via Manzoni space was masterminded by Silvia Venturini Fendi and realised by Controvento creative collective. Together, they kept the house’s ‘double F’ logo of the house front and center, creating intimate spaces that invite people to cosy up, much like the emblem. The perfect example lies in the new Fendi F-Affair sofa by Controvento that is an interlocking platform of seats and suspended tables presented with a champagne bucket and glasses. It was joined by other collaborations in the sumptuous sofa department, the F-Stripes by Ludovica Serafini and Roberto Palomba and the Sohoft by Toan Nguyen. Existing families grew their brood, too: Thierry Lemaire’s Parsifal sofa was joined by the Mrs Parsifal armchair; Stefano Gallizioli’s Adrianand’s Audrey chair was complemented with square-shaped Audrette chairs; and Cristina Celestino's Ottavia chair was delivered of a sister, the Lazy Ottavia armchair.

Zegna

Zegna staged something of a takeover of Milan as it released its new Rizzoli tome, Born In Oasi Zegna. Named after the 100km of forested land north of Milan in the Biella Alps where its founder Ermenegildo Zegna initiated a reforestation programme in 1910, the book marked a moment for the brand to celebrate both its values and association with the city of Milan. In celebration, mini Zegna-branded newsstands (‘edicolas’) that are famously found on most corners were giving out limited-edition tote bags, while over in the piazza in front of the landmark Duomo, tulips transported in from the area were being planted in the square’s new flower beds. ’The project aims to convey the value and urgency of respect for the Earth and nature, as well as the importance that urban green spaces can bring people closer to natural ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity and social responsibility,’ shared the brand, ’concepts that are fundamental to Oasi Zegna.’

Dolce & Gabbana

Fresh from setting the city alight with its extravagant Milanese exhibition, ’From the Heart to the Hands’, Dolce & Gabbana staged an intimate reveal of its new interiors offering, The Dreaming Collection. Here, it was all about sitting comfortably, as the Moss Curved Sofa, which sits on a polished metal base in black nickel, and the DG Casa Moon Island armchair (above, which the brand said was ‘reminiscent of a warm embrace’) were joined by the Moon Island Sofa – designed to steal the spotlight in any room it’s in, much like everything this brand turns its heart and hand to.

Lanvin

Parisian house Lanvin looked towards its heritage for its installation at Milan Design Week; specifically, Lanvin Decoration, a furniture and decoration line which was first introduced by founder and couturier Jeanne Lanvin in 1920. Lanvin united with Rooms Studio – founded by two Georgian designers Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia in 2007 – for the project, which saw the pair curate a number of their pieces, including a series of sculptural chairs and benches, which were displayed at Lanvin’s Milan outpost.

And so it begins again: as the warm early days of June roll in, so too does Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025, a Europe-wide menswear tour with stops in London, Florence, Milan and Paris, seeing designers both emerging and established present their vision for the season ahead.

Beginning today (7 June 2024), the first stop is London: the relatively scant schedule, with just a handful of designers showing over the weekend, serves as sedate warm-up for crowded days of shows in the coming days (accompanied by a new culturally minded schedule of talks and exhibitions). The next stop is Florence for historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo; there, subversive French designer Marine Serre – best known for her sliced-up, upcycled garments and signature crescent-moon print – and British design legend Paul Smith will both show as guest designers. 

In Milan, British designer Martine Rose joins the schedule for the first time, alongside heritage house Dunhill, which also makes the move from London to the Italian fashion capital (both will show on Sunday 16 June). Meanwhile, in Paris, highlights will include Pharrell Williams’ latest blockbuster menswear outing for Louis Vuitton and the final show from Dries Van Noten (the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month).

Here, in an ongoing list, is everything Wallpaper* knows about Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025. 

Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025: what to expect

London Fashion Week (7 – 9 June 2024)

London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary celebrations will continue this June with the event’s summer iteration, which, as in previous years, spans shows from both mens- and womenswear designers (prior to the pandemic, it was exclusively menswear on the schedule). This season, expect a new format from the British Fashion Council-helmed event, beginning with a program of activations at the Institute of Contemporary Arts – including exhibitions, panel discussions and performances – that will focus on highlighting designers spotlighting Black, South Asian and queer cultures. Elsewhere, across London a ‘40 for 40’ schedule will see 40 designers and brands host events across the city, while Soho nightspot Groucho Club will become a ’dynamic activation space’ hosting designers both established and emerging. 

‘The new format is a direct result of the conversations we are continuously having with the BFC community,’ says BFC CEO Caroline Rush. ’We want to ensure we are recognising the business needs of our designers and providing them with a global showcasing platform which is both relevant and beneficial. This iteration of London Fashion Week is a really exciting opportunity to future-proof and innovate the UK’s fashion showcasing capabilities and highlight the city’s point of difference during men’s fashion month.’

Elsewhere, in an intimate off-schedule presentation at his Docklands studio earlier this week (5 June 2024), Craig Green held his first runway show after a two-year hiatus, a heartfelt musing on ‘sons and fathers’. Over the weekend, a handful of other designers and brands will show on the relatively scant schedule, including Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Qasimi and Denzilpatrick. 

Pitti Uomo (11 – 14 June 2024)

Each season, Pitti Uomo – a historic menswear and trade fair that takes place twice yearly in Florence, Italy – selects a handful of international guest designers to show as part of the unique line-up, which sees runway shows held in an eclectic array of venues across the city, from Renaissance palazzos to abandoned industrial lots. Recent iterations have seen appearances from Fendi, SS Daley, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Luca Magliano, while Vivienne Westwood, Raf Simons, Giorgio Armani, Jonathan Anderson and Yohji Yamamoto have all previously shown as part of the definitive menswear event.

This year (see our Pitti Uomo 106 highlights) the first guest designer is Marine Serre, a buzzy French designer known for her sporty, subculture-infused pieces, which often feature reworked deadstock garments and her signature crescent-moon print (the latter, usually adorning second-skin tops, body suits and leggings, have gained her a legion of famous followers, from Beyoncé to Rosalía). Showing on 12 June 2024, she will present a menswear collection at a location that is yet to be announced. ‘I am really excited to present my next show in Florence,’ she says. ’We’re looking forward to bringing the essence of Marine Serre to Florence, mixing craftsmanship our way, and shaking the lines of what’s expected to be, bringing imagination at the service of transformation.’

Meanwhile, British design legend Paul Smith – who has shown at the fair previously – will begin proceedings with the launch of his S/S 2025 menswear collection on 11 June 2024. The choice of Pitti Uomo to show next season’s offering comes from the British designer’s ‘reverence for tailored clothing’, he says, noting that after first appearing as a guest designer in 1993, ‘the return to Florence feels like just the right thing to do’.

Milan Fashion Week Men’s (15 – 19 June 2024)

Highlights of Milan Fashion Week will no doubt include Sabato De Sarno’s sophomore menswear collection for Gucci, where he will continue to hone his elegant new vision for the house, which draws inspiration from the insouciant style of the Italian street. The show will take place on Monday 17 June, a move from last year’s Friday spot. Prada, meanwhile, will present its S/S 2025 collection amid a typically dynamic set created in association with OMA/AMO – Rem Koolhaas unpacked the architectural practice’s 25-year collaboration with Prada in Wallpaper’s March 2024 Style Issue.

Elsewhere, there is something of a British invasion: Martine Rose will show on Sunday 16 June in her first outing in the Italian city, as will heritage house Dunhill, which showed its first collection under new creative director Simon Holloway in London this past February. JW Anderson will also continue to show its menswear collections in Milan, also on Sunday evening.

Rounding out the schedule are Italian stalwarts Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna, Armani and Fendi, while rising Bologna-based brand Magliano will return to Milan after showing as guest designer at Pitti Uomo last season. MSGM, meanwhile, will celebrate 15 years with a co-ed show runway show on the morning of Saturday 15 June. ‘In June 2009, I presented the first MSGM men's collection alongside the women's resort,’ says founder Massimo Giorgetti. ’I would like to celebrate that memory and recreate the same energy.’

Paris Fashion Week Men’s (18 – 23 June 2024)

After the announcement that ex-Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele is set to take the helm at Valentino, replacing Pierpaolo Piccioli, fans of Michele will have to wait a little longer to see his vision for the Roman house – earlier this month, Valentino confirmed that it would not present a men‘s or haute couture collection in June, saving his debut for womenswear fashion week in Paris in September.

That said, an expansive schedule awaits elsewhere: notably, Pharrell Williams will show his third menswear collection for Louis Vuitton, which follows a Western-themed outing for A/W 2024 (a precursor of sorts to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, the musician chose to wear a look from the collection for her appearance at the 2024 Grammys). His last June show, which marked his debut, saw him shutting down central Paris’ Pont Neuf for the extravaganza, while in January he erected an enormous box in Paris’ Jardin d'Acclimatation, complete with a flurry of faux-snow for the dramatic finale. His upcoming show will likely be just as social-media ubiquitous, taking place at 8.30pm on June 18, 2024. Another notable moment will be Dries Van Noten’s final show on the evening of June 22, after the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month.

Elsewhere, expect impactful shows from Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, Véronique Nichanian at Hermès, and Rick Owens, who will reveal whether the move to hosting his shows in his own Paris home – as was the case for his last mens- and womenswear shows – is permanent. Watch this space.

Stay tuned to Wallpaper.com for more coverage from Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.

The Armani Casa aesthetic focuses on ‘simple lines and perfect proportions, enriched by precious materials and refined finishes’. This distinctive style is particularly apparent in its series of sophisticated console tables, which bring a perfectly measured dose of elegance to entrance lobbies and hallways. So far these have included the rectangular ‘Manhattan’ console, shaped like the outline of a skyscraper, and minimalist ‘Matrix’ and ‘Seine’ series.

Joining them this year is an altogether different proposition, the ‘Venus’ console, presented during Salone del Mobile 2024. Although it shares the minimalist glamour of the brand’s previous designs, it also brings a new, softer dimension to the collection, with its fine lines and curves.

Its thin profile brings out the precision of the shapes and colours, while the artisanal details recall the poetics seen in the art of high jewellery. It also refers to the allure of art déco and the style of the 1930s-1940s, which often inspires Armani’s furniture and fashion creations.

Aptly named after the Roman goddess of love, the glossy console is actually made of lacquered wood using a complicated artisanal process. It comprises a wooden base lacquered in pale satin gold, which supports a long oval-shaped top lacquered with gold leaf and protected by a piece of glass. Carefully applied with a brush, the gold leaf enhances the natural colours and creates a unique effect.

Every item produced by Armani Casa is the result of a complex, painstaking process from research to design and final production. Working closely with the best Italian master craftsmen, the design team is always interested in rediscovering processes, and techniques such as lacquer, used by small local manufacturers from around the country.

Armani Casa, Corso Venezia 14, Milano

armani.com

Milan Fashion Week A/W 2024 – which took place in the Italian city last week – was a season of debuts. Tod’s and Blumarine both welcomed new creative directors: the former saw ex-Bottega Veneta designer Matteo Tamburini take the helm, while at the latter, Walter Chiapponi (formerly of Tod’s) replaced Nicolas Brognano. Moschino also welcomed new creative director Adrian Appiolaza, formerly of Loewe, where he was ready-to-wear design director for ten years. Other notable moments included a return to Milan for Marni, which has in recent seasons shown in Paris, Tokyo and New York.

Elsewhere, Prada’s arresting A/W 2024 collection saw Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons mine ‘fragments of the past’ to create a collection of the future, while Matthieu Blazy’s latest outing at Bottega Veneta saw the designer seek to exalt the everyday. ‘In a world on fire, there is something very human in the simple act of dressing,’ he said. Rounding out the schedule were the titans of Italian fashion; among them Giorgio Armani, Max Mara, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Dolce & Gabbana.

Here, reported from the shows, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss picks the best of Milan Fashion Week A/W 2024 (also see beauty & grooming editor Hannah Tindle’s stand-out A/W 2024 beauty moments from the runway). 

The best of Milan Fashion Week A/W 2024

Giorgio Armani

It was left to Mr Armani to close out Milan Fashion Week on Sunday morning, a fitting final act from a designer who for close to five decades has been defining Milanese – and indeed Italian – style. Presented in the intimate Via Borgonuovo space in the house’s longtime headquarters, the designer crafted a collection of languorous glamour which the designer said was inspired by the idea of ‘renewal’. Titled ‘Winter Flowers’, the collection began by looking towards flowers that bloom even in the coldest months and ‘herald beauty and regrowth’ (in this, there was a link to Matthieu Blazy’s Bottega Veneta collection shown the evening before, which looked towards the resilience of desert plants and cacti for his own exploration of renewal). Here, it made for a collection of extraordinary surface embellishment – whether the painterly floral prints which decorated diaphanous layers of organza or dainty beaded dragonflies – in hues of pale blues, rich greens, and the intense nocturnal blacks and navies of the closing looks.

Bottega Veneta

After last season’s round-the-globe ‘odyssey’ – which saw models traverse an enormous tiled map of the world in garments inspired by their imaginative travels – there was a sparser mood to Matthieu Blazy’s latest collection, which took place in a wood-floored show space throughout which giant Murano glass cactuses bloomed. Blazy said the desert plant was a symbol of resilience against the elements; the ability to survive and regenerate even in the harshest landscapes, a mood which was infused into the collection itself. ‘In a world on fire, there is something very human in the simple act of dressing,’ he said, noting that he imagined his figures emerging as if from a burnt and barren landscape to start again. ‘The idea of rebirth is beautiful. These are the flowers that bloom after the earth is burnt – they give a sense of hope. They come back stronger than ever.’

He did so with an exaltation of the everyday, noting a desire to make the quotidian wardrobe ‘monumental’, capturing a ‘sense of allure and confidence in the pragmatic, utilitarian and purposeful’. It made for a typically extraordinary line-up of clothing which saw the recognisable – trench coats, collared shirts, knitwear – energised in new proportions (largely expansive and enveloping, like the cocooning silhouette of the curved seam overcoats which opened the show) and fabrications, which will no doubt require closer inspection to reveal their secrets. Twisted gowns appeared to have been created instinctively, held in place with shiny gobstopper fastenings, while fronds of bouncing pleats at the hems of gowns suggested flames and fire (so too the final slew of dresses, where the fabric looked destroyed and remade). Others were decorated with faded motifs of maps, as if his wanderers were seeking new worlds. ‘We all watch the same news. It is hard to be celebratory at this point,’ said Blazy, noting that getting dressed to begin a new day is an act of human dignity. ‘Here, elegance is resilience.’ 

Jil Sander

A collection rich in colour and texture saw Lucie and Luke Meier continue to eschew the idea of seasonal ‘themes’ towards a more wide-ranging evolution of their vision for Jil Sander – one rooted, as the pair describe, in a ‘constant search for a balance between sensitivity and form, intimacy and presence, image and intention, concentration and humour’. Taking place in a green-hued ‘smooth and immersive capsule’, decorated with a collection of enormous cobalt-blue horns, the A/W 2024 collection loosely began with the idea of sound and music, and the way it shapes ‘our emotions; desires and needs’ (a live soundtrack was provided by American singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Mk.gee). There was certainly a feeling of emotion to the collection itself, which shifted from the brightly-hued moulded dresses and tailoring of the opening looks, towards more dramatic silhouettes, like a series of caped gowns which recalled mid-century haute couture in their abundance. Elsewhere, texture and fabrication remained key, whether the quilted down or diaphanous chainmail which suggested protection, or the more whimsical flourishes of floral jacquards, fuzzy handbags, and the long fronds of tassels which trailed from knitwear. 

Dolce & Gabbana

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana looked towards the tuxedo, a symbol of enduring sartorial elegance, for their latest collection, drafting in a blockbuster era-spanning cast – which included Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Mariacarla Boscono and Eva Herzigova – to bolster the collection’s timeless mood. ‘The tuxedo is the ultimate symbol of pure style,’ the designers noted. ‘For us, only style transcends fashion: the simpler a piece, a classic like the tuxedo, the more perfect it is, eternal, free from the constraints of time.’ Alongside a multitude of riffs on the garment – cropped to the navel, blown up in proportion, or elongated into an overcoat – were the requisite flourishes of glamour and sensuality synonymous with the house. These included a series of lingerie-inspired looks (a counterpoint to the rigour of the tuxedo), as well as enormous feathered coats, glimmering crystal chainmail dresses and profusions of lace and polka dots. ‘[It’s a] union of contrasts,’ continued the designers. ‘Masculine and feminine, austerity and seduction… allowing every woman the freedom to express her idea of style.’

Ferragamo

Maximilian Davis moves from strength to strength with a deeply desirable A/W 2024 collection for Ferragamo, which saw him translate past to present in astute style (‘the goal is to be timeless,’ he recently told Scarlett Conlon in a tour of the house’s archive in Florence, Italy). Here, it was the liberatory mood of the 1920s that provided the starting point of the collection, with Davis noting that it was a decade that ‘used clothing as a way to celebrate freedom.’ ’That expression of freedom is something which resonates with me, with my heritage, and with Ferragamo.’ There was certainly the fluidity of the era’s dress codes, the feeling of casting off restriction and restraint: a silk halterneck gown fell away into tassels at its sheer hemline (a restrained riff on the flapper dress), while layers of transparency ran throughout. 

Elsewhere, Davis drew inspiration from Hollywood figures like Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, noting the way they would adopt elements of masculine dress; here, this meant a series of brilliant wide-shouldered overcoats and tailoring with wide buckled waistbands. For men, a super-abbreviated mini short provided the collection’s defining silhouette, worn with elements which the designer said suggested protection: military-hued tailored jackets, chunky knitwear, riffs on the workwear jacket. A similar line of thinking inspired the cape-like silhouette or the elongated, face-covering collars on outerwear. ‘In the 1920s, as a response to the world that surrounded them, people created their own spaces through speakeasies,’ explained Davis. ‘They were hiding what they were wearing until they were safe.’ Befitting the house’s history, completing the line-up was some terrific footwear – whether elegant T-bar pumps (a stripped-down riff on a style Davis found in the house’s archive), thigh-high wader boots, or those adorned with fronds of colourful sprouting feathers.

Versace

Donatella Versace closed out Friday evening’s proceedings with a stomping co-ed collection infused with a rebellious, punkish spirit – albeit in the Italian house’s hyper-glamourous style. ‘The woman is a good girl with a wild soul,’ said the designer, who formulated this juxtaposition in prim collared dresses, gold-button blazers and riffs on the tweed suit (here elongated to the point the jacket trailed along the floor) opposed with lashings of eyeliner, distressed leopard print sweaters and chainmail-covered jeans sliced open along their front. Elsewhere, a slew of molten dresses, which contoured the body into a narrow corseted waist, had requisite Versace va-va-voom (so much so, actress Anne Hathaway chose one of them to wear while she watched on from the front row). Nods to archival prints, meanwhile, appeared across both the men’s and womenswear collections. ‘This is a collection with a rebel attitude but a kind heart,’ elaborated the designer. ‘Pure lines, innovative fabrications, considered wildness. This is us. This is Versace.’

Marni

After a sojourn around the world, hosting shows in New York, Tokyo and Paris, Marni creative director Francesco Risso returned to Marni this season for a show held in the railway arches on Via Ferrante Aporti. Here, they had been entirely covered in crinkled white paper – one fellow attendee described the effect as feeling as if inside a papier maché igloo – providing a symbolic link to the collection itself, which had begun with a blank slate. Titled ‘Bring No Clothes’ (a reference to Virginia Woolf’s instructions to those visiting her home in the British countryside), Risso said that reference images were banned from the walls of the studio this season, inviting his design team to instead work by instinct and through play. ‘By casting out the idolatry of mirrors, filled to the brim with conquering dreams, we have returned to an almost animal state,’ he wrote in the show’s accompanying letter of intent. Indeed, the collection did have a primitive air: sliced panels of fur slung around models’ necks or trailing in their wake, moments of animal print, and fuzzy, enveloping textures. A mood of childlike creativity, meanwhile, was captured in a series of naively painted garments, their texture raised like an oil painting.

‘For some months now, I’ve been asking myself what it would mean to return to that original state of creation,’ elaborated Risso. ‘In a letter inviting her friends to the countryside, Virginia Woolf once wrote “bring no clothes”. I came to understand that she wasn’t suggesting they arrive naked, but simply encouraging them to strip back the punitive structures of clothing, and all their symbolic implications, because here, it’s just us. It’s a sentiment familiar to my early days in the studio – a sense of community that extended deeper and beyond our titles and roles... because here, it’s just us.’

Gucci

Sabato De Sarno’s sophomore womenswear collection continued in much the same vein as his debut, seeing the Italian designer attempt to capture the essence of his native country’s style in contemporary manner – all the while infused with a mood of insouciance and romance. ‘My dreams, as with my fashion, always converse with reality,’ he elaborated in a brief note circulated prior to the show, which was held in the industrial Fonderia Carlo Macchi. ‘Because I am not searching for another world to live in, but rather of ways to live in this world.’ For him, this means an exploration of the quotidian wardrobe enlivened with the flourishes of glamour and embellishment made possible by the Gucci atelier: mannish overcoats were adorned with a waterfall of sequins and paillettes, intricately layered lace cami tops and dresses recalled lingerie, while slouchy knit cardigans came with shimmering crystal-decorated collars. Elsewhere, tailoring was nipped and worn with abbreviated shorts (the silhouette seemed to recall the 1960s), while an impressive array of leather jackets punched with the double-G monogram showed off the house’s expertise in the material. It ended with a duo of carved strapless gowns, which were seductive in their simplicity, though with enough pizzazz to please his celebrity-filled front row (this season, it comprised Solange Knowles, Kirsten Dunst and De Sarno’s house muse, British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones). ‘[I want to] capture the extraordinary where the ordinary is expected,’ he said.

Sportmax

This season the Sportmax design team diverted from the futuristic austerity of S/S 2024’s all-white collection, looking instead towards underground icon Nico – in particular, her final 1985 album Camera Obscura – for inspiration. On the collection notes, a quote from Gerard Malanga (a poet and assistant to Andy Warhol) about the album’s imagery was chosen to encapsulate the collection’s mood. ‘Nico’s eyes seem to guard a great mystery which, hidden in aloofness, they do not want anyone to know exists,’ it read. ‘Whether or not a mystery is there, the eyes with the enigma of their absence from what surrounds them eclipse the perfection of features and form to add great magnetism’. 

So the woman for this season was steeped in sensuality and intrigue, seeing models stalking the dimly lit upper corridors of the Triennale di Milano contemporary art museum on a curving mirrored catwalk (on which the season’s vertiginous heels pounded). Plunging black mini dresses rose up above the shoulder into spikes, while sharp, wide-shouldered tailoring and a recurring cinched waist (often achieved through clever layering) was designed to recall the ‘resolve of a Helmut Newton muse’. Meanwhile, Nico’s 1980s contemporaries – Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Annie Lennox and Siouxsie Sioux – were also celebrated in the nostalgic album cover-inspired prints, dotted across the collection like a collage.

Tod’s

Matteo Tamburini chose the Messina Tram Depot in northern Milan to present his debut Tod’s collection, a symbolic gesture that this was a brand in forward movement (indeed, a number of the yellow Milanese trams had been adorned with the Tod’s logo for the occasion). It linked with the collection’s inspirations, which the designer said was rooted in a search for contemporary Italian elegance – one at once inspired by the energy of the street (here epitomised by the presentation, where models appeared to be rushing to catch the tram on a misted morning) and a deep-rooted appreciation for local craft. So for men and women, Tamburini attempted to create a comprehensive everyday wardrobe in luxurious style, from layers of ribbed knitwear and roomy trench coats to more dramatic leather gowns adorned with tassels (in these, there was an echo of Bottega Veneta, where Tamburini worked from 2017 to 2023). The designer was at his best, though, with the narrow, streamlined looks which opened the show, comprising sharply cut overcoats, double-layer striped shirts and gently flared tailored trousers with wide folded hems – a convincingly contemporary silhouette. As for footwear – which remains the bedrock of the brand – a version of the Gommino loafer for men with a minimal metal bar in lieu of the usual tie fastening had definite appeal, while for women the style was adorned with playful fronds of leather tassels.

Prada

‘An instinctive attraction to history.’ So began the description of Prada’s A/W 2024 show, which was presented in the same OMA/AMO-designed space as the house’s menswear show in January, where vast Perspex tiles revealed a simulacrum of a forest floor beneath attendees’ feet (this time, the twisting lines of spinning office chairs had been removed; so too the desks and Prada-screensaver computers which had stood in the space’s entranceway). Though still striking, the set felt less prescient here – in the menswear show, its clash of the great outdoors and the corporate office was reflected in the clothing itself – with co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons instead looking towards ‘fragments’ of historical dress as the collection’s starting point. (Read more about OMA/AMO and Prada show sets in our Rem Koolhaas interview on 25 years of the collaboration.)

But this was not about misty-eyed nostalgia – something Miuccia Prada asserted, in typically plain-speaking style, that she ‘hates’. Rather, it was what the pair deemed an ‘emotional’ exercise – an exploration of the way clothing holds onto memories, even romance. ‘History, for me, is always connected to the lives of people,’ explained Miuccia Prada. ‘There is a sense of romance to this collection – of values of love and caring embedded in the clothes… it is not so much a theoretical statement, but a conversation about emotions. For me, these are vital ideas, they are always present in what we create. Creating beauty, creating things with love.’

So there were dresses decorated with a multitude of bows, petticoat-style slips revealed beneath sliced-away skirts, or sculpted tailoring recalling a midcentury silhouette. ‘[They] could be Victorian, 1920s, 1950s,’ said Simons of the references, which were shaken up to create the richly imagined collection. ‘This is not about a narrative history… it’s an attraction to different moments in time which now feel new.’ Other pieces worked in the other direction: a series of technical anoraks, for example, were reshaped using a historical line, imbued with new elegance. 

But there was a sense of warning here, too. The profusion of feminine adornments, from bows to ruffles, had an uncanny effect (‘Why do they persist? Why do they attract?’ asked the pair via the collection notes), while suggestions of military attire lent the collection an undercurrent of lingering darkness. As one expects from Prada, this felt purposeful. ’Reflecting on history teaches us our mistakes, our strengths. The past is the only thing we have,’ said Miuccia Prada. ’This is a collection shaped by history… who we were, why we dressed like that. It’s about remembering our past, using this knowledge to move forwards.’ 

‘In this moment, which is such a complicated moment, it is vital to know your history. Who you are, where you come from,’ added Simons. ‘You can only realise your future if you know your past.’

Emporio Armani

Starting backwards, Emporio Armani’s A/W 2024 show ended with a flurry of snow (a micro-trend in Milan, with Jacob Cohën’s presentation earlier in the day at Teatro Lirico complete with its own blizzard of faux-snow). Through it Mr Armani’s models marched, umbrellas overheard and seemingly unfazed by the change in weather, clad here in a series of eveningwear looks in lieu of more temperature-appropriate wear – from sequinned tuxedos and shimmering crescent-moon adorned suits to crystal bra tops and sculpted evening gowns. They captured the mood of the collection, which was titled ‘Night Glow’, seeking to evoke the ‘luminous night sky’ and its changing tonal hues (the colour palette spanned midnight black to mauve, violet, jade green and tones of grey). Silhouettes, meanwhile, were designed to capture the feeling of freedom which remains at the heart of Emporio Armani – whether billowing trousers with sweatpant-style gathered hems, diaphanous organza skirts, or the boldly coloured flourishes of chubby faux fur. 

Max Mara

During his three-plus decades at the helm of Max Mara, Ian Griffiths has established a canon of notable women from history to provide the inspiration for his collections. Such was the case for his A/W 2024 offering, presented on a drizzly Milanese morning in a brightly lit former industrial space on Via Giovanni Battista Piranesi. This season, it was the turn of rebellious French author Colette, who is best known for her sensual prose that at the turn of the 20th century provided a then-rare glimpse into the interior life of a woman, her passions and desires. In this spirit, what followed was a seductive collection which suggested moments of pleasure: typically enveloping overcoats in soft-to-the-touch textures, ribbed knit bands which gently cinched the waist, or asymmetric skirts draped and folded onto the body. The subtle juxtapositions which have become a signature of Griffiths’ tenure ran throughout – between weight and lightness, glamour and ease, the masculine and feminine – like his riff on a military officer’s coat or fisherman’s sweater, a nod to the way Colette would defiantly dress between genders. At the end of the press notes, a quote from the author seemed to define the liberated collection: ‘Beautiful? For whom? Why, for myself, of course.’

Fendi

The Fendi showspace on Via Solari was divided into various rooms, their partitions constructed from enormous drapes of coloured silk. Indeed, the collection itself – which creative director of couture and womenswear Kim Jones said began by looking at archival looks from the mid-1980s – was full of such impressive contortions of fabric, whether the cinching day-glo strip of fabric which was layered over a simple black roll-neck, or the variously complex knits, which were crisscrossed over the neck or became slinky, colour-blocked ribbed dresses. The drapes also recalled those found in Roman statuary – a nod to Fendi’s home city – which also appeared as prints or as intricate embroidery on the garments themselves, part of a continuing exploration of the Italian city’s unique brand of elegance (a fascination of Jones since he started at the house, who takes particular inspiration from the personal style of house scion Delfina Delettrez Fendi, who in 2020 became Fendi’s artistic director of jewellery and in 2016 was a Wallpaper* Design Awards judge). 

But delving into the archive also reminded Jones of the dress codes of his native London in the 1980s, particularly the vivid, subversive uniforms of the New Romantics and figures like performance artist and club impresario Leigh Bowery. Here, the liberated mood of the era was expressed in flourishes of polka dots (a Bowery signature) and moments of piercing colour, which contrasted rigorous, sculpted black tailoring elsewhere. ‘The sketches reminded me of London during that period: the Blitz Kids, the New Romantics, the adoption of workwear, aristocratic style, Japanese style,’ Jones explained. ‘It was a point when British subcultures and styles became global and absorbed global influences. Yet still with a British elegance in ease and not giving a damn what anybody else thinks, something that chimes with Roman style.’

No. 21

Alessandro Dell'Acqua’s always intriguing vision of womanhood at No. 21 – where underneath his clothing’s exterior beauty something darker lurks – continued this season with the Italian designer’s riff on bourgeois dress codes. He used the expression ‘bon ton’, a byword for elegance and good taste that was first used to describe British high society in the 19th century – and later reemerged during the haute couture revival of the 1980s – to encapsulate the collection’s mood. The latter era emerged here in plunging black gowns that tied at the shoulders with bows, cocooning double-breasted overcoats, or nipped tweed suiting, all of which drew inspiration from the decade’s outré haute couture collections (‘It’s as if I had cast my gaze deeply into a fashion story [and made it] come alive again,’ said Dell’Acqua of the nostalgic mood). But it was the designer’s eye for juxtaposition that continued to enchant: whether the functional, harness-style fastening which sat in the side seam of an otherwise ladylike dress dripping in crystals (and exposed the body beneath), the men’s brogues worn with a satin strapless gown, or the combination of a slouchy Fair Isle jumper with an embellished sheer skirt and pointed pumps, each combination captured the disruptive sensuality which pulsates through his work. ‘[I wanted] to capture and express a very conscious form of bourgeois eroticism,’ Dell’Acqua concluded. 

When Giorgio Armani emerged to prominence in 1970s Italy, he proposed a new way of dressing. It was epitomised by his riff on the suit jacket: stripping away its previously rigid structure and synonymy with stuffy formality, his take was defined by a languid elegance, unstructured in design and made to release the body from restriction. Such a philosophy has followed him throughout his career, across both his eponymous label and its various offshoots, including Emporio Armani. ‘It gives presence, stature and dignity,’ he told Wallpaper* of the tailored jacket in a conversation with Paul Smith. ‘And it is one piece: you attain more with less.’

In Florentine photographer Aldo Fallai – who he met when Fallai was still a graphic designer in Milan in the early 1970s – Mr Armani would find a natural ally. In 1977, they worked together for the first time; the resulting collaboration, which would span three decades, saw them refine a vision, particularly of masculinity, which was both widely influential and decidedly Armani. Rigorous in composition, yet imbued with a feeling of sensuality – often the images would celebrate the beauty of the human form – the photographs they produced together continue to define the spirit of the house today. 

And now, in Mr Armani’s Milanese hub and exhibition space, Armani/Silos, the designer pays ode to Fallai with a monographic exhibition of the photographer’s work, spanning 1977-2021 (until 11 August 2024). Curated by Mr Armani, his sister Rosanna Armani and Leo Dell’Orco, head of men’s collections, the wide-ranging exhibition celebrates what the designer calls an ‘artistic dialogue’, one largely led by an instinctual connection between the pair. Said to have been inspired by a melange of influences – from Tuscan mannerism and Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro to the pre-Raphaelites – Fallai’s evocative subjects include a man grasping a tiger cub under his arm (photographed in a circus in Palermo), couples in embrace or amid ruffled bedsheets, or model Antonia Dell’Atte playing a career woman on the Milanese street of Via Durini for a campaign in the 1980s.

‘Working with Aldo allowed me from the very beginning to transform the vision I had in my mind into real images: to communicate that my clothes were not just made in a certain way with certain colours and materials, but that they represented a way of life,’ says Mr Armani.

‘Because style, for me, is a total form of expression. Together, with a constant fluid and concrete dialogue, we created scenes of life, evoked atmospheres and sketched portraits full of character. Today, looking back at everything we did, I myself am struck by the power that these shots still emanate, and by Aldo’s great ability to capture the nuances of personality.’

‘My work with Giorgio was the result of a natural, continuous dialogue and great trust on his part,’ adds Fallai. ‘I have vivid memories of our 30-year collaboration. Production was always agile and streamlined: we achieved the results with little means and no special effects. This, I think, appealed to the public.’ 

Aldo Fallai per Giorgio Armani, 1977-2021, open now until 11 August 2024.

Ticket are available here.

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The exaggerated tailoring and fluid silhouettes of Giorgio Armani’s 1980s oeuvre provide the inspiration for a new unisex collection for the house, which launches exclusively in London department store Selfridges today (13 November 2023).

A rare collection from the house that spans mens and womenswear – traditionally, the house shows separate collections at the respective Milan Fashion Weeks – the pieces present ‘a modern notion of gender fluidity’ which nonetheless reflects the way Mr Armani’s designs have long been swapped between men and women.

Giorgio Armani’s 1980s-inspired unisex capsule

As such, pieces return to the roots of Giorgio Armani – first founded in 1975 and finding cultural ubiquity in the 1980s – with gently oversized tailoring in cashmere and wool, fluid knife-pleat trousers, and a duo of double-breasted coats with shrunken lapels.

A slew of luxurious wardrobe essentials, from a lightweight cashmere-silk polo-neck sweater to a knit silk-cotton T-shirt and crisp poplin shirt, sit alongside. A typically Armani-esque palette of grey, beige, brown and black runs throughout, while stripe motifs appear across shirts and ties.

‘An expression of the brand's relaxed design philosophy and modern approach to traditional tailoring from which Giorgio Armani helped define a new era in design and form,’ describes the house of the collection. An accompanying campaign was photographed on the streets of London. 

‘This might sound rather obvious, but I constantly return to the softly tailored jacket,’ Mr Armani told Paul Smith in a conversation which ran in the October 2022 ‘Legends’ issue of Wallpaper*, guest-edited by the designer.

‘A jacket is an everyday item, a very pragmatic piece that nonetheless shows the immense power of clothing. It gives presence, stature and dignity. And it is one piece: you attain more with less.’

Giorgio Armani’s new unisex collection is available exclusively at Selfridges now. Later, in December, it will be available in Giorgio Armani’s Sloane Street store.

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Add effervescence to any event with our showstopping cocktails and canapés. Take inspiration from our exquisite tablescapes and elegant glassware, and simple but sophisticated recipes, courtesy of Wallpaper* Entertaining Director Melina Keays and Interiors Editor Olly Mason. The art of entertaining starts here.

Cocktails and canapés: hosting in style

The gallery reception, with a Gibson cocktail

Gibson cocktail recipe

Serves 1

70 ml gin
15ml dry Vermouth
ice cubes
2 cocktail onions

Measure the gin and vermouth into a mixing glass. Add ice cubes and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve with 2 cocktail onions threaded onto a cocktail stick.

Interval pick-me-ups, with an Amaretto Sour

Amaretto Sour recipe

Serves 1

60ml amaretto liqueur
30ml fresh lemon juice
dash of Angostura bitters
15ml egg white
ice cubes
maraschino cherries

Put all the ingredients apart from the ice and cherries into a cocktail shaker and shake sharply for 30 seconds. Open the shaker and add ice cubes. Replace the lid and shake again for a further 30 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and serve garnished with a maraschino cherry.

Candlelit concert

Tea and symphony, with coconut macaroons and madeleines

Coconut macaroons recipe

Makes 12

2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
200g desiccated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1tsp vanilla paste
6 glacé cherries, halved
90g dark chocolate

Whisk together the egg whites and caster sugar in a large bowl for 2-3 mins until light and frothy, and the sugar has dissolved. Add the coconut, a pinch of salt and the vanilla, and stir until combined. Leave to stand for 10 mins. Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 160°C/gas 4 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Scoop up generous teaspoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls with your hands. Shape them into 12 mounds and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Top each with half a glacé cherry. Bake for 10-12 mins until golden, then leave to cool completely on the baking sheet.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Dip the bottom of each cooled macaroon into the chocolate and place on a sheet of baking parchment, chocolate-side up. Place in the fridge for 20 mins, or until set.

Madeleines recipe

Makes 12-16

2 eggs
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 lemon, juice and zest
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
100g butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus extra for greasing

Brush the madeleine tray with melted butter then shake in a little flour to coat, tapping out the excess. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl until pale and frothy. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk them in lightly, then place the batter in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Spoon the batter into the prepared madeleine tray, place in the hot oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until they are golden and well risen in the centre. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Front row show

Cassata ice cream bombe recipe

Serves 6- 8

500ml chocolate ice cream
300ml pistachio ice cream
250ml vanilla ice cream
30g chopped dried apricots
35g chopped glace cherries
30g chopped candied orange peel
25g chopped pistachio nuts
cocoa powder to dust
1 litre pudding bowl

Take the chocolate ice cream out of the freezer to soften. Line the pudding bowl with a double layer of cling film. Spoon the chocolate ice cream into the lined bowl and spread it up the sides in a thick and even layer. Place it back in the freezer to firm for 15 minutes, then repeat the process with the pistachio ice cream. Take the vanilla ice cream out of the freezer to soften, then spoon it into a bowl and fold in the chopped fruit and nuts. Spoon this mixture into the centre of the ice cream bombe , smooth the top and replace in the freezer to firm for several hours. Dust the bombe with cocoa powder before serving. 

Private view

Box office hits, with lobster rolls

Lobster rolls recipe

Serves 6

500g cooked lobster meat
5 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs lemon juice
1 stick of celery, diced into small pieces
1 tbs chopped fresh chives
salt and black pepper
6 brioche rolls
3 tbs butter

Chop the lobster meat into large chunks and set aside. Put the mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery and chives Ito a bowl. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper and mix well. Add the lobster and fold all together until well combined. Check the seasoning. Slice the rolls lengthways halfway without cutting them completely in two. Open them up to reveal the cut sides. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and place the opened rolls cut side down to warm and toast slightly in the hot butter. Remove from the pan, spoon in the lobster mixture and serve immediately.

Grand finale

Gildas recipe

Makes 12

I jar of pitted olives
12 salted anchovies
12 pickled Guindilla chillies
cocktail sticks

Drain the olives and chillies. Take a cocktail skewer and thread a chilli first, followed by one end of an anchovy. Add an olive and then thread the other end of the anchovy onto the skewer. Serve with drinks and other appetisers.

Set build: London Art Makers. Photography assistant: Louise Oates. Interiors assistant: Archie Thomson. Fashion assistant: Kris Bergfeldt

The December 2023 Entertaining Issue of Wallpaper* is available in print from 9 November, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

Cats have long prowled the corridors of Giorgio Armani’s Via Borgonuovo Milanese abode, their slinking, elegant, feline forms and aloof demeanour a seemingly apt echo of the designer’s oeuvre across an empire of fashion and design (indeed, he has been photographed clasping numerous pet cats across his five-decade-long career).

Revealed today, an unexpected collaboration between Swedish fashion label Our Legacy and Emporio Armani sees Mr Armani’s beloved animal adorn voluminous shirts and neckties – as well as in a special film animated by Gustaf Holtenäs – part of a larger collection that combines the two brands’ distinct aesthetics in a capsule wardrobe for both men and women. 

First Look: Emporio Armani Our Legacy Work Shop

The collaboration is part of Our Legacy Work Shop, an offshoot of the label that utilises deadstock and recycled garments (the brand’s co-founder Jockum Hallin describes it as ‘an experimental way of creating exciting pieces from leftover stock and fabrics, elevating something old into something new and desirable’). Titled ‘Emporio Armani Our Legacy Work Shop’, the project sees the two brands unite on the collection’s ‘inspiration, curation and execution... resulting in a merged world, blending old and new, reworked yet unmistakable silhouettes’. 

As such, pieces combine Our Legacy’s undone, vintage-inspired silhouettes – whether an oversized suede flight jacket with teddy colour, jacquard waistcoat, or slouchy plaid shirts – with hallmarks of Emporio Armani, from signature fluid tailoring to berets and sunglasses adorned with its eagle motif. Textural interest runs throughout, whether corduroy, coloured leather, denim or heavyweight jersey, while naive cat motifs appear throughout.

An accompanying campaign is photographed by British artist Mark Borthwick, seeing the collection captured in a series of sun-lit, street-shot images. Launching on 17 November 2023, the collection will be available in Our Legacy stores, ourlegacy.com, as well as in Dover Street Market outposts (London, Ginza, New York, Los Angeles and Beijing) and the retailer’s e-shop. 

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When Giorgio Armani opened the doors of his 17th-century Palazzo Orsini HQ for the first time ever, during Milan Design Week 2023, visitors jumped at the chance to view the designer’s latest home collection in situ. But among new launches including a debut outdoor collection presented in a beautiful garden, and new pieces of furniture arranged in a series of stunning frescoed rooms, we were easily charmed by some of the smaller accessories on offer. 

Tarot Cards with a twist from Armani Casa

Among the Murano glass vases and hand-crafted bento boxes, we found this whimsical deck of 78 playing cards, which can be used either as a Tarot set or as a standard deck. 

The most important cards – the Major arcana such as the Juggler, Moon or Hangman, or the various Kings and Queens – are adorned with photos of models wearing Armani clothes, and are surrounded by Armani Casa furniture, fabrics, wallpapers and accessories.

The Tower card (widely associated with danger and sudden change, but also higher learning and liberation) is decorated with the silhouette of a leaf-shaped ‘Erika’ centrepiece, and features a perilously perched couple dressed in shimmering, tailored looks both from Armani’s S/S 2023 collections. 

As for the standard suites, they follow the traditional Italian style and show swords, batons, cups and coins rather than clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds.

The ‘Tale’ tarot deck also features a profile decorated with a pattern repeating the golden Giorgio Armani logo, and is enclosed in an elegant box with a moiré design – a finishing often used in Giorgio Armani fashion creations and Armani Casa collections. All in all, a truly auspicious find.

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A version of this article appears in October 2023 Wallpaper*, on sale now available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Defined by its use of precious materials, refined finishes and innovative textiles, Armani Casa creates furniture with an enduringly elegant aesthetic. In this series of images created for Wallpaper’s September 2023 Style Issue, we’ve paired pieces from its collection with important Italian art and rare artefacts, from the Renaissance to the 21st century, showcasing the very best of the Made in Italy ethos.

Here, Wallpaper* contributing editor Nick Vinson tells us about creating and art-directing this series of images in collaboration with photographer Beppe Brancato. 

Armani Casa and Italian art, a marriage Made in Italy

This story started back in September 2022, when I visited the Florence Art Biennale with my Marylebone neighbour and unofficial art adviser Sandra Romito (Sandra works at Christie’s in London and is a specialist in Old Masters). Foolishly, I thought we would just meet for a coffee and not see much to my liking at the fair, since my taste in art is mainly 20th century, although I am obsessed with Roman antiquities. Until now, I had not considered much in-between for me. 

How wrong could I be: I fell in love with many treasures, including a pair of 14th-century mosaics, Testa di Doge and Testa di Vescovo, from Alessandra Di Castro in Rome; a wax high-relief from the early 18th century, Madonna and Child, by Girolamo Ticciati, and a 1934 group of soldiers by Arturo Martini in bronze, both from Walter Padovani in Milan. 

I went back to my desk and looked at what I saw and realised that I wanted to put all these masterpieces together, mixing the different periods and borrowing them from specialist Italian dealers in a shoot. So an idea hatched to tell the story of Italian art over the centuries and connect it with 21st-century Armani Casa furniture to represent my specialist subject of Made in Italy design. 

I found that by selecting works in ceramic, terracotta, canvas, paper, stone, bronze and mosaic, I could illustrate the history of Italian art, exhibiting the craft and ingenuity of Italian artists, artisans and craftsmen over centuries using precious and rare materials and specialist techniques.

I headed to MiArt in Milan in April 2023, and found two exquisite pieces in glazed terracotta, Profilo di Uomo and Donna del Cuore by Guerrino Tramonti, from 1968 and 1970 from ED Gallery in Piacenza; and the monumental Flavia Teste Rosso by Vanessa Beecroft, a head atop a column of French marble from 2012, from Galleria Lia Rumma in Milan. I then headed to Robilant + Voena for 20th-century works in oil on canvas by Paolo Scheggi, in bronze by Agostino Bonalumi, Kleenex on packing paper by Luciano Bartolini, and porcelain painted in gold by Lucio Fontana. 

Further works, including a 19th-century lioness sculpture in terracotta, and two pieces from 1967 and 1979 in rock crystal quartz by Andrea Cascella, were found at Brun Fine Art in Milan.

A week later, at Salone del Mobile 2023, I found similarities in the workmanship of the 14th-century mosaics and Armani Casa’s ‘Camilla’ desk, finished entirely in shell mosaic. The pared-down ‘Space’ table has a top in three-dimensional silk canneté sealed in a glossy lacquered finish, another artisanal technique. 

Armani Casa pieces are modern to their soul, yet grounded in a classicism of proportion, with finishes that you won’t tire of, and that will stand the test of time. This story also illustrates their versatility: what connects everything is the fact that for centuries, Italy has had these handcraft skills, providing the backbone for both art and furniture.

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A version of this article appears in the September 2023 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, on sale now available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

There are few things quite as synonymous with the British summer as the arrival of lawn tennis season, which spans tournaments across the United Kingdom in June – from Queen’s to Eastbourne – before culminating with Wimbledon in July. One such run-up event is the glamorous Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic, which takes place this week (27 June – 1 July 2023) on the lush lawns of west London’s prestigious Hurlingham Club.

An exhibition tournament – which Giorgio Armani says ‘captures timeless elegance and quintessential British traditions’ – it gives players an opportunity to hone their skills on the surface before Wimbledon begins a week later. This year, a star-studded line-up includes young tennis prodigy (and, as of this week, world number one) Carlos Alcaraz, current Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and home favourite Andy Murray. Other players include Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Francis Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev, Stan Wawrinka, and more.

Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club

Alongside being the tournament’s namesake sponsor (a role it began at the 2022 edition), Giorgio Armani will also outfit tournament staff in a capsule specially designed by the Italian house. Ball boys and girls will wear oversized shorts with a simple white Armani shirt, while umpires will be suited in the rich shade of navy for which Mr Armani is known.

The special capsule – which sees the classic lawn tennis uniform meet Giorgio Armani’s Italian sprezzatura – will be available to purchase at a pop-up at the event. Alongside, the house will also showcase a special summer linen capsule, summertime accessories and versions of ‘La Prima’ handbag, also available to purchase at the event. The idea is that all these collections can be mix-and-matched together, a philosophy captured in an accompanying series of images. A one-off fashion show will also be held for the 1,400-strong crowd.

‘The Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club is one of my favourite weeks of the year,’ says former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis, who will play as part of the ’legends’ element of the event. ‘The combination of the legends doubles matches with the warm-up ATP singles matches for the players ahead of Wimbledon – it is the perfect combination for an event. I remember playing there before Wimbledon and now that I’m back playing with the other legends, I can enjoy it even more.’

For those unable to attend the event – which has previously hosted Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanišević and more – a specially constructed Marriott Bonvoy x Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic terrace will open at King’s Cross station to stream the matches on 29 and 30 June 2023 from 12pm onwards. At home, matches can be watched on the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic website.

The Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic runs from 27 June – 1 July 2023 at London’s Hurlingham Club.

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A surfboard gleaming in the sun; crystal-clear swimming pools and rocky coves; the shadow cast by the leaves of a palm tree – a new series of images from Giorgio Armani captures the Italian house’s latest ‘Mare’ collection, and the sensuality of summer. 

A seasonal collection made for beachside dressing – ‘mare’ translates from Italian as ’sea’ – the Spring/Summer 2023 collection comprises pieces that run the gamut of warm-weather attire, from diaphanous silk shirts and crisp 1990s-tinged swimwear to beach bags and towels complete with Giorgio Armani’s signature ‘GA’ motif. 

Giorgio Armani Mare Spring/Summer 2023 collection

As with all of Mr Armani’s collections, the various pieces span the 24 hours of a day – from breakfast by the pool to cocktail hour and beyond. For the latter, gently oversized tailoring is cut with the house’s signature ease – the collection notes call it ‘liquid’ – alongside a series of glamour-infused pieces for women, from glimmering spiderweb vests to bejewelled bra tops and floating sarong-style skirts. The house says the pieces are linked by ‘an imperceptible vein of exoticism; a light-hearted and carefree spirit’.

Colours take inspiration from sand and sea, whether tones of azure and baby blue, or natural beige and camel, appearing across a typically rich array of fabrics – linen, délavé linen, velvet, silk and cotton among the various lightweight layers. Accessories include golden sandals, tasselled suede handbags and sculptural bangles and earrings – though the ultimate accompaniment is perhaps the ‘GA’-branded surfboard, more than worth the extra check-in fee. 

Giorgio Armani Mare Spring/Summer 2023 is available now online and in stores worldwide.

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As part of the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, guest editor Giorgio Armani reflected on the creative inspirations – among them Pierre Chareau’s architecture, Issey Miyake’s fashion, and Sarah Moon’s images of ‘tough delicacy’ – which collectively shaped his vision of modernity.

‘To be part of something for yourself, to not join movements, to cultivate your own aesthetic without being tempted by the trifles of the moment: it’s a sort of calm, serene heroism,’ he said of Giorgio Morandi – one of his picks – a statement which could apply to any of the ten creatives, or indeed Mr Armani himself.

Here, in the wake of the designer’s passing, we revisit the story, which pays odes to artists across eras, from architectural trailblazers to beloved collaborators.

Giorgio Armani on his creative inspirations

Sarah Moon

‘The years of my professional beginnings – the 1970s – are a time I remember not with nostalgia but with energy: the change was overwhelming and evident, and it ran through all segments of society. I myself was swept up in it, using my work to contribute to what was changing in the female world. Among the most interesting magazines of the time I remember Nova, which had a heavy focus on emancipation. I was particularly struck by the work of a young photographer who would later become my friend and whose work I would showcase at Silos: Sarah Moon. In her early shots, the mixture of romantic yearning and strength is striking. Sarah imagined a new woman, free of any preconceptions and belief systems, but who still managed to create an aura of magnetic fragility around her. That tough delicacy still inspires me today.’

Tadao Ando

‘Tadao Ando is, in my opinion, the absolute master of contemporary architecture. His constructions made of solids and voids – in which the relationship with the environment and nature is always so important – seem to me to be the spatial transposition of haikus: like verses that associate words and ideas in a fulminating spirit of synthesis, Ando’s architecture resolves complex elements with the utmost compositional simplicity. I was able to appreciate his meticulousness and sensitivity first hand, having collaborated with him on Armani/Teatro. Tadao and I share a deep love for nature, which becomes absolute respect. His lesson is one of precision and dedication: like me, he is self-taught in a profession that has made him successful, and he has worked hard to make his visions a reality.’

Giorgio Morandi

‘To be part of something for yourself, to not join movements, to cultivate your own aesthetic without being tempted by the trifles of the moment: it’s a sort of calm, serene heroism that I learned from Giorgio Morandi, one of my favourite Italian artists. A heroism that I share. He is a truly extraordinary case of an isolated painter, with very little contact with other masters of the time. He is also an extraordinary case of an artist who practically painted almost exclusively the same subjects: bottles, vases, coffee pots, flowers, bowls and landscapes – always staying in the same room where he lived all his life. What touches me about Morandi is his palette: neutral and melancholic yet full of subtle, infinite modulations; and then his ability to simplify forms, to find just a few essential elements. His paintings are calm and reflective, both characteristics of the most exciting art.’

Jean Cocteau

‘Director, screenwriter, painter, playwright, writer, poet: I appreciate Jean Cocteau’s legendary yet almost elusive character. Everyone knows his name, but without linking it to a particular expression of his art. Many have read Les Enfants Terribles, some have seen The Blood of a Poet (1930) or Beauty and the Beast (1946); others are struck by his magnificent drawings, which are so simple yet erotic. I like his idea of ‘comprehensive art’, mixing words, painting, music and dance. He called everything, as a whole, ‘poetry’ – and this is no different from my way of understanding fashion, linking it to living and experiencing everything, to dwelling, and even to eating. I’ve always been struck by his sensitivity, his avant-garde style with roots in classicism, his ability to transport elements of the ordinary into different contexts to show them from another perspective.’

Pierre Chareau

‘The modern movement profoundly marked the aesthetics of the 20th century, and Pierre Chareau was one of its pioneers. My favourite project of his – which is also his best known – is the Maison de Verre on Rue Saint-Guillaume in Paris, which he constructed in collaboration with Bernard Bijvoet and Louis Dalbet: a masterpiece of simplicity and modularity, with its translucent glass façade and various rooms that can be divided by sliding and rotating screens in glass, sheet metal and perforated metal. The fluidity of this space is truly astounding: an architectural design reminiscent of a mechanical ballet. What I admire about Chareau is his ability to give a new sense to the entire space with just a few movements, and also the fact that he is essentially famous for a single project.’

Coco Chanel

‘The true fashion revolutionaries of the 20th century were all women, and I’m not surprised: a woman who creates women’s clothes has an understanding of their bodies, as well as of their roles, that a man can hardly achieve. I appreciate Jeanne Lanvin as much as Madeleine Vionnet and Elsa Schiaparelli, but my favourite remains Coco Chanel, whom I consider the inventor of a modern way of dressing and thus, by translation, of the contemporary woman. The liberation of the female wardrobe started with her, and this should not be forgotten. From Chanel, I learned the importance of the material, and to drop all preconceptions: her famous jersey jackets were, in fact, initially made from the same fabric as men’s underwear. Here, this freedom is a great stimulus, a great inspiration. Add on top of that the ability to synthesise; in other words, to work with just a few colours and a few details, reiterated with the utmost subtlety.’

Jean-Michel Frank

‘Jean-Michel Frank’s ability to speak to modernity and timeless classicism is unrivalled. His interior design exemplifies the absolute absence of the superfluous, the focus on the essential. It remains unparalleled for me. His style was so pure that it deserved the definition ‘luxury of the mind’, and was a true celebration of empty space in an era when excessive grandeur, overloaded environments, and formulaic Baroque-ism predominated instead. To call him a minimalist, however, would not be doing him any justice. Frank certainly loved whites and neutrals, but his work was multidimensional, with an absolute focus on matter. I find his idea of subtraction infinitely inspiring and, from a personal point of view, I also admire the fact that he wore a grey suit as a uniform, just as I do with my blue T-shirt.’

Issey Miyake

‘Clothes like flying saucers, dresses cut from a single piece of fabric, bridges stretched between the ancestral past and the galactic future, and then the ever-inventive use of pleating: Issey Miyake’s work was full of poetry, and it tended towards a constant search for functionality – an aspect on which not all designers focus today. I’ve never hidden my passion for Japanese designers, for their quest for simplicity, for their always progressive and fresh vision of the relationship between clothing and the body. Miyake is the one I feel the closest to, specifically because of his attention to people. The clothes he created only come to life once they are worn, and they change from one person to another, following their way of being and behaving. This is what I myself try to do, because I never forget that if the first thing you notice about a person is their clothes, then the designer has made a mistake.’

Henri Matisse

‘Shape, colour, immediacy: Henri Matisse’s Blue Nudes, a series of collages made with paper cut-outs, is an incredible example of the spirit of synthesis that characterises great artists. These are works in which rhythm and sensuality are magnetic, with a touch of blue that makes them electrifying. I find it particularly inspiring that this joyful, triumphant ode to life was created by Matisse when he was already an old man, using scissors instead of a paintbrush. Instead of surrendering to physical decline, he found inspiration and renewed energy in his art, creating brilliant, striking and large works. A thought in which I find myself today more than ever: creativity truly has no age.’

Eileen Gray

‘A mysterious trailblazer, Eileen Gray was an elusive figure, both as a woman and as a designer. Even Le Corbusier looked up to her. I often think of her unique way of designing spaces and the elements that adorn them. She used a pure yet never cold language that gave absolute prominence to matter. But I also think of the free way she experienced femininity. This came back to mind recently because the Galerie Jean Désert, which she had opened in Paris with Jean Badovici, was opposite the Salle Pleyel, where I showcased my Privé collection. From her, I learned the balance between solids and voids, between curves and straight lines: the ‘Bibendum’ chair and the ‘E 1027’ coffee table are unforgettable in this sense, as is the E 1027 maison en bord de mer in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a masterpiece of balance and surprise.’

A version of this article appeared in the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

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Today, it has been announced that Giorgio Armani – a perennial icon of Italian style – has passed away aged 91 in Milan. Here, we look back to a career-spanning conversation he had with British designer Paul Smith in 2022. Taken from the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper* – which Mr Armani guest edited – the pair talked shop, discussing everything from role models and career highs to their strong Italian and British roots which have endured over their several decades in business. Together, it paints a portrait of a designer with an indomitable creative spirit, which continued until the end.

In an industry that often moves at whim with breathtaking speed, Giorgio Armani has shown remarkable staying power. Expertly steering his eponymous brand for more than four decades, he has taken his vision of soft elegance from fashion to interiors and hospitality, built a multi-billion euro empire and, with Armani/Silos, created one of Milan’s foremost cultural institutions. As guest editor of Wallpaper’s October 2022 issue, Mr Armani invites fellow fashion legend Sir Paul Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about role models, design signatures, the virtue of consistency, the tide of technology, and much more.

When Giorgio Armani met Paul Smith…

Giorgio Armani: Paul, you started with your little shop in Nottingham, I started as a window dresser and then a buyer at La Rinascente [in Milan]. How did your experience on the shop floor shape your vision as a designer? For me, it was an invaluable asset, a call to realism that I still treasure.

Paul Smith: There’s nothing better than hearing what the customers are requesting, commenting on or criticising, and it does keep your feet on the ground – but then, over the years, I learned that you’ve got to get the balance right between attention-seeking clothes that you use for a catwalk or for publicity, and the clothes that pay the rent.

I was wondering whether there was an important role model or mentor in your earlier life who guided your decisions, and helped you establish yourself as who you are today.

GA: My real mentor, supporter and sidekick in the business has been Sergio Galeotti, my business partner and the one with whom I started the company. Apart from talent, Sergio saw things in me that I didn’t. He pushed me to believe in my ideas no matter what, and helped in every way. Without him, there would be no Giorgio Armani enterprise. I owe him a lot and even though he passed away almost 40 years ago, he is still a presence in the house. His spirit and energy persist everywhere.

And are there any designers you admire and look up to? I have always had a fondness for Coco Chanel and for Yves Saint Laurent. What about you?

PS: My wife Pauline and I were lucky to visit some of the great couture shows when we were first starting out, which was just an amazing experience and has definitely informed my steadfast focus on maintaining the quality of everything I make. We were also fortunate enough to get to know Yves and Pierre Bergé. The last Le Smoking that Yves made was for Pauline. She still has it in her wardrobe and seeing it gives me goosebumps.

I wanted to be a racing cyclist until I had a bad accident when I was 17. What would you have been if not a designer?

GA: I wanted to be a medical doctor when I was young, but that was not really my calling. I would probably have been a movie director if I was not a fashion designer. I love the idea of creating a whole ambiance, dressing the people that inhabit it and getting to create the story, too. And I’ve always been a big cinema buff.

PS: You have had some amazing success in film dressing, from American Gigolo to The Wolf of Wall Street. Do you consider film an important tool for showcasing your clothing, and do you enjoy the process? I have found it can be a huge amount of work!

GA: Film can indeed be a huge amount of work. What I enjoy the most about working in cinema is the fact that I can dress characters, and that means matching clothing and personality in many ways. I love to explore the symbolic and psychological power of clothing. In some movies, like American Gigolo, I had the opportunity to showcase my style to the wider public. In other cases, I worked with period costumes, making them my own way. Cinema is more than a tool to showcase style. It has the power to build an aura around the name of a designer, and that has been a huge asset to the Armani world.

In a world of bigger and bigger fashion conglomerates, you keep your independence just as much as I do. What are the pluses and the minuses of being your own boss?

PS: For me, independence is the freedom of action, and the fact that you can steer your own destiny. I love the joy of spontaneity. Obviously, the difficulty is that you have to wear many hats: the designer, the businessman, the salesperson. And although you have a good team around you, ultimately the final decision lies with you.

GA: From my perspective, there is an essential British quirk to your vision. Whereas I see myself as quintessentially Italian in my appreciation of soft elegance – do you agree?

PS: I’ve been enjoying your career and your clothes since the early 1970s, and you’ve always had that same aesthetic, which is to do with quality, freedom of movement, softness. And your colour palette has always stayed more or less the same, with gentle taupes, creams and putty colours. Mine, being a British designer, has what we call ‘tongue in cheek’ – classic with a twist and quite playful. Which in many countries is very positively received, and in other countries is not always understood.

GA: We both started with menswear, and an idea of womenswear evolved out of that. For me, the straightforwardness and efficiency of the masculine wardrobe brought into feminine territory produced a long wave. Was it the same for you?

PS: For me, dressing men is totally natural and inhabits the majority of my business. But we have a relatively small collection for women, which does well. What is interesting with fashion for women is that it’s far more vulnerable, because trends change so often. Brands go out of favour and so it’s more of a challenging market.

GA: Another similarity between the two of us is our fondness for patterns. Your way with stripes, in particular, strikes me – could you tell me more about this?

PS: I’ve always used printed textiles and patterns. It goes back to the fact that my clothes are about putting simplicity with the unexpected. They are not really attention-seeking, overly designed. When it comes to shirts, or especially dresses, the pattern is where I can make a statement. As a visual person who loves the arts and travelling, I find printed textiles come quite naturally. With regard to stripes, as we both know, striped fabric for men, especially in shirting, has been with us for many, many years. It’s only when my business started to develop a little that I had the opportunity to design more stripes. Initially, it was just navy blue and white stripes or burgundy and white stripes. My famous stripe came completely by chance, and has stuck with me until today.

Are there any particular influences that you find yourself often returning to? I have a large business in Japan, and have found the country a huge source of influence since I first started visiting in the 1980s. Am I correct in thinking that your womenswear design often takes inspiration from Asia, and your trips to the continent?

GA: You are correct. I am really fascinated by other cultures, by other ways to perceive dress and decoration, in particular, by those from the Far East. It came over the years with my travels and many other experiences. What attracts me to the aesthetics of China and Japan is the soulful simplicity, the elegance and the spareness. I like that everything about China and Japan is so quiet, so calm, so pure, but so full of power.

What is fashion for you? Is it more about running a business, or dressing people?

PS: I think fashion is a difficult word to describe, in the same way style is a difficult word, too. Style for me can be to do with posture or good manners, as well as how you look. If you can put people in nice clothes, it really does make them feel special, authoritative, sexy and strong. Clothes definitely do a job, but we can see that so much in the industry now is to do with promotion and superficiality.

I consider that you have found the balance between the need to be commercial and also in tune with changing trends. Is there a particular inspiration or design that you return to that reflects this realism in your collections?

GA: This might sound rather obvious, but I constantly return to the softly tailored jacket. In both menswear and womenswear, it shows an ability to endlessly evolve while being consistent with my design values. A jacket is an everyday item, a very pragmatic piece that nonetheless shows the immense power of clothing. It gives presence, stature and dignity. And it is one piece: you attain more with less. Someone who has achieved the same balance, for me, is Robert Wilson, the stage director. Bob’s way with spareness in stage design, light, costumes is incredibly inspiring in this sense, as it is endlessly repeated in his work but never in the same way. I also deeply admire Jean Michel-Frank for his way with shapes and materials, the sense of elegance his work emanates. It is something I always look at for Armani Casa.

I think we are both realists, we like to dress the daily lives of people, avoiding unnecessary flights of fancy. In this respect, how do you see creativity?

PS: I completely agree with you, and I think what is called the king’s new clothes, or the reliance on press or modern communication, is alien to us. We want our business to keep up with the way people communicate, but the foundation of our collections has stayed true since the beginning.

Collaborations with other design companies have been a large part of my life as a creative, and I gain a lot of insight working with teams in other disciplines. Do you enjoy collaborations and have you done any that you are particularly happy about?

GA: Life, and work for that matter, is an endless learning curve, so I make sure to absorb everything I can from those I come in contact with. I have learned a lot by collaborating with stage directors and movie directors to create atmosphere, to suggest feelings. And, of course, I collaborate actively with the factories that produce my items, in order to make everything of the best quality possible. This said, co-branding is not really my cup of tea. Emporio Armani did a collaboration with CP Company, and it was very exciting as both brands are iconic and of a certain Italian style. But this was a one-off. Collaborations today are way too much of a marketing drive, and lack the authenticity I crave.

PS: The world of fashion can be very flippant and changeable, but I think the joy of both of our brands is that we have stuck to our guns, do you agree?

GA: I do! Consistency to me is a virtue, not least because it allows one to grow and change within a definite frame. That, for me, is way more effective than flipping ideas every six months. There is something reassuring and even strengthening to sticking to one’s guns.

I have a feeling that fashion somehow is morphing with entertainment. Which on one side is exciting, on the other frightening. What is your personal take on this matter?

PS: I think the main changes I’ve noticed are the reliance on technology for promotion, the fact that many companies are now run by stylists and not trained designers, and the over-reliance on a logo. The actual skill of cutting shape, and the quality of construction, have fallen by the wayside with many brands.

Is there one particular aspect of this change that you find disturbing or difficult? And something that you think has changed for the better?

GA: The current interest in fashiontainment [the merging of fashion and entertainment] has completely diverted the interest of designers away from the materiality of clothing. Everybody wants to be a showman, and making clothes is the least interesting part in this sense. This is unbearable for me. We are here to provide modern and interesting clothing that people will actually wear, and to change people’s lives and perceptions with that. Aren’t we? A change for the better, I have to say, is the collective drive towards a more responsible industry. We have only one planet, and have to take care of that, at every level, from design to consumption.

I design furniture, you create special objects in collaboration with renowned furniture brands. What do you like about dressing the space that one inhabits?

PS: I think we’ve witnessed how much interior design has changed over the years. If you are really immersed in it, which we both are, then there is great fun in the texture or pattern of a carpet, or the colour of a wall, and it just becomes a blank canvas to play with.

GA: At one point, rather naturally, I moved from clothing to interiors. From dressing the body to dressing the space a body inhabits. That led to hotels, then a restaurant, flowers and so on. Gradually, I created a lifestyle; you’ve done so, too. Do you recall how that happened?

PS: The way you have built your lifestyle projects has been admirable, amazing, and on a far bigger scale than mine. Mine’s more of an interest and has a small commercial side to it. We build your confidence in the way we like to have things, see things and behave, and that leads to additional products that reflect our spirit.

One of the strengths of your business is how solid its foundations are. You’re not just independent in a business sense, but also in how you operate – your logistics are as strong as your design. Was that very conscious? Or like me, did it come as a result of developing very organically and gradually without this expectation of rapid growth and the perils that it brings?

GA: I started as a designer, with a vision that I thought was relevant for the mid-1970s. The first ten years of that enterprise were wonderful: I focused on creativity, Sergio took care of every aspect of the business, protecting me. When Sergio passed away in 1985, replacing him with someone else was out of the question. It was a hard moment, which I overcame by deciding that I would take care of everything – there was no other way to protect what we had and make it grow. I became a designer-entrepreneur, which is how I label myself today. So, to answer your question, I learned all along the way, from mistakes and from successes. As a proverbial control freak, I worked hard on making everything come together, from design to logistics. The best part is that, to this day, I am still learning.

What is your view on failure? Are there any big mistakes you learned a lot from? One of my biggest failures was the Japanese-inspired collection of 1981: a huge success with the press and a total commercial wreck. I learned how to balance creativity and business savvy.

PS: I had this conversation very recently when I was talking about my Foundation. I was asked about significant failures in my history, and I struggled to recall anything. I think it’s because I’m a very positive person and any mishaps or stumbling blocks I’ve experienced, I’ve always tried to concentrate on the things I’ve learnt from them. That’s not to say I haven’t had a few disasters in my time, I think my memory sometimes magically erases them, which is very generous!

GA: I love being in the sea on my yacht, I have seen pictures of you with a lovely Mini. Are you more of a car or a boat person?

PS: I am definitely more of a walking, bicycle or car person. Although I love being by the sea, I don’t have a great desire to be on the sea. I enjoy fresh air, country walks. I love living in town because I enjoy the excitement of exhibitions, people, cuisines from different countries.

I am a collector of many things, from artworks to bicycles. I am motivated mostly by the things I love and that bring me joy. Do you consider yourself a collector of anything? Is there any item you own which you particularly treasure?

GA: Collecting is something that is quite far from me, unless houses fall in the category. My biggest indulgence, in fact, is owning a place in the cities I love, so that I can feel at home wherever I go. For the rest, I do not own much, but there are objects, just like you said, which are to me objects of affection, like Uri, the life-sized gorilla that stands in my living room in Milan, or little things that I collect in my travels. My office, though, is quite spare and monastic, complete with my signature incense scent.

PS: Over the years, the rabbit has become a lucky charm of sorts for me; my wife started this years ago by presenting me with a rabbit charm she had found before every show – do you have any symbology in your life or mascots which you return to?

GA: The navy blue T-shirt I usually wear at the end of my shows is definitely my lucky charm, and an expression of my fondness for pragmatism and uniform dressing. It started, just like in your case, by pure chance and it stuck. I might wear a white shirt and necktie for the couture presentations, but I do really feel empowered by that humble blue T-shirt. It is as straightforward as I am.

PS: I admire how you have created a seemingly loyal group of celebrity fans and friends who support you at your events and shows. Did this come naturally to you, and how do you think it has impacted your life and your business?

GA: Working with celebrities and movie stars came rather naturally to me, and early in my career. It all started in the 1980s when the actors of the new Hollywood, looking for a new style for the red carpet, came to me. That created a bond between me and them and this bond has grown over the years, creating real friendships and extending quite widely in show business. That also translated into a huge communication tool: one based on authenticity and stardom.

Are you happy, Paul? You seem to be a happy person.

PS: I am blessed with a beautiful wife, whom I’ve been with for many, many years, since the age of 21. I’m a very optimistic person, I think we’re both the same star sign of Cancer, I don’t know whether that means that we are more positive and happier than other people, but I certainly enjoy every day and I never forget the expression ‘every day is a new beginning’.

I love Italy and have a home in Tuscany which I spend – at least – the summer in. It is the place I feel most relaxed. You are a true Italian to me and epitomise the relaxed glamour we associate with Italy. Where are you happiest, and do you spend enough time there?

GA: I am more relaxed and free, as I told you, when I’m close to sea. Water is really my element so I love being in my house in Pantelleria or in my house in Antigua. The landscapes are dramatically different, but the energy of the sea is just the same. I spend as much time as possible in both places. Over the years, I’ve learned that taking time for yourself is important and that one has to care about personal rest. Most weekends, I’m at my villa in Broni, near where I was born: a beautiful mansion with a park and lots of animals, including a giraffe. I am sure you would love it: it is definitely Italian, with just a dash of magic.

Is there a place where you would live if you were not living in London? Does London define you and your personality in any way? I would not live anywhere else than Milan.

PS: I love London. I love that it’s a melting pot of so many different cultures. In the UK, lots of people choose to escape the city at the weekend and go to the countryside to unwind and be in nature. Whereas I love my weekends in London, visiting galleries, spending time working in my shops and meeting the people who pay my bills. I do enjoy visiting new cities, and the holidays that I spend in my home in Tuscany, but I always love coming back to London.

I am very impressed by your garden in Milan. Is that something you take particular pride in?

GA: My garden makes me proud, and I have gardens in most of my properties. I do not have a favourite spot, because the whole garden is a favourite spot: a place of peace and retreat in the midst of the city. How can one beat that? I love feeling in touch with nature: it gives me serenity and room for thought.

Paul, how do you cope with technology? Do you like social media? I do a little to keep au courant, but they are not really my thing: I find them too fast and too fickle.

PS: My dad was an amateur photographer and I inherited his love of taking photos. Before I had an iPhone I would take a camera everywhere I went, and the photos I took were an endless source of inspiration for me and for my team. Now I take all those photos on my iPhone and some of them are used on my own personal Instagram. Having the whole catalogue in my pocket is a brilliant reference point. I am surrounded by a passionate and young team who keep me informed. I’m very aware of how important it is to keep up, and the speed at which everything happens now is pretty mindblowing and unlike anything I have experienced in my career.

How has your relationship with privacy evolved over your career? Are you happy with the fame that came with your success, or would you prefer to have remained anonymous?

GA: This is a very hard question Paul, which I think calls for no simple answer. By nature, I am a private person, so probably I would have stayed anonymous, but fame is also something that makes me happy, because it allows me to connect with an audience well outside of fashion, and it allows me to say things and be heard. I have been reflecting on this a lot in the long pandemic winters: fame has made me a role model to many, and this is a responsibility I willingly take on. I think of fame as something that pushes one to do better, not as the badge of total visibility.

PS: I’m sure you’ve done your fair share of interviews throughout your career. What’s a question that you’ve rarely or never been asked that you’d like to answer?

GA: I have been asked all kinds of questions, and dutifully answered all of them. Sometimes I think I would have loved to be on the other side, and be the one who asks questions – it is a much easier position in a way. Which, in fact, is what has made this dialogue with you so enjoyable for me.

Paul, would you ever retire? When I was younger I thought that, by my eighties, I would be on permanent vacation, but the work is so exciting, so energising, I really cannot let it go. Working keeps me alert and, relatively, young. What about you?

PS: I know people find it difficult to believe, but I really do honestly enjoy what I do every day and wouldn’t change it for anything. I find what is often referred to as ‘relaxing’ as a very strange experience and my mind is just constantly on my work. If you enjoy what you do, then the notion of a vacation or of retirement is very alien. I feel no shame in saying I would happily just keep on doing it for as long as my mind and body allow me to.

GA: Finally, Paul, would you be able to define yourself? I see you as a bright, positive person.

PS: A down-to-earth boutique owner!

The same question to you, how would you define yourself? And how would the people whose opinions you value most describe you?

GA: I would describe myself as a very focused person who looks icy from the outside, but has flames burning inside. In other words, I am a passionate individual hidden behind a self-possessed persona. People I love and trust would describe me exactly like that.

INFORMATION

A version of this article appears in the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

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Giorgio Armani intertwines the art deco design codes that influenced the house’s A/W 2022 runway collection throughout the bold pieces of a new fine jewellery collection.

First making an appearance in November 2019, Giorgio Armani’s fine jewellery makes a bold foil for the label’s clothes, drawing on the geometrical codes and clean forms that run throughout.

This new fine jewellery collection builds on these classic foundations, imbuing them with a shot of bright colour.

Blacks, reds and oranges define the new earrings, necklaces and bracelets, which cast warm carnelians against black and red sapphires.

The lustrous orbs of carnelians are left unembellished save for minimalist charms left to dangle freely. Slender gold lines of a necklace and a bracelet are interrupted by a pattern of diamonds, rubies and sapphires for an understated dose of chic. 

INFORMATION

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On the tennis calendar, June marks the arrival of grass court season in the United Kingdom, a surface steeped with centuries-old pomp and tradition. Among the several tournaments across the country in the run-up to Wimbledon – from Eastbourne to Nottingham – is the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic, an exhibition event held on the verdant lawns of Fulham’s historic The Hurlingham Club. 

Described by organisers as a celebration of ‘timeless elegance and quintessential British traditions’ – as well as a well-timed warm-up for Wimbledon, which takes place the week afterwards – the event attracts the tour’s finest talent, from bright young things to legends of the game (this season’s players included teenage Spanish hotshot Carlos Alcaraz, rising Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, and double-digit grand-slam winners Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic).

Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at The Hurlingham Club

Befitting the sense of occasion, Giorgio Armani designed a number of outfits for tournament staff – from ball boys and girls to ushers and officials. The limited-edition collection, which will be available in Armani’s Sloane Street store, Harrods and at The Hurlingham Club itself, numbers 16 different pieces in navy or white, each mining the traditional codes of tennis dress for inspiration. 

There is Georgio Armani’s riff on tennis whites (wide-leg Bermuda shorts and a matching polo, each imprinted with the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic logo), a navy double-breasted blazer (reminiscent of the traditional linesperson’s uniform) and matching caps, socks and ties (also stamped with the event’s logo). A sense of ease is central to the various pieces’ design, making them primed for by on- and off-court activities.

Mr Armani himself is an avid fan of tennis, with longtime links to the game –  his EA7 Emporio Armani sportswear label outfits a number of top-50 players on the tour, Nadal has starred in previous Emporio Armani underwear campaigns, while numerous stars of the game, Djokovic and Serena Williams among them, have attended the house’s runway shows in Milan. But 2022 marks the first year that Giorgio Armani is principal sponsor of the Hurlingham Club tournament, a partnership that looks set to continue in coming seasons. 

INFORMATION

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At Fuorisalone 2022, Giorgio Armani transformed the ground floor of Armani Silos, his Milan exhibition space, into a cabinet of curiosities showcasing new pieces by Armani Casa, alongside the brand's established classics.

Armani Casa: a multitude of styles

‘In recent years, I have focused on the essential aspects of my style lexicon,’ comments Mr Armani. ‘In design, as in fashion, I feel the need to reaffirm the founding elements that define the Armani style.’

The exhibition develops as a path through Armani’s inspirations: the 1930s and 1940s, the atmospheres and aesthetics of the Far East, China and Japan in particular, as well as travel, and nature. A central space brings to life the creative process, as a living moodboard of materials, inspirations and references.

Eight spaces tell the story of the brand through iconic furniture and textiles, accompanied by large-scale projections that bring the scenes to life. For instance, one vignette celebrates the flowing movements of water, with a seemingly abstract backdrop accompanying the furniture within, while another recreates Armani’s own study overlooking the sea. 

The richness of materials is celebrated through subtle lighting, enhancing the precious, art deco-inspired wood, marble, quartz and shells, as well as luscious textiles.

Key pieces on display include the ‘Antoinette’ coiffeuse, with a concealed interior, the ‘Stendhal’ secretaire, the ‘Onda’ chaise longue and the ‘Olivia’ desk, preciously clad in tactile mother-of-pearl mosaic tiles. The suspended ‘Morfeo’ bed, surrounded by a gridded sea of cushions, stands elegantly within a set intended to bring to life the beauty of the range’s textiles. 

‘This exhibition, devised to mark the return of the Salone del Mobile in attendance, is a way of traversing my aesthetics in its salient aspects, highlighting connections, suggestions, and references,’ says Mr Armani. ‘For the first time I am using the spaces of the Silos to create an exhibition that offers an immersive and emotional experience in the Armani Casa world.’

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Rare is the fashion house that finds the elixir to longevity: a leader inextricable from the brand’s identity, a timeless appeal, and an ability to pivot across creative disciplines with conviction. One such brand is Giorgio Armani – founded almost five decades ago, it continues to be steered by its razor-sharp founder, and its blend of geometry, clarity and quality remain as intact and alluring as ever. 

Living with Armani Casa

In 2000, the brand unveiled Armani Casa, a full-scale expansion into the interior design world, with wide-ranging offerings in furniture, accessories and decorative objects, and later, an in-house studio in charge of Armani-branded hotels and residences. Now, Armani Casa is entering another creative sphere: art, with a new project aptly titled Art & Armani Casa. Art directed by Nick Vinson of Vinson & Co, the project sees emblematic pieces from the brand’s collection paired with important art and artefacts, ranging from Roman antiquities to contemporary works, intersected by prime examples of modernism. ‘This project is a celebration of the timeless value of beauty, brought out in all its clarity by a series of unexpected and inspiring conjunctions,’ says Mr Armani. ‘I have always worked by means of subtraction, eliminating what is not necessary to highlight the material, design and workmanship. Pieces of furniture are made to stay: compared to fashion, they have an extended lifespan, which shines through in these images with exciting intensity.’ 

The pairings are not an instruction, but a taste of the look and feel of living with Armani Casa. There are no half measures for the project’s debut, which features work by leading modern masters, including Mario Merz, Eduardo Chillida and Jean Dubuffet, alongside contemporary talent, such as Eleni Vernadaki, Roberto Ruspoli and Maximilien Pellet. 

Venetian plaster walls and travertine floors offer a pure, minimal canvas on which to spotlight these visual assemblages. In one of them we find Armani Casa’s ‘Osimo’ sofa co-starring in a duet with Chillida’s 1985 untitled ink drawing, which has been turned into a limited-edition rug by Alfombras Peña. Known for his monumental sculptures, the Spanish artist was just as adept on paper. His mostly black-and-white works carry weight and depth, but also a delicacy and dynamism echoed in the volumes of the ‘Osimo’.

In another composition, Armani Casa’s ‘Rosemond’ table, in brushed brown ash wood and satin light brass, sits beneath a vortex-like work, in acrylic on jute, by Italian artist Merz. On the table are three busts by Spanish artist Sergio Roger, meticulously formed in antique linen rather than plaster or marble. 

‘Whether it is a painting by a living artist or a classical sculpture, I find in these artefacts the same drive towards the essence, the same linear taste, the same careful attention,’ says Mr Armani. ‘It is proof that true modernity is classic, and that the classic expresses absolute modernity, which is the essence of Armani Casa.’ An eclectic meeting of eras and styles, Art & Armani Casa reminds us that, in a digitised world, there is no substitute for the real deal.  

INFORMATION 

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For Emporio Armani and C.P. Company, 2021 has been a milestone year. Emporio Armani, the Milanese behemoth renowned for an insouciant metropolitan energy, and a younger counterpart to Giorgio Armani, has been celebrating its 40th anniversary, complete with a retrospective exhibition which opened during S/S 2022’s Milan Fashion Week. C.P Company, the Bologna-based sportswear giant beloved by football and fabrication fans, rockers and rappers, marks its half-decade anniversary this year. In July 2021, the label released a Rizzoli-published monograph that celebrates the history of the brand, complete with archive designs, images and insight into its innovative design process.

Emporio Armani and C.P. Company team up

Emporio Armani and C.P. Company have extended their celebrations, with a menswear capsule collection that brings together the different aesthetic codes of each brand: think logos, motifs and materials. The collaboration forms part of ‘C.P. Company Cinquanta’, a year-long schedule of launches and initiatives to celebrate the brand’s anniversary. Twenty pieces, including hooded sweatshirts, T-shirts and jackets are imagined in C.P. Company’s exclusive signature fabrics, such as Wool Gum, A.A.C. and DyShell.

The brand’s founder Massimo Osti famously favoured materials that had a washed, worn-in look, as if they’d been carried on the body affectionately over time. ‘My father didn’t like fabric or garments that looked new, so he started to wash and garment-dye everything to give a used look. When you put that on a classic trench, it was totally different from any other brand, because it looked soft, used, comfortable,’ Lorenzo Osti, president of C.P. Company, told us in July.

Pieces in the collection also make reference to iconic C.P. Company designs, including the lens detail of the ‘Mille Miglia Goggle’ jacket, which was first introduced by the brand in 1988, when it was used to sponsor the Mille Miglia car race. On the back of a hooded sweatshirt, the goggle motif becomes a print, reflecting the Giorgio Armani bird motif.

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Seventeen months after it was originally slated to take place – in April 2020, when it was postponed because of the pandemic – Salone del Mobile once again graced the streets of Milano. While many of the usual suspects – Prada, Fendi, Marni, Louis Vuitton – opted to sit this Supersalone out, there was no less innovation to be found. Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele made a cartoleria pop-up complete with a mouse hole; Dior gathered 17 of the most esteemed artists in the world to interpret its iconic ‘Medallion’ chair; Giorgio Armani gave us spaghetti measurers and rolling pins; while Hermès crafted a world of fine fabric canopies. Here is the Wallpaper* edit of the best fashion brands at Salone del Mobile 2021.

Fashion brands at Salone del Mobile 2021

Dior

Dior took over the newly refurbished Palazzo Citterio to unveil its ‘Medallion’ chair project. As guests mingled in the Dior-ified gardens, in the concrete depths of the basement, 17 artists – including India Mahdavi, Joy de Rohan Chabot, Sam Baron and Khaled El Mays – presented their interpretation of the Louis XVI-style seat that Monsieur Dior chose as one of the interior emblems of his fashion house on Avenue Montaigne in Paris back in the mid-1940s. The collective result was a reminder of the contemporaneous spirit of the fashion house and its enduring codes. Speaking about the project as well as her own approach, Mahdavi told Wallpaper*: ‘Beauty comes from the strength of the lot; they’re separate but connected and it’s that togetherness that I like.'

Hermès

Staged at La Pelota, Hermès enlisted Hervé Sauvage on set design to create five hand-painted structures in which to house the Paris-based brand’s collection. Designed to celebrate the tension between different textures, guests were invited to crunch around the softly lit space with sand underfoot, a detail which emphasised the raw nature of each room’s curated contents. Inside the imposing constructions sat pieces ‘designed to be touched': its ‘Sillage’ armchair made from recycled paper fibres; its elm and calfskin jewellery boxes; the enamelled copper ceramics from its ‘Sialk’ collection; and cashmere blankets hoisted on wooden poles. With Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Antonio Fernandez Ros and Rogelio Sosa behind the sound design, it became a sensory homage to the physicality of craftsmanship.

Tod’s

Tod’s enlisted New Jersey-based artist Willie Cole for its installation at its Montenapoleone flagship. The contemporary artist, who has carved out a reputation for using discarded domestic items such as hairdryers and irons during his five-decade career, was given free rein in the Tod’s factory to make three sculptures using leftover materials from the production line. The result was a chair, a sofa and a sculpture using the uppers of the brand’s signature driving shoes. ‘The thing that interests me is recycling beyond sanitation,' Cole told Wallpaper*. ‘My work is all about “play”.’ To complement his creations, the brand launched its limited-edition ‘Mosaic’ collection, which uses a traditional patchwork technique, and the offcuts from its mainline collections.

Valextra

Valextra teamed with its neighbour Tom Dixon on a project that saw the brand stage Dixon’s ten-piece ‘Black Light’ exhibition in its Via Manzoni flagship. For his installation of ten huge light sculptures, Dixon took his cues from Milanese masters including Gio Ponti, Achilles Castiglioni and Ettore Sottsass. For its part, Valextra looked to the traditional Italian art technique of chiaroscuro – meaning to contrast light and shade – to create a collection of the same name that juxtaposed its multidimensional leathers in four of its iconic handbags: the ‘Iside’, the ‘Tric Trac’, the ‘Bucket’ and the ‘Brera’. The result saw two disciplines come together, said Valextra CEO Xavier Rougeaux, to ‘pay homage to Milan, its masters and celebrate the symbiosis between design and urban craft’.

Gucci

Alessandro Michele created every stationery aficionado’s nirvana with his Gucci Cartoleria pop-up on Via Manzoni, which celebrated the lauch of the Florentine brand's Lifestyle collection. A bona fide treasure trove of pencils, pens, notebooks, pencil cases, paperweights and board games (catnip for early-bird Christmas shoppers when they launch online this week), the space was an ode to the small Italian shops of Michele’s childhood. ‘I imagined a small cabinet of curiosities, a Wunderkammer, like the cave of Ali Baba, that could accommodate these everyday objects and return them to a fairy-tale dimension,' he explained. In his signature whimsical style, Michele incorporated an overhead upside-down train track, a sensor-activated chess set, and a mouse hole complete with a miniature living room at foot level. It was conceived, he said, to restore a sense of wonder to everyday life – and it did.

Armani Casa

Things you now need that you didn’t know you needed ten seconds ago: an Armani rolling pin, spaghetti measurer and chopping board. For his Armani/Casa 2021 collection, Giorgio Armani wanted to ‘express all the dimensions of the concept of “living at home”’, hence the handy additions to a collection that caters to spending lots of time in it. The brand’s first desk chair and a huge new eight-seater square table are joined by an internally lit room divider and a new limited-edition cylindrical bar cabinet, all making the home user-friendly in the most luxurious – aka the most Armani – of ways. He’s considered the garden, too. The ‘Robespierre’ barbeque set, the ‘Rovo’ gardening bag (complete with wooden-handled tools) and the ‘Regni’ cashmere and wool rug that doubles as a chess board with supersized leather pawns take outside living to another level.

Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake staged ‘In The Making’ in its Tokujin Yoshioka-designed Via Bagutta store. Presenting the construction process behind two of the brands under its umbrella, Im Men and A-Poc Able Issey Miyake, it affirmed its longstanding textile-innovation credentials. First up, the ‘Flat’ (whose construction is inspired by 132 5 Issey Miyake) and the ‘Convertible’, which condense into briefcase and crossbody bags and are crafted from the husk of sugar cane. Next up, its ‘Type-I’ project, which involves a process that uses Triporous, a material made from rice husks (100 million tonnes of which are discarded globally every year, the brand pointed out), and achieves a unique shade of black that cannot be done through conventional dyeing techniques. These projects were joined by a presentation of collaborations with Tadanori Yokoo and Fabio Bellotti, both of whom have been working with the brand since the 1970s.

Rick Owens

Rick Owens and Michele Lamy collaborated with Galerie Philia founder Ygaël Attali to engage ten emerging Italian designers to create pieces inspired by Owens’ furniture. ‘My furniture is my couture,’ declared the designer about his one-of-a-kind projects, which here sat alongside the pieces designed in his honour. A marble chair by Pietro Franceschini and a floating glass and brass vase by Agustina Bottini stood opposite a bronze bollard lamp by Owens. Atop Owens’ alabaster and moose-antler ‘Stag T’ side table sat a sculpted brass candleholder by Samuel Costantini, both illuminated by a brass and silicone ‘Howl’ light installation by Morghen. ‘Rick’s work is brutalist, dark and rough and some things here are very soft,’ said Attali. ‘To mix them creates a discussion [between materials] and a dialogue between Rick and the Italian designers.’

Stone Island

Salone’s delay has rendered the fifth installation of Stone Island’s Prototype Research Series, its experimental numbered-garment project, all the more beautiful. The brand experimented by applying a nanometric copper layer through a vapour deposition technique onto a fabric bonded with its signature raso cotton, and made 100 trench coats. The plan was to investigate the natural oxidation characteristics of copper in a fashion context using industrial processes (the first time a fashion brand has used this particular type of technology); the result was a fabric that has a stunning iridescent camouflage-like surface texture but became completely unbonded in the time since the coats were made, the bonding ‘eaten by the same oxidisation', explained creative director Carlo Rivetti; it means the pieces can’t – like previous collections – be sold. ‘This is the unfiltered story of an unfinished research process,’ he added. ‘Each step has taught us important things which will be important for the future, regardless of the goal achieved.’

Kassl Editions x Zara Home

High-street juggernaut Zara Home and indie Amsterdam label Kassl Editions presented their limited-edition homewares collection at the former’s flagship on Corso Venezia. With the first floor devoted entirely to an exhibition to present the tie-up, it made for a bold statement of design democratisation and one for which Kassl Edition’s ‘Pillow’ sofa (originally conceived for Wallpaper’s Re-Made initiative in collaboration with Muller Van Severen) was reinvented. Joined by art prints, flat-weave rugs, reversible mirrors and lacquered wood furniture that can triple as tables, shelves or plinths, the modular collection caters to design enthusiasts on a budget.

La DoubleJ

Supersalone saw La DoubleJ founder JJ Martin ‘activate a hunch and bring back the bat’. Stemming from the themes of spirituality for which the womenswear brand is becoming increasingly known, Martin commissioned the artist JoAnn Tan to help turn the basement of the brand’s new Via San Andrea store into a bat cave-cum-craft installation to celebrate the spirit animal. Martin’s vision came to life through Tan’s suspended bat lamps, made from turned walnut, Italian silk, and Hermès leather on the wings, and which each took one week to complete. The event provided a first opportunity for many to see inside the space, which opened this April, as well as see the brand’s new Miniscalchi homewares collection. Highlights include a set of porcelain plates featuring patterns that first appeared on tableware made for Napoleon Bonaparte’s visit to Verona, here rendered in bubblegum pink (‘because this is La DoubleJ!' laughed Martin), and an extension of the brand’s collaboration with Venetian glassmaker Salviati on smoky sets of liquor glasses.

Versace

Donatella Versace called on Milanese architects Roberto Palomba and Ludovica Serafini to translate Versace’s fashion-house codes for Versace Home in a bid to have a more ‘3D vision of [the] Versace environment’, explained Palomba. Staged in Versace’s Via Durini space, which opened in April, everything hinged on the Greca pattern, which debuted in the A/W 2021 ready-to-wear collection. It manifested here in cushions, bed linen and wallpaper in green, blue, pink and brown. Deliberately less extravagant than Versace Home of old, this collection marks a move towards a clean-lined aesthetic and a focus on details over drama. Symbols synonymous with the house – including the gold safety-pin and Medusa head – arrived as subtle details such as zips and buttons on the new leather ‘Venus’ armchair and buttons on the made-to-share ‘Signature’ sofa. ‘Donatella is the icon for a new generation of women, and we made a house for her to represent her: she wants to hunt, rather than be hunted,’ said Palomba. 

Off-White

Salone may see few brands designing with dorm rooms in mind, but then most brands aren’t Off-White. Creative director Virgil Abloh collaborated with the ceramicist Ginori 1735 on its new homewares collection, which comprises a tea set, serving platters and dinner plates in the Florentine company’s classic white porcelain, all graffitied with Off-White’s tag. ‘This is a collection for the modern dining room – whether formal in a home, a millennial apartment, or simply a dorm room,’ said Abloh of the first instalment of the collaboration (the next will land in 2022). ‘The imposition of the modernity of a logo and graffiti art with the respected house of Ginori 1735 is proof that good design can live on forever.' Studying just got a whole lot more civilised.

Loro Piana

Famed for its deliciously luxurious textiles, Loro Piana looked to the past, the present and the future to create three stories that celebrate fabric for its Salone presentation at its Montenapoleone store. First up it commissioned Gabetti & Isola to create an exclusive version of its iconic ‘Bul-bo’ lamp (originally created in the late 1960s); as the new ‘Bul-bo Soft’, its base is covered in cashmere and contrasting Altai wool fabric. Next up, an interpretation of the classic director’s chair by Exteta and Paola Navone-Studio Otto, which has resulted in the ‘Delight’ chairs, covered in an outdoor fabric conceived by Loro Piana that is light, salt-, chlorine- and fungus-resistant. And finally, there’s the ‘Palm Duet’ chaise longue, a creation by Raphael Navot made exclusively for Loro Piana and upholstered in Cashfur, a novel fabric made from combining cashmere and silk on circular knitting looms.

Etro

After the best part of 18 months spent at home, it’s little surprise that bar cabinets have made a celebrated return. Etro’s new offering, the ‘Rajan’, is equipped with bronze glass and lined in a champagne paisley print (naturally). It forms one of the elements of the brand’s ‘Intimate Dining' collection on display at its Via Pontaccio store, where it is joined by its new ‘Klee’ round dining table, complete with a dinner-party friendly lazy Susan; the suitably sumptuous ‘Kush’ armchair, which is studded in gold; and the ‘McKenzie’ glass lamps, which drop like jewels from the ceiling.

Missoni

Missoni had a three-fold presence across the city. Its Via Sant’Andrea boutique hosted its Virgila Soft loungers and circular Art Glass tables. On display at its Brera HQ was its new collection of Miss Wood chairs - rounded wooden sculptures which have been polished and painted in degrade pastel hues so to appear almost plastic in their structure - and its new Grandma armchair suite featuring curved Walnut arms and upholstered in five variants of its famed zigzag textile. But it was at the Universita Statale di Milano where the world of Missoni Home came to life: modular outdoor sofas and square poufs covered in its water-repellent Andalusia stripe stood in the shadow of a huge Missoni vase covered in an intricate mosaic by the famed Venetian furnace Orsoni Venezia 1888. Creative Director Rosita Missoni, who turns 90 in November, told Wallpaper* that it was a joy to be designing items that allow people to enjoy being outdoors, something she has personally relished since the start of the pandemic.

Sunnei

Milan-based Sunnei partnered with its fellow Milanese brand and long-term collaborators NM3 on an installation outside its Via Vela flagship to celebrate the Super Salone. The cuboid metallic seating structure features a maple tree in the centre and was designed to bring the inside out, creating a tranquil oasis in the heart of Milan’s urban centre – in signature low-key-chic Sunnei style. The design duo behind the brand, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo, used the occasion as an opportunity to spruce up their collection space too, where they presented their autumn/winter 2021 collection, AKA the uniform of Milan’s design-centric cool crowd.

Roberto Cavalli

Taking its leave from its new designer Fausto Puglisi’s first menswear collection for the house in June, the Roberto Cavalli Home collection on display at its Via Montenapoleone flagship was all about optimum glam (before arriving at the house, Puglisi was famed for dressing Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, so no surprise there). The result was two threads: the new Wild Dining and the Wild Suite. Brushed bronze tables, brass chandeliers and a bookshelf panelled in Wild Tiger fabric were met with animal-print bed linen, silk pillow cases and black leather bed frames, while the home office gets a suitably decadent update with a jewel-handled gold desk. 

Berluti

Berluti enlisted the talents of Spanish furniture designer Jorge Penadés to repurpose leather offcuts from its ready-to-wear collections to create three pieces of furniture that were unveiled in its new Montenapoleone flagship. After gathering a mound of multicoloured pieces, Penadés created what he has coined “Structural Skin”; it’s a wood-like structure that saw him compress the leather with natural glue in a bespoke mould and leave them to dry for weeks before cutting and sanding them down. Taking on a rock-like appearance similar to that of agate, his creation has formed the legs for a glass and steel table, the base of a table lamp, and keyring cords. Plans are to produce them in a numbered and limited-edition series, with only five of each available.

Like many of us living through a lengthy period of lockdown, Giorgio Armani has, of late, been keen to reconnect with nature. The creative master’s latest collection for Armani Casa, which debuts this week at Salone del Mobile 2021, looks to bring the serenity of the great outdoors inside, and features interior pieces, including a limited-edition bar cabinet, a writing desk, a screen and soft furnishings, in tones and textures that salute nature, from oceanic hues and earthy neutrals to exotic animal prints.

For entertaining, Armani Casa has expanded its bar furniture offering, with the introduction of a limited-edition drinks cabinet, with curvaceous cylindrical sides, which also form the legs of the design. In a nod to Oriental culture – a longstanding inspiration for Mr Armani – the design, which is limited to 88 pieces, is layered with a Japanese tatami-style paper and cotton covering. Its naturalistic internal structure is construced using marble and mother of pearl.

Armani Casa also encourages a night of gaming with your tipple of choice, presenting the regenerated-leather ‘Regni’ throw, which doubles as a large-scale chessboard.

Armani Casa: bringing the great outdoors in

Geometry and lightness define Armani Casa’s desk and soft furnishings, which include the understated ‘Rousseau’ desk, leopard print-swathed armchair and minimalist ‘Rosemond’ table in rich ash and satin-finish pale brass. For the bedroom and kitchen, the brand proposes a range of pieces, including the fabric-covered ‘Roomy’ boxes, which make for sublime storage, plus the ‘Robespierre’ barbecue set and ‘Rowan’ table accessories, which include marble-effect resin bento boxes and a jug with glasses.

In a further emphatic nod to the great outdoors, Armani Casa also proposes a range of garden accessories for 2021. These include the ‘Pump’ selection of home fitness accessories, an animal print throw, and the ‘Rovo’ set, a striking check gardening bag complete with steel and wooden tools, for when you feel keen to get green fingered.

INFORMATION

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Slowly but surely, the pleasurable prospect of dressing up again is becoming a reality. But what do you do when all we can remember is how to snuggle into our sweatpants? From cocktail dresses to wedding guest dresses, there's a host of event get-ups for diving into this summer whether you're enthused about something streamlined or keen to show off dramatic and embellished forms.

Here, we present the strongest silhouettes for summer and beyond, from brands including Balenciaga, Valentino and Fendi.

Balenciaga: the chainmail party dress

Encouraged to embrace all out adornment? Look to the French maison's gold linked chainmail dress which will jangle as your get down on the dance floor.

balenciaga.com

Hermès and Jil Sander: the leather dress

Embrace luxurious fabrications after months of simply wearing cotton and jersey. Hermès and Jil Sander recommend minimalist and calf and ankle grazing dress shapes, with sumptuous leather accents.

hermes.com

Loewe: the voluminous dress

Turn up the volume at your first special ocassion. Loewe's two-tone party dresses flirt with dramatic and poufed-up proportions and also features artisanally-inclined knot details.

loewe.com

Emporio Armani: the transparent dress

Embrace the body and opt for gauzy and featherlight fabrics. Emporio Armani's transparent dress is formed from a breezy transparent fabrics, for lighter-than-air luxury.

armani.com

Fendi: the cut-out dress

A cheeky cut-out detal witll turn heads. Fendi balances the coy with the classic, with this elegant knitted dress. Its alluring backless detail is scintillating for show offs.

fendi.com

Saint Laurent: the strapless dress

A strapless dress boasts a couture level of chic. Discover Saint Laurent's sophisticated style, accented with elegant draping and pleating.

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Valentino: the floral dress

Floral details always have fine form in spring. Valentino's take on bold blooms has a graphic twist. The Roman maison's party dresses feature precise petal cut-outs. 

valentino.com

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to curtail the fashion week schedule, we round up the brands which are bringing sartorial sway to the S/S 2022 menswear shows, whether presenting collections physically or online, from London, Milan, Pitti and Paris.

Kiko Kostadinov

Designing during a third lockdown and fighting the restrictions of Brexit, Kiko Kostadinov found the process behind his S/S 2022 collection creatively exhausting. Lacking the ability to travel and organically absorb inspiration, her took a personal parkour into memory, layering up fragments of narratives and influences that related to his diasporic design journey. Browsing an auction website, he stumbled across a Futurist teapot designed by Futurist artist Nikolay Diulgheroff, who Kostadinov was surprised to learn was a fellow Bulgarian, who settled in Italy in 1926.

The designer's fascination with Futurism began early in his fashion design journey, when Kostadinov began reading a book on socio-political manifestos, and he has found enduring influence in one of the Italian leaders of the movement, Giacomo Balla. The collection referenced the patchwork waistcoats beloved by Balla, also translated into shirting and coats spliced with panels of colour and shorts with pointed fronds in turquoise and brown. The textural brushstrokes in Balla's ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ (1912) was also echoed in transparent blazers in circular folds of lace. Kostadinov was also keen to open his show – an interactive digital experience at Brixton Market – with a vest silhouette that slung low across the torso, a reference to the childhood memory of his father's interest in body building. ‘All these points allowed me to dive into the visual aspects of the collection,' he explained. ‘It's very easy to go to a museum or mark something in a book. I need to layer and layer everything in my head.'

Thebe Magugu

Magugu interweaves the facets of his South African heritage into his clothing, and for S/S 2022, the honorary guest designer of Pitti Uomo 100 was inspired by whistleblowers who challenge and stand up for corruption, who are often portrayed as pariahs rather than pioneers. Mandy Wiener's book ‘The Whistleblowers', which offers raw and evocative accounts of South Africa’s whistleblowers by drawing on first-hand narratives, inspired Magugu, who also looked to symbolic dressing traditions in Western films and the white hat-clad heroes and black hat-sporting bandits. Suiting and denim denoted tropes of masculinity, and silhouettes were swathed with archive illustrations by the political cartoonist Jonathan Zapiro. A cowboy-meets-equestrian boot also marked Magugu's first shoe design for his label.

‘We are living in a suspended moment,' mused Ami's Alexandre Mattiussi over Zoom, considering the purgatorial position in life that the pandemic has placed us in. For S/S 2022 the designer served up optimistic, upbeat and party-focused clothing, for stepping out in when we can live in the moment again. For women, this meant sheer mesh dresses twinkling with crystals and lurex bikini tops paired with slouchy tailoring. For men, tuxedo suits paired with louche transparent shirts and vests and leather suiting layered with twinkling net t-shirts. Mattiussi staged his brand's show film at a funfair, explaining that for him, the setting exemplifed ‘a beautiful escape'. He added, ‘the collection is about a promise of new beginnings'. 

Martine Rose

‘Controlled chaos is given full attention,' read the collection notes to Rose's S/S 2022 offering, which celebrated the diverse mix-and-match facets of personal style and ecclecticism over unity. For autumn, this meant traditional tailoring fused with relaxed sporty shapes, for an offbeat take on elegance, flirting with bad taste, like hairy wool wrap blazers paired with sparkly diamante studded denim, flared popper-detail tracksuit chaps teamed with a neon polo neck and smart jacket and bleached jeans paired with colour blocked cagoules. ‘Textures like crushed velvet and velour, satin and faux snakeskin are filled with the innuendo of naffness,' the release continued.

Jil Sander

Fresh from unveiling a naturalistic collection with Birkenstock, Jil Sander showcased a collection that revelled in contrast, tactility and fabrication. ‘This is a sharp urban collection about the right, and duty, to individuality and imagination,' read Lucie and Luke Meier's collection notes, which featured silhouettes with surprise personality-boosting twists, like workwear shirting accented with a pearlescent brooch, parkas layered with leopard print jackets and magenta neck scarves, brushed mohair t-shirts layered with a chunky chain necklace and sleeveless knitted jumpers imagined in colourful mistmatched panels. ‘Eclectic is a both vision and a value,' the notes concluded. What a liberating vision for spring.

Y/Project

It's been a busy S/S 2022 for Glenn Martens. Fresh from unveiling his debut Diesel collection as artistic director, the designer's spring offering for his own label Y/Project, also featured a collaboration with Fila. The link up is the next iteration of Fila's 100th anniversary celebratory capsule collections. Here, Martens has taken signature Fila staples, including the polo-shirt dress, windbreaker and hoody, and spliced and diced them into hybrid, versatile silhouettes which is synonymous with. How each piece is worn is up to interpretation, and features a mash-up of logos, and lines to drape and wrap around the body.

Phipps

Wrestlers, basketball players, footballers, new age hippies, hikers, climate crusaders: masculine stereotypes were top of the moodboard for Spencer Phipps' S/S 2022 offering, an optimistic, humorous and high-energy collection which played with stereotypes, tribalist motifs and the archetypal energies of mankind. In a time-and-location-defying show film, which used XR technology masterminded by ATO Designs, and flitted from forests to colosseums to spaceships, Phipps light-heartedly analysed what makes man today, riffing on the wardrobe of Dennis Rodman (think a gold beaded Chicago Bulls jersey and loin cloth) or a Viking rocker (cue a studded technical jacket and kilt). The designer also spoke of ‘really returning to the roots of Phipps', a label synonmous with an outdoorsy, intrepid and DIY spirit. Fabrications in the collection were technical and highly performing, and the brand worked with a factory that produces pieces for brands including The North Face. A colourful patchwork off road jacket and trousers, with leaf motif patches was functional. ‘It's windproof and rainproof,' Phipps explained. ‘Those leaves are actually fully protective shoulder guards.'

Dior

When Christian Dior travelled around America in the mid 1940s, he journey from New York to Dallas to meet the Neiman Marcus family. For S/S 2022, Kim Jones looked at the lasting impression that the Texan landscapes made on the maison's founder, bringing a contemporary flourish to the creative connection by collaborating with Houston-born rapper Travis Scott. At the brand's IRL show in Paris, complete with a catcus-lined catwalk scene, models strode in Jones' and Scott's collaborative creations: intarsia vests bearing a reinterpreted monograph incorporating the ‘Cactus Jack' initials of Scott's record label, sweaters with horn-clad figurative illustrations and flared neon suiting sparkling with catcus shaped brooches. There was a languid ease to tailoring, saddle shoulder bags were reimagined as bum bags strapped to the hip and the Dior logo reinterpreted with a scrawl and dotted with a desert flower. The collection also boasted a collaboration with artist George Condo, on a series of colourful hand-painted shirts.

Hermès

There was an elevated uplift to the brand's S/S 2022 menswear offering, which saw a return to a physical show at the Mobilier National building in Paris, after a two year absence. In the maison's show notes, Véronique Nichanian used the words, ‘optimism',  ‘energy',  ‘harmonious',  ‘freedom', to describe a collection brimming with contrasted colour and luxurious lightness, offering reinvented versions of timeless wardrobe silhouettes suited to our post-pandemic world. On sweaters, intarsia knits exploded with geometric daisies, shorts were cut into a relaxed Bermuda shape, celadon-green cotton shirts had zip-up Tunisian collars and two button suits were constructed for durable wool canvas. Chocolate juxtaposed faded rose, raw silk offset cotton serge. Nichanian added,  ‘...this creative collection is bursting with the vitality of a world reclaimed.'

Paul Smith

Escapist Mediterranean tones inspired Smith, who for S/S 2022 was fascinated by an optimistically rich colour palette, transcending from dawn until dusk. ‘It's about that pale sun yellow of the morning going through to the bright blue sky of an afternoon,' Smith – who owns a home in Tuscany – explains. The brand's offering of relaxed sports-inspired shapes, subtly nodded to the great outdoors, like transparent parkas with a zig-zag stitch evoking the details of Hobie Cat boat sails, fisherman's hats and jackets and cycling jerseys in Smith's signature kaleidoscopic stripes. Light shirting was also swathed in bold sunflower prints, nodding to the fields of flowers next to Smith's Italian home. The collection also marks a collaboration with Japanese accessories specialists Porter on a series of striped shoulder and duffle bags. ‘The son of the Porter Yoshida family was one my best friends and one of the reasons why I did well in Japan in the early days,' Smith says. ‘It was lovely making the decision to put our mixed up stripes onto the brand's bags.'

Lemaire

Layering was integral to the laid back lilt of Lemaire's S/S 2022 men's and women's offering, which served up a sublime selection of easy monochromatic ensembles screaming to be worn on bustling city streets, from utilitarian workwear to tailoring. Cue loose dark denim suits and ruched shirt dresses, oversized shirting and funnel neck jackets in caramel, stone grey, moss and navy. Following on from the brand's S/S 2021 artist collaboration with Martín Ramírez, for S/S 2022, the label have also unveiled a capsule collection swathed with artworks of American Outsider Artist Joseph Yoakum.

Rick Owens

The S/S 2022 shows have been hit with a heavy does of hedonism. Cue the Metalheadz-inspired silhouettes at Louis Vuitton, the raver-worthy neons at Loewe and the dawn till dusk beach goers at MGSM. ‘With a post-covid in view there might be a sense of frustrated appetites demanding to be doubly satisfied this summer, that might make for a voraciousness forgetting the humbling experience we all just went through together,' Rick Owens wrote in his spring show notes, reflecting on the sense of spiritual and physical abandon to come. For his fourth collection showing on the beach of Venice Lido near his home, Owens offered up a vision of considered hedonism, a hippy-centric collection abounding in dragging denim, laddered knitwear and Pagoda-shouldered structure. Owens was also interested in taking tailoring and pulling it apart, offering up its internal construction. His revellers marched with jackets with ripped sleeves and deepened armholes, reflective shield sunglasses and platform boots.

Louis Vuitton

‘Amen Break', a seven second four-bar drum loop central to seminal hip-hop and jungle, that filtered across genres and mainstream music to become the most popular loop in musical history, was a metaphorical symbol of Virgil Abloh's S/S 2022 epic collection video - directed by Mahfuz Sultan and starring Lupe Fiasco, Goldie, Saul Williams and GZA - which focused on the concept of transmitted ideas across generations and facilitating waves of change. Inspired by the life of Lupe Fiasco's father, an African drummer and member of the Black Panther Party, who grew up on the Southside of Chicago, Abloh's story centred on a father and son united by loss and crossing into a dream world. On their path, whether winding through woods of silver birch trees or witnessing samurai combat, they encounter figures of the elder and younger generations, marked by hybridised tailoring, sportswear and streetwear silhouettes, from belted suits sported with crumpled top hats to bovver boy baggy denim and rainbow leather bomber jackets.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake

A huge rotated lamp positioned on high illluminated the S/S 2022 designs featured in the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake collection video. In style synonymous with the technical Japanese brand, the collection was divided into several categories, including the ‘Body Movement' series, featuring fluid silhouettes like sleeveless jackets and leggings with a paint and sand print tracking the undulating lines of the human body. Plus the innovative ‘Leno Stripe' series, which employs karamiori (leno weave) a traditional weaving technique that creates net like structures. These grids were transformed into vests with interior pockets and loose shorts, enhanced with a stripe detail formed by the label's signature pleating.

Burberry

Pierced, buckled up, leather-clad, there was a rebellious riff to the models who strode to an intense rave soundtrack amongst Burberry's sand dune-lined setup at London’s Royal Victoria Docks. ‘I wanted the collection to capture that free spirit of youth and its honest and daring attitude, that sense of experimentation and fluidity.... It’s a very raw energy that’s infectious, exciting and full of life. Like an awakening,’ said chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci, of the men's and women's collection, which abounded in bodily affirmation, raw seduction and experimentation. For men, oversized tees were transparent, signature trenchcoats sleeveless and decosntructed, trousers utilitarian and buckled and pocketed. For women, strap dresses had a fluid metallic appeal, outerwear was imagined in clear vinyl and with zebra print inflections and bikinis wrapped in ties around the body. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, young generations around the world have lost out on adventure. For Tisci, they'll be coming back with a bang.

Courrèges

'I was inspired by the archive fabric and shape wise, looking at the codes of the house but never copying them' says Nicola de Felice of his debut menswear collection for the heritage Parisian house, which looked to update archetypal silhouettes like a workwear jacket, 'valuable for one to wear'. De Felice nodded to the first men's iteration of a short Courrèges jacket, softly shouldered with mulitple pockets, and paired with a vinyl tank top and cap and fluid ribbed trousers. There was a contemporary sensuality to his sophomore women's Resort silhouettes – an extension of his debut for A/W 2021 – which nodded to subtle A-line silhouettes and bold cut-out designs, like sunshine yellow pinafores with a hole stamped from the chest and flaring mini-dresses paired with thigh high boots. The designer spoke or bringing a 'sharp aspect' to styles that might appear vintage, focusing on a white women's coat inspired by a 1976s style, the back crafted without a seam, subtly cocooning. 

Lanvin

In the opening to the video for Lanvin's Resort women's and men's S/S 2022 collections, a sunglasses-clad female model sits in hair and make-up, scrolling through escapist beachside images on her phone. Cue the viewer being transported into a trippy, tropical vista, courtesy of a hazy Noughties soundtrack thanks to All Saints' Pure Shores. There was an effusive, nostalgic atmosphere to a collection defined by bold, travel-inspired pieces, which had an easy mix-and-match aesthetic. Think Japanese wave painting print scubas suits paired with plaid coats and exaggerated thong flip-flops, floral print dresses with tassel trim, retro tracksuits and cropped boucle jackets teamed with mini skirts. In a beachy wooden cabin, models lounged in hammocks, played backgammon and engaged in a giggly Chinese whispers. It's exactly where you want to be.

JW Anderson

Many of us have felt nostalgia for the clothes and silhouettes we sported pre-pandemic, or for the mundane moments in life which now appear so simple and carefree. Nostalgia was also on the mind of Jonathan Anderson, who for his third photographic collaboration with Juergen Teller, mounted images of his eponymous brand's men's S/S 2022 and women's Resort collection in the foiled cardboard frames you often find edging kitsch school photographs. He was also taken by the privacy and freedom of dressing up alone in your bedroom, reinterpreting mundane silhouettes, like a striped top, slacks or camisole through a ‘voyage of newness'. Fleece tracksuits, beaded dresses and vests were splashed with a strawberry print inspired by a eighteenth century painting of a squirrel nibbling on berries, ubiquitous rubber sliders were splased with the ‘JW' anchor logo, jogging bottoms puddled like harem pants and retro sports jackets were emboldened with florals. ‘Glorification of being who you are,' Anderson added of the offering's impetus. 

Giorgio Armani

Customarily, Giorgio Armani hosts his runway shows at his brand's HQ Teatro in Milan, a majestic minimalist structure designed by Tadao Ando. It was one of the first locations to be shut down last February at Milan Fashion Week as the Covid-19 virus began spreading throughout Italy. It was prescient therefore that for S/S 2022, Mr Armani showcased his collection away from a stadium seated theatre, and in the intimate garden of his home, where his early shows were held. Titled ‘Back to where it started' the collection was an elegant ease-fuelled offering of insouciant tailoring, new suiting silhouettes, and sportswear shapes: white rolled up chinos paired with a foulard-lined single button navy blazer, Ikat jacquard waistcoats and Bermuda shorts, glossy silk safari jackets and preppy V-neck sweaters. Relaxed and refined, and debuted in a domestic setting, what could be more fitting for the new normal of today's world?

Prada

A simple summer holiday: clear sea, warm sand, a touch of tan, a concept which once seemed almost mundane in its ease, which is now so scant. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons played on this dichotomy for S/S 2022, describing the collection as a ‘utopia of normality' and transporting Prada's viewers to a Sardinian beach landscape, which models strode into via a surrealist red tunnel. It's a skin-revealing Prada packing list for summer (a theme which has run throughout the Milan shows, perhaps a response to being shrouded under sweats for so long), featuring fuschia towelled hooded jackets, organic deck chair stripe vests and thigh-flashing all-in-ones and wiggle-detail woolen micro shorts layered with mini skirts. There was a subversive spin to these silhouettes, which also featured more traditional tailoring pieces, like ribbed cardigans, baggy suit trousers and pinstripe jackets. The soon to be most coveted piece on the beach? Bucket hats with sporty built-in sunglasses or zipped pouches for your spare change.

Fendi

Confined to one space, one city, one country for so long our personal sense of perspective have never felt so prescient. Silvia Venturini Fendi drew on this concept for S/S 2022, transporting Fendi collection viewers to the brand's Roman headquarters inside the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, which boasts panoramic views of the seven hills of Rome, the Apennine mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. There was a light sense of freedom to the collection, which revelled in both loose and body-flaunting silhouettes in sugary, pastel tones, from navel-revealing cropped jackets to long shirts sported with bare legs, transparent trench coats to pocket-detail shorts. Prints had a panoramic appeal, including a cartographic print of Rome and abstract patterns which resemled the striking strata of rock or marble, splashed over city coats or shaped into fleece. There were ‘It' accessories that appealed too, including micro Baguette bags worn as necklaces and bucket hats turned upside down and transformed into bags.

Tod's

Unsurprisingly, escape has been on the mind of many a brand for S/S 2022, whether Canali is lusting after Los Angeles or Dior is dreaming of Texas. Showcasing its collection on the staircase of the winery Cantina Petra in Suvereto – designed by architect Mario Botta – Tod's is getting a taste of Tuscan sun for spring. The Italian brand's collection was drenched in rich Mediterranean tones and revelled in silhouettes fitting for an urban safari, from washed chambray shirting to preppy V-neck sweaters. Collection highlights include a biker jacket with elbows studded with Tod's signature Gommino pads, an utterly luxurious suede hoodie and camera bags, for when life on inner-city safari gets scintillating enough for a quick snapshot.

MSGM

Italian DJ Lorenzo Senni created the heady and hypnotic soundtrack for the Milanese brand's S/S 2022 video, centred on a sun-drenched beach, and featuring models sprawled on craggy rocks, standing in shallow water on on the shoreline and floating out at sea. Founder Massimo Giorgetti looked to Stephen Milner’s photographs, from the Spiritual Good Time series, are the inspiration behind the offering, which have a surf-meets-rave sensibility, swathed in colour and print. Think off the shoulder striped sweaters, conch shell intarsia cardigans, neon shorts, Lycra leggings and cargo pants all paired with beach ready accessories, like zesty sliders, bucket hats and chunky framed sunglasses. Giorgetti is ready for the beach and he's not leaving till sunrise.

Canali

The sun-soaked setting of Los Angeles inspired the Italian tailoring label, who looked to California-cool Nineties dressing codes for S/S 2022. This culminated in louche tailoring and elegant daywear in oceanic and sunrise tones, from fuschia to moss green, aquamarine to sand, and luxurious fabrications like buckskin leather and suede. For summer, the Canali man, whether meandering in Milan or driving down Sunset Boulevard, will be sporting slouchy bomber jackets, floral silk bowling shirts and natty neck ties. The most outré ensemble? A hot pink suit paired with a white tee. 

Dolce & Gabbana

The world has experimented with a series of self-care methods in the wake of Covid-19. For S/S 2022, Dolce and Gabanna turned their attention to ‘light therapy', and to the South Italian tradition of light festivals, were areas are illuminated with a seemingly infinite array of colourful lights. The near-100 look strong catwalk collection was presented IRL at the brand's Metropol Theatre space in Milan and featured Noughties-inflected sportswear and tailoring, swathed in prismatic beads and gems. Metallic jacquards, stained glass and paint-splattered prints also featured in the offering, which abounded in nostalgic silhouettes, like oversized denim, slouchy bomber jackets and flesh-revealing shirting. 

Woolrich

The American label brings an intrepid touch to any location, and for S/S 2022 it had its sights set on both the city and the country. This meant durable and versatile men's and women's designs, with a utilitarian flair, camoflage-meets-florals print parkas in vibrant tones, grey melange tracksuits, dusty pink workwear jackets and pocket-detail shorts. The brand has used spring to celebrate its heritage, with the second drop in the offering titled 'Reimagined Americana', featuring oversized outerwear and paisley shirting.

Ermenegildo Zegna

New social spheres, new dressing codes, new normal: Alessandro Sartori mused on the new routes we find ourselves meandering within in a post pandemic-world with a film featuring models navigating different realms, from the paths of mazes to the steps of ampitheatres. The artistic director has spent the last couple of seasons musing on new requirements of tailoring, sartorial codes that merge sophistication with ease, function with flair. For S/S 2022 this was translated into silhouettes with a light elan, like collarless kimono shapes, utilitarian chore coats, long dusters, oversized overshirts and silhouettes without padding or internal construction. Fabrics were gauzy and luxurious, like featherlight nylon, silk and fluid glazed wool, tones had a water-inspired liquidity from calcite to grainy white and practical flourishes were seen in the form of padded paper leather slippers, foldable backpacks and canvas work bags.

Brunello Cucinelli

The Italian luxury house masterfully merges sartorial codes, bringing the finest materials to elegant-yet-infinitely insouciant silhouettes. For S/S 2022 this take came courtesy of tailoring which had a laid back lilt, like double-breasted pinstripe suits paired with denim shirts, Prince of Wales check jackets layered with loose jeans and white chino trousers sported with a shirt, tie and soft leather biker jacket. Softly padded suede gilets, pocket detail Bermuda shorts and plaid shirts were also Cucinelli's summer check list, with pieces imagined in organic shades, from washed aquamarine to sand.

A-Cold-Wall*

Samuel Ross has long postulated on human kind's relationship with external design forces, whether musing on man's affiliation with Brutalist architecture or how people are affected by constant geological shifts. The London-based designer summarised his brand's S/S 2022 collection in four words: 'Motion. Form. Oscillate. Converge', tenets that have new meaning after 18 months of isolation and restriction. For spring, the brand's streetwear-inflective protective silhouettes, were rendered in bold and elemental hues, with pieces like technical capes, cagoules and padded vests, cocooning the body. In the label's collection film, models strode through an urban metropolis, pacing metal staircases and tarmas, in aquamarine, orange and lime sportswear, with shielding pocket and straps, their silhouettes layered up, with totes, shoulder bags buckled to the torso and pouches strung around the neck.

Diesel

In Diesel's S/S 2022 collection film, a model surveys the red sky of a rocky planet, a symbol of the Italian brand's vision for the future, spearheaded by Belgian designer and Y/Project founder Glenn Martens. In a preview to the collection, Martens discussed his desire to reintroduce a ‘core' collection to the label, explaining that in just three months he'd streamlined the brand's supply chain into more sustainable channels, relocating manufacturers and operating through certified suppliers. Martens has bought an easy sense of the avant-garde to the brand's DNA, which spans everyday denim and sportswear. Think 5-pocket denim jeans with inbuilt Cowboy boots, jackets with a recycled paper print inspired by delivery boxes and trompe l’oeil effect tights and tops, plus hybrid designs which reflect the designer's splice and dice approach at Y/Project, like aysmmetric skirts shaped from coats. 'I wanted the belt to be the backbone of a garment,' Martens added, nodding to bandeau tops, t-shirts and jackets in-built with chunky buckles.

Arnar Mar Jonsson

The London-based utility expert nodded to Japanese and Italian designers of the Eighties, who merged 'sport and modern luxury.' This translated into technical silhouettes riffing on early mountaineering wear, including zip-detail nylon jackets and balooning trousers, jersey hoodies with circular inserts, silver cagoules and panelled jackets. Jonsson used a variety of high performing fabrications, from Loomstate Ventile and PU coated cotton, with materials naturally dyed using native Icelandic plants, Common Lady's Mantle and Thistle. Adding to this organic air, the brand's technical creations were paired with softly crocheted shoulder bags.

Qasimi

There was a soft sense of wrapping, draping and cocooning to Qasimi's S/S 2022 offering, which was presented in the grounds of St Ann's Court in Surrey, a modernist country house built in 1936, designed by renowned architect Sir Raymond McGrath in collaboration with celebrated garden designer Sir Christopher Tunnard. Architecture was essential to the structure of the collection which nodded both to stark Brutalist lines and 'muqarnas' –a geometric style of vaulting found in Islamic design. Shirting in exotic fuchsias and oranges draped in asymmetric cuts around the torso, 'tarbousha' – a woven tassel which is intrinsic to the wardrobe of a male Emirati, was used to accent khaki jackets and sweeping A-line skirts, while renchcoats were laser cut like militaristic net canopies. Lines and curves existed equilibrium, tones were head-turning and design references roving. 

Erdem

An imaginative sense of narrative inspires Erdem Moralioglu's collections, which nod to imagined adventures of both royalty and bohemians. For the brand's debut menswear collection, this sense of story was paramount, and nodded to the little sea-bound brother of Moralioglu's women, featuring ensembles inspired by figurative and textural Patrick Prockter paintings or the wardrobe of artist Derek Jarman, pottering in the gardens around his famed Dungeness seaside retreat Prospect Cottage. The youth-focused and ease-fuelled offering nodded to Jarman's knitted tank tops, worn cords and boiler suits, reinterpreted in cotton jacquard and floral printed cotton. Roll neck cable knit jumpers and striped vests had a nautical appeal, and toile de Jouy bucket hats a boyish sensibility. Moralioglu imagined city-meets-city silhouettes, with his imagined protaganists leaving a black tie affair in London, bound for the coast, sporting Cummerbunds with bright knitwear and sandals and billowing blousons and shorts.

As fashion journalists spend another season taking in fashion shows remotely, through a screen, there’s been much chatter behind the scenes regarding how they might emerge style-wise next season, when there’s a chance of shows being staged with a live audience. There’s the suggestion of a new Roaring Twenties, which will see people around the world glammed up as they emerge from lockdown, wearing bold outfits and eschewing loungewear and flat shoes for evening looks and stilettos. There’s also the parallel concept that after a year of yearning only for cosy silhouettes, we may simply never want to dress up again.

As in New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week before it, Milan's designers mused on these concepts for autumn, creating collections and tying together 2021 trends that swung between romp and relaxation, extravagance and ease. Authenticity was also integral to a host of Italian brands, conscious that when consumer attitudes shift towards spending once more, people will be keen to buy from brands with long-lasting aesthetics. 

This concept was paramount to Kim Jones, who presented his heritage-nodding debut women’s collection for Fendi, following his first, Bloomsbury Group-themed haute couture collection for the Roman house earlier in February. Jones looked to the archival designs of Karl Lagerfeld, who was creative director of the house for 54 years, and the wardrobes of the five Fendi sisters, with a collection brimming with elegant, ladylike and luxurious silhouettes. Think cappuccino, khaki and midnight-tone slip dresses, tuxedo jackets, tailored coats and body-hugging knits, in luxurious fabrics including marbled silk, double cashmere and organza, and adorned with details of the past, such as Lagerfeld’s ‘Karligraphy’ monogram and the embossed stitching of the brand’s ‘Sellaria’ bags. The show’s accompanying set, an evolution of its haute couture set-up, also alluded to the past, featuring F-shape transparent vitrines, with crumbling columns resembling Roman artefacts inside.

Max Mara’s signature camel tones have reinforced its reputation for timeless, trend-subverting dressing, a concept that resonates strongly today. For the brand's 70th anniversary collection, creative director Ian Griffiths celebrated the classic house tones with an offering of elegant yet easy Italinate pieces, such as caramel teddy bear-fur coats, outdoorsy quilted gilets, loose knits and pleated skirts. Griffiths also applauded the ascendant nature of the women that wear his clothes (back in 1951, in contrast, the brand's founder intended them for ‘the wives of the local notaries and doctors'). In a playful twist, the collection referenced the stylings of the British aristocracy off duty in the British countryside, featuring flat caps, foulard headscarves and oversized retro sunglasses.

Brunello Cucinelli also celebrated natural tones, broadcasting his brand's show live from its home village Solomeo. The offering luxuriated in creams, beiges and browns, featuring relaxed yet sumptuous silhouttes, including 1980s-inspired suiting, textural knitwear and robe coats.

Post-pandemic, as people consider their fashion choices, many will desire eye-catching silhouettes that still retain the ease of lockdown dressing and the luxurious nature of its fabrics. For A/W 2021 Loro Piana considered this requirement, with an offering that catered to work, leisure and beyond. Think shearling coats, uniform-centric knitted two-pieces, sharp overcoats and double-layer parkas in a spectrum of rich hues, from bottle green to chocolate, merlot to mustard.

This sense of comfort was also reflected by Tod's Walter Chiapponi, who served up a collection of soft, bourgeois-meets-sportswear shapes, including frilled puffer jackets, jumbo-corduroy trousers, padded dresses and pleated skirts. Similarly, Missoni drew on movement and the comfort of its knitwear heritage, creating sparkling-stripe pleated dresses and chevron-stripe knitted flares and cardigans – for looking and feeling good in.

For Prada's Milan Fashion Week menswear show back in January, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons mused on the restrictions encountered during the Covid-19 era, as well as the liberation from conventional routine that lockdowns have also brought. The brand's women's show evolved this concept with an offering that considered polar opposites, and ‘the point between simplicity and complexity, elegance and practicality, limitation and release'. In the same OMA-conceived show set (myriad graphic interconnected rooms lined with tactile fake fur) models sported pieces that alluded to Simons’ and Miuccia's design canon, like oversized nylon MA-1 bomber jackets with retro jacquard linings, faux fur and sequin wraps clutched around the shoulders. Standard dressing codes were subverted, with tailored peacoats imagined in paint-box hues, body-hugging evening gowns replaced with knitted all-in-ones and conversative tailored skirt suits spliced to reveal the body. There was an exuberance and ostentation to the collection, which shimmered with paillettes among shaggy faux fur and bold upholstery prints.

Where Prada subverted and played with the parameters of dressing up, so No 21's Alessandro Dell'Acqua celebrated them in all their going-out glory. Dell'Acqua is clearly ready to shake off his sweatpants and, for A/W 2021, created a collection that swapped bedroom comforts for something a touch more boudoir. For women, there were fringed dresses that revealed lace knickers, leopard-print pencil skirts and stomach-baring sweaters. Dell’Acqua brought together ultra-mini 1960s skirt lengths, shrunken peacoats and platform shoes, and paired them with grungey separates, like plaid shirts that were slung on top of revealing bodysuits.

At MSGM, Massimo Giorgetti also made a case for going-out gear, with a collection that celebrated the underground nightlife of Milan, featuring latex pencil skirts and puffer jackets, rib-knit velour dresses, paint-cracked denim and holographic roll-necks, all in vibrant tones. Dolce & Gabbana, too, was in the mood for club-kid fashion. While the brand's A/W 2021 menswear collection nodded to the exuberant e-boy fashion made famous on TikTok, the women's kaleidoscopic offering addressed the e-girl, and abounded in 1990s raver silhouettes, with graffiti-splattered puffer jackets, foil jeans and shaggy leopard-print knitwear. The collection also alluded to the body-cinching shapes that Dolce & Gabbana was renowned for in that decade, with ruched dresses, bodysuits and form-flattering, double-breasted jackets.

Across fashion cities, designers have mused on the new requirement to create clothing to be viewed digitally, through a screen, rather than in person. At Marni, Francesco Risso's imaginative runway shows – resembling other-worldly greenhouses or forestscapes formed from paper – are a way of welcoming his fans into his art-inflected, ecclectic world. For A/W 2021, he used Instagram to invite show watchers to three Zoom events, a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here, he presented clothing that was a hyperbolic, larger-than-life interpretation of designing for digital, with oversized puffer jackets swathed in shaggy fake fur, crochet two-pieces and tie-dye knitwear. Ruffles, ruching and multicoloured prints, along with bags blown up to XL proportions, appeared larger than life no matter how small the computer screen. 

In 2020, Giorgio Armani was the first designer to cancel his fashion show on the final morning of Milan Fashion Week, due to the increasing threat level of Covid-19. As regions around Milan began to close their borders, journalists travelling home or straight on to Paris began questioning their safety and considering the reality of a European lockdown. On Giorgio Armani’s A/W 2021 catwalk, there was a fluid relaxation to the silhouettes. The collection includes relaxed suiting in velvet and explosive floral jacquards and gowns in wispy transparent fabrics. There was an optimism in the bold blue and turquoise hues that accented the offering, which riffed on powerful 1980s tones. 

The 1980s was a decade that also inspired Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli. He referred to his decision to stage his A/W 2021 show in the empty auditorium of the historic Piccolo Teatro di Milano, which has been shuttered since the pandemic hit, as ‘punk’. This attitude was echoed across a solemn, largely monochromatic collection that featured ultra-short ‘scissored’ skirt lengths, shirting and slick tuxedo suiting. Elsewhere, DIY and punk elements came in spliced knitwear, slashed into Argyle shapes or cut out into floral motifs; stompy biker boots festooned with rose petals; and boxy, studded accessories. The austere nature of the collection was emphasised by models walking to the sounds of the Milanese symphony orchestra. 

Salvatore Ferragamo is a label familiar with operating during hardship. Its founder famously innovated with materials due to resource restrictions during and after the Second World War, incorporating tree bark, hemp and fish skin into his shoe designs. For A/W 2021, creative director Paul Andrew was focused on shapes and fabrics for a new world, presenting Future Positive, a science fiction-inspired film, with ultra-modern menswear and womenswear silhouettes. Andrew looked to a range of cinematic references during the collection's development, including Gattaca, Until The End Of The World, and The Matrix. Suiting was deconsctructed and bold, outerwear imagined in transparent plastics, metallics and leathers, and footwear had a motocross-meets-astronaut feel. Andrew innovated with materials across the collection, which included accessories made from upcycled pre-consumer offcuts and recycled pre- and post-consumer wool and cashmere, a dress made from recycled polyester, and footwear soles formed using pre-consumer TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) and metal-free leather tanned with plant-based materials.

Sportmax also operated with futuristic intent, looking at inspirational female figures across history, spanning statues of mythological figures and Annie Lennox, to create a forward-thinking fashion statement. The brand's collection featured models striding in parachute-volume taffeta gowns, The Matrix-worthy leathers and sparkling silver dresses, paired with shield-like sunglasses and thick soled wader-centric boots. 

Ferragamo dedicated its collection ‘to all those who must walk' – citing its founder – ‘at a time when we must be united in our determination to reimagine, rebuild, progress’, it summed up the impetus behind Milan Fashion Week A/W 2021 as a whole.

Designers in Milan – with a substantial reduction of international visitors – held a fashion week of sorts, with a mix of real shows and virtual presentations, all of which were streamed on their websites and via their social media platforms, in a bid to connect with their international clients. For those actually attending (I counted just two editors from France, a handful from Germany, six from the UK, and no one from the US or Asia) it was all about masks, hand sanitiser, temperature checks, self-declaration Covid-19 forms, very last minute changes to shows from real to digital or from digital to real and location changes. As for the clothes, as a rule Italian designers are collectively wishful that S/S 2021 is nothing like the summer before it.

Fendi kicked off the week’s proceedings with a significantly sized down runway show, which marked Silvia Venturini's final solo outing, before KimJones joins the creative helm of the brand next season. The mood spoke of sophisticated comfort, with models including Penelope Tree and Cecilia Chancellor wearing floaty shirts printed with shadows of windowpanes, snuggly duvet coats and buttoned dresses in quilted upholstery satins.

The N°21 show, held in the brand's own Garage Ventuno showspace, was a marker of how fashion shows operate during Covid-19. In place of the usual benches chosen to get as many bums on seats as possible (until now, there was always room for another guest) were stacking chairs spaced around two metres apart in a diagonal format. If clothes are being designed for our new less social lives, founder Alessandro Dell’Acqua created good looking knits and sweats amongst the looks, but matched with marabou incase you get the urge or chance to dress up.

Dolce & Gabbana’s purpose built Metropole show space can seat more than a thousand, but its S/S 2021 show was reconfigured to seat 300 on rich brocade cushions. Unlike a show with a 1000 guests, it was effortless to get in, with temperature checks and hand sanitising stations plus guidance on how to leave after, similar to new disembarkation rules on aeroplanes, sector by sector. A little like the famous Ford Model T motto ‘any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black,’ the message here was you can have anything you like as long as it's patchwork. This meant macro or micro silhouettes from mini dresses to caftans, signature sartorial tailoring through to highwaist jeans and sneakers imagined in brocade, lace, carré silks and denim. The brand covered all options for a summer of going out or staying in, depending which way the pandemic plays out.

Max Mara chose to show in the cloisters of the courtyard of the Accademia di Brera, and guests sat spaced apart on cubes, the preferred seating choice of the week. Protective Cloisters – of which Milan has many fine ones to offer – were to become the venue of choice seen also at Boss, Ports 1961, and Salvatore Ferragamo. Amongst the tailoring and coats that Max Mara is famous for, creative director Ian Griffiths interwove appropriate pieces for our changed lifestyle, like strong knits, raglan sleeve sweats, parkas, and sporty silhouettes made from thermo bonded lightweight technical jersey. After long periods spent at home the message was a clear: clients now expect comfort as well as style.

For his digital Emporio Armani presentation, Giorgio Armani hired directors Leandro Manuel Emede and Nicolò Cerioni to film ‘Building Dialogues', a seven minute film shot over three days outside the company’s offices adjacent to Armani/Silos and across the road at the Tadao Ando show space. Its architecture – which is almost entirely pale grey – formed an appropriately background for the collection.

Back in February, on the last day of Milan Fashion Week, Giorgio Armani, alone, decided to hold his fashion show behind closed doors and asked everyone already invited, even his VIP clients who had flown in to Milan expressly for him to watch it from their homes or hotel rooms. This season he streamed Giorgio Armani's show online and on Prime time Italian TV (adding around a million extra viewers). And with a larger audience in mind (who may find the average 12 minute show length somewhat short), it was preceded by a 20 minute ‘house made’ documentary called ‘Pensieri Senza Tempo' or ‘Timeless Thoughts', with archive footage of Armani fashion from 1985 onwards.

I watched ‘Building Dialogues' from the Armani/Hotel which reopened in July. Some luxury hotels, such as the Park Hyatt, have been shuttered for almost six months. It was also in my room where I watched the Prada show. It was odd to be in Milan and watch a show broadcast from three kilometres away and not actually be present. This was the highly anticipated debut collection of dual creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. Shot in a yellow carpeted and curtained room designed by OMA/AMO, models walked followed not by the eyes of guests but only the articulated robotic cameras. The show was followed by a Q&A session where Prada and Simons answered questions submitted from the public via social media, discussing topics around the importance of novelty, collaboration and what defines Prada-ness. The session was a much more comfortable and civilised way of learning about the collection than popping backstage for a bun fight to speak to the designers.

For his second season at Tod’s, creative director Walter Chiapponi opted to stream ‘The Song', a film directed by Antoine Asseraf shot at Casa Villa Necchi, where the protagonists including Karen Elson and singer Okay Kaya dressed up in suede, denim and frilled dresses and connected with each other over imaginary Zoom calls or face time links.

Sunnei – who just announced a new investment from Vanguards – celebrated Milan's summer spaces, inviting guests to the Lido of Milan in the north of the city. There, guests stood on designated circular markers inside an empty swimming pool (sheltering from rain with umbrellas) watching models wearing relaxed tailoring, caftans and loose dresses in the brand's signature bold hues.

Amidst Covid-19's new reality, designers are all looking for appropriate methods to show their collections. Francesco Risso, creative director of Marni, pulled off an most extraordinary feat, casting 48 members of his creative community for ‘Marnifesto', a film spanning locations from Tokyo to Dakar, with each model wearing one look from the collection that had been remotely fitted with the aid of video and local seamstresses. All 48 feeds were mixed live in New York, with each model setting out at the same time, filmed on a smart phone by their boyfriend, girlfriend or roommate at home, on the metro, in the supermarket or on the street. As I watched it at 4pm in a Milan cinema, Risso was sitting there too, seeing it for the first time. He'd gave up his creative control when he sent of his S/S 2021 pieces, passing the freedom of self-expression to the cast.

Moschino’s Jeremy Scott worked with The Muppets creator Jim Henson to create ‘No Strings Attached’, a fun and perfectly executed 40 look fashion show modelled by puppets, set in a tiny filmic couture salon set to schmaltzy classical music by Michel Gaubert. 

For Salvatore Ferragamo, creative Director Paul Andrew turned to film director Luca Guadagnino to produce a short film set in Milan. Although the men’s and women’s ready-to wear-and accessories were the focus, it was equally a homage to the city and its architecture. ‘Life in Technicolor', picked up the vibrant green, mauve, yellow and lobster in the collection and accessories, but also illustrated hidden colours found in the city.  The 40 looks featured in the film were also shown on the runway in the rounded cloisters of La Rotonda della Besana, the Florentine houses usual venue, albeit with a substantially reduced number of guests.

At Versace, the label presented Versacepolis, a show streamed live with everything aside from the usual audience (the brand decided a week before to run the show with no physical guests). Everyone participating from set builders to producers, models to hair and make-up artists, plus Versace staffers, had all been tested by the company as negative for Covid 19. The show, featuring both men and women was full of joyous colour and print. Stand outs were the pleated looks, plain or printed, with some sculptural ruffling nodding to Roberto Capucci. This was a very confident message. The brand is hoping their clients have reason to dress up next summer, those décolleté bra topped dresses are a little too saucy for Zoom.

The Ports 1961 show, held in the warm autumn sun of the cloisters of the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia was intimate for very few but filmed for a larger audience. Karl Templer wanted this collection to be tactilem ‘as touch is forbidden now and everything is on screen’, and with its classical references, spring was all about embrace and touch. Templer is optimistic about people still finding pleasure in dressing up.

Valentino is based in Rome and traditionally shows its men's and women’s ready to wear and couture collections in Paris. Exceptionally this season it came up to Milan to show in a metal foundry in the north of the city. This show was inside, with a small crowd in a enormous space, but safety was key so all guests (who all turned up in masks) were given a new FFP2 mask and asked to wear it for its duration. We were treated to a sound track performed live by Labrinth, while creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli offered plenty to like for real life including exclusive Valentino 517 boot cut jeans made in collaboration with Levi’s, which will surely get everyone wearing the styles again come spring, whether we have to stay at home or not. Piccioli paired the jeans with oversized mannish shirts in chiffon, taffeta and lace and accessorised with the new macro Rock Stud bags and shoes. There were of course some more dressy pieces including fluid long dresses and a chocolate brown slinky sequinned cape-shouldered and ribbon-sleeved dress. Even you don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to see sometimes its great to dress up just for you.

It’s exactly two decades since Giorgio Armani launched his Armani Casa label, bringing his geometric lines and striking proportions into the realm of interiors. In addition to a now extensive range of furniture, Armani Casa has collaborated with industry-leading partners including Dada (part of the Molteni Group) on kitchens, Roca on bathroom fixtures, Rubelli on textiles, and Jannelli & Volpi on wall coverings. It also has its own interior design studio, responsible for Armani-branded hotels and luxury residences.

Mr Armani is rightfully proud of how far his design label has come. ‘I successfully and independently expanded into sectors beyond fashion to offer my all-embracing philosophy of lifestyle. I can say this is an enormous achievement,’ he says. Still, mindful of the current climate, he has eschewed the usual anniversary fanfare, instead marking the moment with elegant understatement by commissioning an editorial campaign titled ‘Living with Armani Casa’.

Art directed by Wallpaper* contributing editor Nick Vinson and photographed by another of our stalwarts, Beppe Brancato, the campaign, revealed exclusively in the September 2020 issue of Wallpaper*, envisions the home of a pair of longtime Armani Casa clients. The space is a harmonious blend of old and new: traditional boiserie panelling and marble flooring, offset by contemporary and midcentury design and art. It reflects a considered accumulation of pieces over the years, rather than one ambitious shopping spree.

An Armani Casa piece anchors every space – in the foyer, it’s the ‘Evans’ console from 2011, with its rectilinear central element (clad in a technical shagreen fabric) suspended among a pair of satin brass frames that fit flush against the sides. The dark and handsome ‘Euclide’ desk, from the same year, is the centrepiece of the study, its slender top and symmetrical chests of black maple drawers supported on painted steel ribbon legs. In the dining room, the 2018 ‘Ned’ table is in spotlight, its three elliptical legs joined by leather-upholstered spokes underneath the dove grey, Tamo wood-veneered surface. Each piece brings together refined forms with a luxurious yet thoughtful material palette, and the fine Italian craftsmanship that is a hallmark of the Armani brand.

Equal care has been given to the selection of accoutrements. They vary from a pair of 1940s, wood and raffa armchairs, by Italian Rationalist architects Mario Asnago and Claudio Vender, to a finely striped 2019 rug, by Lebanese design duo David/Nicolas. Likewise, the artworks suggest diverse creative inspiration: a Japanese screen print, a lithograph by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, a pair of small oil paintings by contemporary British artist Tobit Roche. This eclectic backdrop accentuates the versatility of Armani Casa’s pieces.

Despite a global economic downturn, Armani Casa is soldiering on – March marked the launch of the Residences by Armani Casa condo tower in Miami, a collaboration with the late architect César Pelli and the brand’s largest project to date. The 2020 collection, intended for launch during Salone del Mobile but postponed to September, pays homage to the abstract art of the early 20th century while emphasising salvaged materials – wood and stone for furniture, fabrics for accessories.

Due in 2023 is a revamped flagship on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue (which will also house Armani’s fashion offering), with 19 apartments above. ‘But it’s the public support and feedback at the early and most dramatic stages of the current crisis that fill me with pride,’ reflects Mr Armani. ‘They demonstrate a solid relationship built over time.’ 

As seen in the September 2020 Style Special issue of Wallpaper*, available as a free download here

INFORMATION

armani.com/casa

British photographer and Wallpaper* contributor Jason Lloyd Evans has been shooting behind-the-scenes backstage snapshots from the runway shows of the world’s most creative brands, since the early 2000s. Here we reveal his favourite sublime snapshots, spanning the last eight years.

Armani Privé S/S 2012

‘Giorgio Armani hosted a “One Night Only” event in Beijing and seemed to be one of the first to really tap into the market and bring his show direct to his there. It was a great experience to go and cover the trip for them.'

Proenza Schouler S/S 2012

‘Proenza Schouler has always been one of my favourite brands to cover in New York. The brand's shows always have such a special casting, concept and collection.'

Burberry A/W 2013

‘Karlie Kloss and Jourdan Dunn showing their love for Christopher Bailey's Burberry. His shows always had a super positive energy.'

Givenchy S/S 2014

‘Being backstage at Riccardo Tisci's shows for Burberry was always an en experience, you never knew what you'd be allowed to shoot. The make up which Pat McGrath created for his shows was very special too.'

Chanel A/W 2015

‘Chanel doesn’t generally allowed backstage access and therefore it is always a bonus to be covering it for a special feature. This A/W 2015 shot from Karl's reign ran as part of a 12 page feature in 10 Magazine. Big, bold and beautiful.'

Gucci S/S 2017

‘Gucci really hit its stride under creative director Alessandro Michele – his eclectic collections are such a departure from what came before and add a real buzz to the Milan schedule.'

Tommy Hilfger S/S 2017

‘This LA show tapped into many emerging patterns in fashion. It was a collaborative collection with Gigi Hadid, it used the See Now Buy Now retail model and had real focus on consumer activation.'

Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda S/S 2018

‘I have been really lucky to cover Dolce & Gabbana's Alta Moda events. The summer show is always hosted in a stunning Italian location such as Sicily or Capri. The clothing is always exceptional.'

Alexander Wang S/S 2018

‘All the cool girls want to be in Wang's gang and that's the energy his brand's shows really tapped into. Case in point, here you find Bella Hadid, Kaia Gerber and Kendal Jenner.'

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2019

‘This was one occasion where I was happy to be shooting the catwalk rather than backstage. The show, the venue, the music and the collection was incredibly moving, and many editors were weeping! At the end of the show, I whizzed to the front of the runway and caught these really intimate shots.’

Versace S/S 2020

‘This is part of a backstage series of portraits of Jennifer Lopez and Donatella Versace, after Lopez had walked the catwalk in a revisited version of the brand’s iconic Jungle Dress.’

Fendi A/W 2020

‘For Fendi, I captured days of clothing fittings, hair and makeup tests, the show’s set build and DJ meetings. How fashion shows are presented may change, but for me the creative and collaborative process that comes from them will always be at the heart of fashion.’

Quotes: Jason Lloyd-Evans. Additional writing: Laura Hawkins

INFORMATION

lloyd-evans.com

Miami is a heady swirl of art deco architecture and luxury condos, tropical climes and pristine beaches, glitzy nightclubs and well-worn divebars. More recently, however, it has embraced a series of trophy buildings designed by the Who’s Who in architecture, from Rafael Viñoly to Frank Gehry, Foster + Partners, Bjarke Ingels, and Herzog & de Meuron. Here, we look at the architectural projects and real estate developments shaping Miami today.

Park Grove, OMA

Rem Koolhaas’ firm has already made its mark on a significant swathe of Miami, with the completion of a trio of buildings in Faena District in 2016. Now, it’s full steam ahead with a multi-tower residential enclave in Coconut Grove, backed by powerhouse developers The Related Group and Terra Group. Drawing inspiration from Biscayne Bay, OMA partner and project lead Shohei Shigematsu has imagined the towers as linked barrier islands. Each residence features open floor plans, 12ft ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows, kitchens and bathrooms by designer William Sofield, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, expansive terraces, and private elevator access. Over 50,000 sq ft of the development has been parcelled for luxury lifestyle amenities, ensuring residents will almost certainly never want to leave Park Grove. Read more here.

LOCATION: Coconut Grove, Miami
YEAR: 2013 – ongoing
KEY FEATURES: Wine tasting rooms with private storage, five acres of private gardens by Enzo Enea, art collection, mind-body wellness lounge and bio-sauna, Meyer Davis-designed interiors, restaurant by James Beard Award winner Michael Schwartz

One Thousand Museum, Zaha Hadid Architects

Described astutely in a PBS documentary as ‘one of the most complex skyscrapers ever to make it off the drawing board’, One Thousand Museum was Zaha Hadid’s final undertaking before her death in 2016. Completed at the end of last year, the 62-storey tower has already cemented its status as an architectural icon of Downtown Miami’s skyline, thanks to its bold exoskeleton design. The 84 museum-quality units have been realised as half-floor, full-floor and duplex residences, fitted with Gatto Cucine kitchens, Gaggenau and Sub-Zero appliances, Molteni & C custom closets, integrated smart technology, and a choice of luxurious finishes chosen by Hadid herself. Potential buyers can also choose from curated collection of turnkey residences by design houses Artefacto, B&B Italia, Roche Bobois, Meridiani, and Luxury Living Group. Read more here.

LOCATION: Biscayne Boulevard, Miami
YEAR: Q4 2019
KEY FEATURES: Exoskeleton design, aquatic centre, rooftop helipad, bank-quality vault, indoor/outdoor spa, private beach club, on-demand house car, multimedia theatre, specialised security and valet personnel

El Espacio 23, Jorge M Pérez

Forty years in the making, El Espacio 23 is a private museum dedicated to philanthropist and entrepreneur Jorge M Pérez’s vast art collection and first opened to the public during Art Basel Miami Beach last year. A passion project of the billionaire real estate developer, the space is housed in a repurposed 28,000 sq ft warehouse in Miami’s Allapattah neighbourhood and designed by Pérez himself who sees it as an extension of his home (amenities include a library, living room and bar area to entertain guests). The year-round programming includes a series of residencies for artists and curators representing a range of diverse range of disciplines and ethnic backgrounds, as well as activations inspired by the surrounding neighbourhood of Allapattah.

LOCATION: Allapattah, Miami
YEAR: Q4 2019
KEY FEATURES: Artist apartments reserved for residency programmes, shared workspace, library, bar and lounge area

Rubell Museum, Selldorf Architects

When Mera and Don Rubell were looking for an architect to convert a former industrial complex into a museum-worthy setting for their family’s collection, the Miami mega-collectors turned to art world favourite Annabelle Selldorf. Located in Miami’s emerging Allapattah neighbourhood, the museum will draw on the Rubells’ extensive holdings of over 7,200 works by more than 1,000 artists. Selldorf Architects gutted and transformed six warehouse units into a cohesive 100,000 sq ft campus – tripling the exhibition capacity of the collection’s previous space. The Rubell Museum now unfolds across a single level, comprising 40 galleries, a flexible events and performance space, a richly stocked research library, a bookstore, an outdoor bar and restaurant serving Basque cuisine. Read more here.

LOCATION: Allapattah, Miami
YEAR: Q4 2019
KEY FEATURES: Refinished concrete floors, single-storey complex, courtyard garden featuring rare plants native to the Everglades and Florida

Eighty Seven Park, Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Flanked by a 35-acre public park to the south and a private park to the north, few condominium projects in Miami – if any – can boast the green credentials of Renzo Piano’s Eighty Seven Park. ‘What we’re expressing is that this building belongs to nature,’ said the Italian architect when we first checked on the development’s progress in 2017. The 70 residences, spread over 18 elliptical floors, emphasise outdoor living – each comes with a generously sized wraparound terrace ranging from 15-25ft wide. Paris-based design firm RDAI notes the interior design was built around natural materials collected at the site: the Venetian terrazzo flooring that recalls Miami’s white sand beaches, for example. Read more here.

LOCATION: North Shore, Miami Beach
YEAR: Q4 2019
KEY FEATURES: 24-hour concierge and butler service, enoteca (wine shop), onsite botanist, oceanfront swimming pools, spa, state-of-the-art fitness centre, outdoor juice bar, private elevator access to all units

Monad Terrace, Ateliers Jean Nouvel

‘From the beginning – and always – it has been important to me to put the spirit of place in all my work,’ says Jean Nouvel. ‘Here in Miami, I wanted to create a building that is like the reflection of the sun on the water.’ Comprising 59 luxury waterfront residences nestled around a shimmering lagoon, Monad Terrace in South Beach is the Pritzker Prize winner’s first and only residential project in Florida. The striking sawtooth façade is made up of honeycomb glass screens, which diffuse sunlight and provide privacy to residents while maintaining unobstructed views of Biscayne Bay. Vertical gardens on the north and south façades offer additional shade.

LOCATION: South Beach, Miami Beach
YEAR: 2020 (under construction)
KEY FEATURES: Honeycomb sawtooth façade, 116ft swimming pool and hot tub, climbing gardens, private or semi-private elevator access, wellness centre, residents’ lounge

Residences by Armani/Casa, César Pelli

This sleek, monolithic oceanfront tower was the last project designed by venerable architect César Pelli before his death in July last year. The 56-storey structure is composed of ‘two intertwined sail-like shapes, billowing and expanding as they rise’, says Gregg Jones, principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, while its blue-hued glass was designed to flow seamlessly into the water below. Giorgio Armani has stepped in personally to deliver Armani/Casa’s first residential project in the US, envisioning elegantly understated interiors fitted materials like white gold leaf, onyx and bronzed mirrors. Imagined as ‘homes in the sky’, the residences feature expansive terraces, master suites with his-and-hers bathrooms, and are wired with smart technology to access select building amenities.

LOCATION: Sunny Isles Beach
YEAR: Q4 2019
KEY FEATURES: Ocean-view yoga studio with Pilates equipment, Armani/Privé lounge, museum-quality art collection, 24-hour multilingual concierge service, cigar room, wine cellar, two-storey revitalisation spa, exclusive beach amenities, classic Hollywood-inspired movie theatre

Mr C Residences, Arquitectonica

Fourth-generation members of the storied Cipriani family, Maggio and Ignazio Cipriani are the forces behind Mr C, a hospitality and residential brand for luxury modern living. Following projects in Los Angeles and New York, the brothers are now making waves with Miami, teaming up with Terra’s David Martin, architect Ray Fort of Arquitectonica, and interior design firm Meyer Davis to bring a taste of old world Europe to a bayside residential tower in Coconut Grove. The 118 residences in the 21-storey building will feature 11ft ceilings, open floor plan layouts, private outdoor terraces, custom-designed Italian kitchens by ITALKRAFT with terrazzo and quartz countertops, European porcelain tile floors, and spa-like bathrooms.

LOCATION: Coconut Grove, Miami
YEAR: Expected Q3 2022
KEY FEATURES: Sail-inspired design, private Bellini bar on the pool deck, speciality gourmet market, lifestyle and nautical concierge, Bayshore owners’ club, peloton studio, indoor yoga studio, in-home delivery from on-site café

Scene setting: An early morning email from Giorgio Armani’s press team signalled that due to the outbreak of Coronavirus in Northern Italy, the show would be held behind closed doors without an audience at its Tadao Ando-designed HQ. Without real time guests, Armani broadcasted the show globally through a live stream link.

Mood board: Through Armani’s live stream, guests glimpsed silhouettes emblematic of the label’s tailoring and evening wear prowess. Tactile velvet jackets with ruffled details, puffball skirts in neon houndstooth or unusual camouflage jacquard, strapless dresses with concertina frills. The look was fluid and flattering, with nipped in or lean silhouettes, beaded and floral print details, in shades of black punctuated with pink, teal, and pearl grey.

Best in show: Armani ended the show with a selection of looks from Giorgio Armani Privé Spring/Summer 2009 and 2019 collections, which were specifically inspired by China. A symbol of unity in a moment of global panic.

Scene Setting: The show space – dressed as usual in complete darkness – had a new focal point. For A/W 2020’s cosy, chic collection, Armani had installed transparent recycled plexiglass sculptures in the centre of the runway. They represented melting ice. Around the venue, large digital screens mimicked a gentle snow shower. Armani had signaled his new commitment to sustainability with the launch of a recycled collection under the Emporio label. For his more formal line, the attitude was one of comfort and ease.

Mood board: Entitled ‘Tactile Impressions,’ the show focused on new attitudes to traditional constructions of menswear. Armani’s easy tailoring is enduring in its appeal, but how will its nuances, the relaxed put-togetherness, the warmth and grace translate in this new decade? Largely, there has been a move away from the hyper-streetwear/sports driven collections that brands have capitalized on for several seasons. There is a shift towards a new formality for a less stuffy age. Here, fluid jackets and blazers were cut like cardigans. Trousers were cuffed, Nehru jackets had a softer lean. Shawl collars were added to wraparound coats. Luxury fabrics fell around the body.

Best in show: When heavy themes dominate the headlines, clothes need to know their place and be unfussy. At Armani, the coming season brings with it a focus on the lightweight. There’s a rigour to the minimalism and a purging of stiffness, which is Mr. Armani’s métier. (He is famous for softening the suit, after all.) Velvet corduroy coveralls were worn with cropped ski jackets – cocooning puffa scarves wrapped around suiting. The look channeled a certain tactility with its mountain wools, jacquards, bouclés and velvets. It offered a wardrobe of opulent propositions.

Mood board: Austrian theorist of design, Adolf Loos, once said, ‘Be not afraid of being called unfashionable. Changes in the traditional way of building are only permitted if they are an improvement. Otherwise stay with what is traditional, for truth, even if it be hundreds of years old has a stronger inner bond with us than the lie that walks by our side.’ Armani’s show, entitled ‘The Man in the Magnifying Glass,’ was infused with unabashed reverence for the classics. Under collars for A/W 20 took their finishing from the traditions of tailoring and were made in contrast velvet, moleskin and wool cloth. Armani chose to review the texture and pattern of menswear heritage using chevron, herringbone, diagonals and plaid for his sportier line. The clothes were rooted in active 21st century life, driven by the desire to explore a world of skiing, climbing and hiking beyond the streets.  

Best in show: Thrown over tailored macs, slim, fine herringbone and dog-tooth gilets took their pockets from hunting and fishing jackets. A padded bomber was extended to a more formal dress-coat length. Buttoned vest jackets had their necks up high and sharp. The collection was a study in proportion that translated archetypal Armani codes into new contexts. Black crystal dots and lines appeared on suiting and jersey. Standout was a three piece technical suit; a collarless waist jacket zipped up the body, worn with a big robe coat and roomy pant. For evening a host of glittery intergalactic textures made their way onto suits and dinner jackets studded with tiny crystals or in lurex and metallic shimmer.

Scene setting: As the Australian bushfires rage, the political debates around climate change have formed an unsettling yet essential backdrop to the shows. The conversation is already in full swing: Alessandro Sartori at Zegna has implemented sustainability in the way his clothes are manufactured and conceived. Marni’s show spaces and collections have recycled plastics gathered from the studio. Mr Armani unveiled his own project today: to conclude the show, the digital screens wrapped around the space spelled out: ‘I’m saying yes to recycling’. The parade of models walked in sportif clothes, each made using recycled materials, each branded with the new R EA tag.  

Scene setting: For S/S 2020, the natural world has been a pervasive influence. In London, Christopher Kane humorously nodded to those with a fetish for plants and flowers, and earlier this week in Milan, Marni Francesco Risso’s sartorial ‘tree huggers’ wore twigs and flowers in their hair, and sported 1950s-inspired gowns hand painted with flowers. Emporio Armani’s show was inspired by the air, and Giorgio Armani’s – held outside at his Palazzo Orsini, the baroque palace acquired by the label in 1996 – to the earth.

Mood board: This was a collection rich in browns and blues, soft pinks that explored Armani’s idiosyncractic tailoring and eveningwear. Sugary tones have been prescient on the Milan runways, from Max Mara to Agnona. Cue slinky double-breasted silk suits, metallic ruffled blouses and fluid velvet trousers, and a closing selection of candy floss colour beaded and embroidered gowns, complete with 3D rose embellishmets, wide belts and gauzy flounced frilled scarves. Ethereal, elegant and everything for the Armani woman.

Finishing touches: This is the second season the Giorgio Armani show has been held at its 11 Via Borgonuovo, palace and the venue location was immortalised through hugh hoop earrings hanging with the number ‘11’.

Mood board: If Fendi was thinking of the golden sun for S/S 2020, then Giorgio Armani was enamoured with the air. The designer’s presence within his label’s home city is as encapsulating as this natural element, and it was the lightness and insubstantiality of air that inspired the designer’s spring collection. In its usual chronological catwalk order, it was presented against a cloud-passing panorama, in a series of grey, pinks, blues and greens. Velvets, crushed chiffons and holographic moire enhanced the lightweight mood, with sequins and beadwork adding sky at night effect. The collection was true to Armani’s eveningwear and tailoring takes, featuring fluid, flapper style dresses and slouchy sportswear.

Best in show: For women, tracksuit trousers in gauzy metallic silks and crushed velvets had a relaxed modernity, and for men, suiting was sleek and standout in its oversized 1980s construction.

Finishing touches: Looks were finished with Armani’s idiosyncratic smatter of chunky jewellery, from fluid chainmail earrings which added to the air-inspired élan, to chunky necklaces formed from a graphic tumble of cube beads.

Whether in fashion or food, Giorgio Armani likes to square his perfectionist vision with a healthy dose of tradition. His Emporio Armani restaurants and cafés, now present on three continents, serve up Mediterranean and Italian fare, elevated in presentation while authentic in flavour. Headlining the menu at the recently renovated Milan location (pictured) is this saffron risotto. ‘It’s one of the most classic Milanese dishes, made more fragrant and tasty thanks to the surprising addition of scallops and thyme,’ he explains. Just the thought of this dish, enjoyed at the ground-floor bar under the glow of Mr Armani’s signature ‘Logo’ lamp, has us hankering for our next sojourn to the Italian fashion capital.

Ingredients
80g carnaroli rice
10g chopped shallots
30ml extra virgin olive oil
50ml white wine
1 litre vegetable broth
300ml light fish broth
1/2g saffron pistils
Salt
300ml orange-infused water
10g orange zest
5ml fresh lemon juice
20ml fresh orange juice
10g Parmigiano-Reggiano
10g butter
3g chopped fennel
2 scallops
1g thyme
40ml creamy cherry tomato sauce

Method
Toast the rice with the shallots and 10ml of the oil; blend with the wine. Add broth, saffron and salt. Continue cooking, adding more broth and orange-infused water to cover the rice. When cooked, add the lemon juice and the orange juice. Cream with the Parmigiano-Reggiano, butter and 20ml oil. Rest for 2 minutes. Add the fennel.

Season the scallops with thyme and oil. Sear the scallops and place them in the centre of the dish of risotto. Then create small dots with creamy cherry tomato sauce. §

As originally featured in the September 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*246)

ADDRESS

Emporio Caffè & Ristorante
via Croce Rossa 2
Milan

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Scene setting: Mr Armani is elegance personified. His handsome style has influenced a generation of menswear designers who channel a relaxed smartness and aren’t afraid to tackle tailoring. During the recent streetwear boom the label has maintained its sartorial essence. Armani’s explorations into athleticism and activewear are left to his Emporio line; the Giorgio Armani label show for S/S20 was held outside of the darkened enclaves of Armani’s Teatro. For the first time in 20 years, the designer invited guests into the courtyard of his Via Borgonuovo headquarters. It imbued the show with a summery, sprightly spirit.

Mood board: The wardrobe proposed for the coming season is fitted around the shoulders and relaxed around the body; double pleat front trousers and open weave cardigans conveyed a seaside slouch. The formal meets the familiar with double-breasted waistcoats worn with the attitude of a T-shirt, or with jeans or under crushed denim blazers. A padded velvet style has hidden buttons, a hybrid of a military vest and smoking jacket.

Best in show: Armani is famous for aligning influences from the East with Italian flair. For S/S20, his quintessential Nehru and Mao collar styles appeared on shirting and a graphic jacquard blazer. Oversized shirts billowed in the hot Italian sun. Wild is the wind.

Mood board: Armani’s influence on men’s suiting and style is legendary. In the 1980s, he moved tailoring in a totally new direction by relaxing it, un-lining linen jackets and easing trousers during an age preoccupied with the body beautiful. And with today’s social media etiquette demanding fitness and wellness, there’s a renewed athleticism in the air, a sporty, fluid attitude to dressing. And no one does it quite like Mr. Armani. His S/S 20 Emporio collection was entitled ‘Visions and Dreams’. 

Best in show: The Teatro Armani, which usually stages big stadium sized shows, was more intimate this season. The black walls closed off rows of seats and guest sat on small cushioned benches. White acrylic sheets hovered above the catwalk as if the layers of a dream. Lightness was all. The spirit of clouds sleeping in the sky at night was there in the hyper-gloss shiny surfaces and dreamy movement of unstructured single or double breasted jackets in fine faded herringbone. They were paired with swishy palazzo and parachute pants in organza, linen, jute and silk. Washed suede tracksuits appeared alongside slubby linen knits. Drawstrings on shirt hems and shawl collars gave a sporty stance. 

Team work: The show was closed by 20 Olympic athletes and nine Paralympians of the Italian team, each sporting their uniforms for Tokyo 2020. They took their turn on the catwalk wearing their EA7 tracksuits featuring graphics inspired by Japan – a long-standing reference for Armani. Racing car driver Alex Zanardi joined the beaming athletes to take a lap around a giant projection of the Italian flag to the rousing chorus of the 1977 disco track Love Is in the Air.