Milan Fashion Week

Photo: Instagram.com
Fashion month is upon us, which means a first glimpse at next season, designer debuts, surprise runway cameos and countless celebrity sightings. In New York, we’ve already seen Lindsay Lohan do extreme colour blocking at Christian Siriano’s show (the redhead paired a burnt orange dress with make-up to match), Chloë Sevigny pop up on the Proenza Schouler catwalk (as BFF Natasha Lyonne looked on from the front row), and Alexa Chung captivating the street-style photographers all over Manhattan.The evening before the official start of London Fashion Week saw Erin O’Connor, British Vogue’s contributing editor Munroe Bergdorf and Jodie Turner-Smith seated front row at Harris Reed’s show, held in the Tate Modern, while Florence Pugh did a reading before models walked out. As the weekend got underway, mother-daughter duo Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson sat front row at Roksanda, and Romeo Beckham and Mia Regan were seen together at JW Anderson.
Daniel Lee’s Burberry debut, and Moncler’s Art of the Genius presentation brought things to a suitably starry close in London, with Jodie Comer and Stormzy on the front row at Burberry, and newly-installed artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear Pharrell at Moncler.
Day one of the shows in Milan brought sightings of Gwendoline Christie, Julia Fox, Winnie Harlow and Christina Ricci.

Scroll for all the celebrity sightings at the autumn/winter 2023 shows.
Rym Saidi
At Fendi’s
Photo: Instagram.com
Winnie Harlow
At Fendi’s autumn/winter 2023 show in Milan.
Photo: Getty
Christina Ricci
At Fendi’s autumn/winter 2023 show in Milan.
Photo: Getty
Pharrell Williams
At Moncler 2023: The Art Of Genius in London.
Photo: Getty
Naomi Campbell
At Burberry’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.
Photo: Getty

Georgia May Jagger
At Burberry’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London

Photo: Getty
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham
At Burberry’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.
Photo: Getty
Ashley Graham
At Nensi Dojaka’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.
Photo: Getty
Jourdan Dunn
At Nensi Dojaka’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty
Alexa Chung

At Christopher Kane’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Poppy Delevigne

At JW Anderson’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty
Naomi Campbell

At JW Anderson’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Alexa Chung

At JW Anderson’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Lisa Rinna

At Richard Quinn’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Ashley Graham

At Richard Quinn’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Simone Ashley

At 16Arlington’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Jourdan Dunn

At 16Arlington’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Florence Pugh

At Harris Reed’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Jodie Turner-Smith

At Harris Reed’s autumn/winter 2023 show in London.

Photo: Getty

Katie Holmes

At Michael Kors’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Kate Hudson

At Michael Kors’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Sam Smith and Lil Nas X

At Christian Cowan’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Quintessa Swindell

At Thom Browne’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Queen Latifah

At Thom Browne’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Claire Foy and Suki Waterhouse

At Tory Burch’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Emily Ratajkowski

On the Tory Burch runway in New York.

Photo: Getty

Irina Shayk

At Khaite’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Karlie Loss

At Khaite’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York

Photo: Getty

Salem Mitchell

At Ulla Johnson’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Katie Holmes

At Ulla Johnson’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Emily Ratajkowski

At Jonathan Simkhai’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Liya Kebede

At Proenza Schouler’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Sienna Miller

At Proenza Schouler’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Natasha Lyonne

At Rodarte’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty

Julia Stiles, Quinta Brunson and Lindsay Lohan

At Christian Siriano’s autumn/winter 2023 show in New York.

Photo: Getty
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Artistic director Kim Jones dedicated his autumn/winter 2023 Fendi collection to a muse: Delfina Delettrez Fendi, a fourth generation member of the family who serves as the house’s creative director for jewellry. Anders Christian Madsen shares five things to know about the collection.

The show set featured a tunnel of lights
Photo: Getty

There was something celestial about the tunnel of laser-like lights Kim Jones projected through Fendi’s mile-long runway room in Milan this season. The house’s Roman relationship between the ancient and the futuristic is an ongoing treat for Jones, a sci-fi fan who revels in analysing and interpreting this instinctive culture of the Fendi family. “Delfina is a muse for me,” he said in a preview, referring to Delfina Delettrez Fendi, who also serves as creative director of jewellery at the house. Once again, he dedicated the collection to her wardrobe. And as his models arrived through the illuminated tunnel – to the opening theme from Twin Peaks – they felt like his Roman sci-fi goddesses.
Kim Jones dedicated the collection to Delfina Delettrez Fendi
Photo: Getty
Jones described Delettrez’s look as a combination between chicness and perversity, a pairing he expressed in twisted classics – literally and figuratively – like knitwear, blazers and pleated skirts. If they had a certain sex appeal, it was amplified by plenty of strict leather pieces, from little dresses to lace-up boots and kilts. “It’s looking at little twisted things that are kind of perverse,” Jones said, gesturing at a trouser with a buckle strapped across its crotch. Asked how he practically approaches the adaptation of the heiress’s clothes, Jones said a visit to her private wardrobe is on the agenda. But so far, “She comes in with stuff, I just steal it.”
The collection drew on details from Fendi’s haute couture
Photo: Getty
Jones imbued his collection with elements from his haute couture: an everyday mac lined in not-so-everyday sequins, or shirting morphed with lace camisoles that nodded to his January show. “It’s really clear Fendi codes and that’s what it’s about. It’s capturing that elegant, chic, sophisticated Fendi woman,” he said. “I’m thinking about the future and looking at the things that work for us, which are tailoring, knitwear and dresses. It’s taking all those elements and putting them into a collection.” Sometimes he code-switched those components, like in dresses constructed in very light tailoring fabrics that contributed to an overall sartorial atmosphere throughout the collection.

Jones took inspiration from a 1996 Karl Lagerfeld dress

Photo: Getty

In May, the Metropolitan Museum in New York will unveil its Karl Lagerfeld spectacular. But while Jones is involved in proceedings, he said his approach to Fendi is becoming more and more family-focused: “The next three collections, there’s not really any Karl in them. It’s there but it’s ever-present. You have to think about the Fendi family. They are the people who really count in the end.” This time, only one archival Lagerfeld dress inspired the collection: a knitted column dress from 1996 with a single stripe down the side. “I thought it was nice to have that line,” Jones explained.
There were two new bags
Photo: Getty
The collection introduced two new bags designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi: a multipurpose bag named, well, Multi, and the handbag C’Mon. “I think what is really nice is the movement of the bag, that it can be two things in one. That duality is very Fendi, as is the idea of something which appears simple but, in reality, is very complex,” she said of the former. As for the latter: “The idea was to create pieces that were very pure in order to match the sophistication of the collection.”

Alberta Ferretti’s autumn/winter 2023 collection introduced a cleaner, more modern and less romantic version of the Ferretti woman, says Anders Christian Madsen at Milan Fashion Week. Below, five things to know about the collection.

The collection was a new look for Alberta Ferretti
Photo: Getty

Mona Tougaard opened the Alberta Ferretti show in a floor-length tailored grey bustier dress styled with sheer black opera gloves. She was dressed to the nines yet entirely stripped down: no fuss, no embellishment, just glamour – in its purest form. The look heralded a collection that introduced a cleaner, more modern and less romantic version of the Ferretti woman, which didn’t just suit her but snapped her into a mentality that felt ever so 2023.
It came with a change of show venue

“The silhouette is more modern: clean, long and closer to the body. It’s simple but the detail is very special. There’s more tailoring. It’s very sartorial,” Ferretti said backstage before the show. It unfolded in considered surroundings: a nondescript conference centre some 20 minutes by car from Milan’s city centre, which felt very un-Ferretti but also like a blank canvas; a fresh page for a new start, complete with a seductive electro soundtrack with a sultry voice.
It was just as intricate as before
Photo: Getty
Maintained in an elongated silhouette, Ferretti’s updated take on her own creative genetics manifested in sumptuous but consistently restrained textures – shearling, velvet, various forms of appliqué – that looked simpler than they have in the past, but demanded the same levels of savoir-faire synonymous with her brand. “This is not print,” she said, pointing at a cloudy red dress. “This is all applicated velvet embroidery on chiffon.”
It was all about texture
Photo: Getty
The purified colour palette that defined the show – dark greys, scarlet, black and silver – allowed Ferretti to really amplify her textures. She did so in metallics clashed with velvet, in felt confronted with pattern, and rich textures like soft and sculptural shearling, intricate lace, and tonal black embroideries that embellished jackets in opulent beads and paillettes without ever entering over-the-top territory.
Ferretti said it was about focus
Photo: Getty
“It’s super important at this particular moment to have a very precise image and message,” Ferretti said, asked what had brought on her change in direction. “You can’t be vague. With images appearing everywhere around us, I have to be very concentrated on communicating who I am – my DNA – through a very sharp silhouette.” It made for a wardrobe that transcended age groups, and a collection that imprinted itself on your retina.
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Milan Fashion Week came back strong after two years in the deep due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Making bold choices, participating designers played with the fall and winter season colors of black, brown, white, beige, blue, and silver/grey, creating an almost dark/light academia aesthetic. Standing out were Roberto Cavalli’s striking leopard patterns with draping suit jackets and majestic cape dresses, while Dolce & Gabbana made statements with headscarves paired with demure silhouettes in monochrome palettes. Versace embraced a similar mood, but with form-fitting shapes, and Jil Sander took on a more formal approach and offered a modest suit in yellow and a grey dress paired with white leather gloves.
Below, check out the 35 best modest looks spotted on the runways of Milan Fashion Week.
Dolce & Gabbana. Photo: Courtesy of Fillippo Fior
Gucci. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Roberto Cavalli. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Max Mara. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Roberto Cavalli. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Alberta Ferretti. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Max Mara. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Roberto Cavalli. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Prada. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Alberta Ferretti. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Loro Piana. Photo: Courtesy of Loro Piana
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Dolce & Gabbana. Photo: Courtesy of Fillipo Fior
Moschino. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Emporio Armani. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Max Mara. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Dolce & Gabbana. Photo: Courtesy of Fillippo Fior
Fendi. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Giorgio Armani. Photo: Courtesy of Fillippo Fior
Bottega Veneta. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Fendi. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Etro. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Jil Sander. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Gucci. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Prada. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Jil Sander. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Versace. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Gucci. Photo: Courtesy of GoRunway
Bottega. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Emporio Armani. Photo: Courtesy of Alessandro Lucioni
Giorgio Armani. Photo: Courtesy of Fillippo Fior
Read Next: The 27 Best Modest Looks from London Fashion Week Fall 2022 Ready-to-Wear

Gender-defying looks, a suitably retro soundtrack, and an Adidas collab: fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen brings you five things to know about autumn/winter 2022’s “Exquisite” Gucci show.

The show was intentionally heavy on menswear

After announcing his break with seasonality during the pandemic, Alessandro Michele brought the Gucci show back to the Milan schedule this season. But that didn’t mean a return to following the rules. In the middle of a fashion week devoted to womenswear, guests in the brand’s headquarters in Via Mecenate were shown a collection nearly fully composed of men’s looks. Those labels, of course, are entirely redundant when it comes to Gucci. “I thought it would be interesting, especially now that we’re so open to dialogues. I like to do things in a different way. It’s funny and spontaneous,” Michele said after the show. “Seven years ago, I came here with a men’s collection, and the reaction was that I had ‘invented’ gender fluidity,” he continued, referring to the first collection he headed up for Gucci. “I wanted to give a specific image of masculinity. My vision is broad. Men have opened the dialogue with the feminine world, but women also like men’s suits, and vice versa.” A very big part of Michele’s legacy at Gucci is gender-oriented, but as he demonstrated this season, his cause isn’t necessarily to make things ‘unisex’, but simply to wipe out any conventions surrounding the clothes women, and particularly men, can and can’t wear.
It was an ode to Michele’s defiance of gender codes

Michele covered his runway room in distorting mirrors as an illustration of how the clothes we put on our bodies can transform the way we see ourselves, physically and psychologically. “I use codes that are reflected in my own mirror. They help me to see how clothes can be corrupted. I shrink them, I expand them, I stretch them, and they become conveyers of messages about what we want to be in the world,” he explained. He opened the show doing just that, dressing a female model in heels and a traditionally masculine suit, allowing its magnified volume to drape around the body and effectively alter her physical appearance. Nearly every look that followed echoed that practice, shape-shiftingly broadening shoulders, nipping in waists, and elongating or cropping trousers. Throughout, the tailored suit remained an erogenous zone for transformation. “When I was a child I was really impressed by men’s suits. The first model was wearing a masculine suit… She could have been a working woman in the ’80s when I was growing up.” Perhaps more than ever, Michele’s collection was founded in his own formative years.
It featured a collaboration with Adidas

The collection featured a collaboration with Adidas, whose influence on especially European sportswear in the 1970s and ’80s would have been an unavoidable element in Michele’s formative tapestry. “Adidas introduced elegance in sportswear. I was thinking about men’s suits and tracksuits and sportswear, and tried to interpret it my way. The result might seem easy but the idea is really powerful,” he said. That was no exaggeration. While mixing sartorial and sporty codes – such as the tailored tracksuit hybrids and sporty evening gowns on Michele’s runway – isn’t revolutionary in contemporary fashion, the European roots of Adidas made these looks different to the American elements of sportswear we usually see in fashion. Side-by-side with his oversized chequerboard and stripy lurex suits, opulent jacquard coats, and all those logos and checks, there was undeniably a classic gangster vibe to the way Michele worked his Adidas components. But there was something so retro-Euro-’80s about these concoctions, which nailed the naivety with which our continent adapted these American influences in the ’80s, using our own brands.
It continued Michele’s fling with retro remakes

“What you have seen is just an experiment, a never-ending process,” Michele said of his Adidas proposals. “The idea was to break some codes through the sportswear. l looked at a picture of Madonna from ’83 where she was wearing an Adidas dress that had never been produced by them, but by a curator. This is now very normal – fashion has left the atelier – but looking at this picture, I was thinking about the kaleidoscope of things you see in the street.” The idea of the ready-made has long been present in the work of Michele, who already partnered with Dapper Dan, the Harlem designer who originally created a lot of the ‘curated’ logo pieces that appeared in the ’80s in the vein of Madonna’s Adidas dress. Like Virgil Abloh’s collaboration on Nike’s Air Force 1 trainers for Louis Vuitton last year, putting these brands on a luxury runway is a way for high fashion to recognise the deep-rooted influence of the communities and subcultures who pioneered the so-called “streetwear” everybody wears today. It’s important these things don’t just end up in a marketing machine, just like the idea of ‘gender-fluidity’. “This is what I am. It’s not a marketing operation,” Michele concurred, on the topic of the latter.
Accessories mixed the Adidas and Gucci logos

In the wealth of impressions that hit Michele’s runway – lit with clubby strobe lights and scored with a nostalgic but epic soundtrack including “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat and “Fade to Grey” by Visage – some pretty epic accessories materialised, too. Large shopping bags with bamboo handles were covered in spikes, studs or Adidas stripes that echoed Gucci’s own. Laced riding boots with big gold buttons down the side proposed a genderless trope. And hats emblazoned with the Adidas iconography – from baseball caps to swimming caps and berets – topped off almost every look, cementing the ‘80s sensibility that permeated the show.
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Photo: Instagram.com
The current climate around the world is a sombre one, due to the latest updates coming our way via Ukraine, which is now in the midst of a crisis. However, the week did begin on a celebratory note thanks to Milan Fashion Week, which has already given us more than a handful of strong sartorial moments.
Among the front row regulars this week was Kim Kardashian, who finally took a break from her back-to-back Balenciaga bodysuits for a rich caramel-hued boiler suit. The entrepreneur then made her way to Prada’s showcase dressed in shades of pistachio green and soft grey, where she was joined by none other than Vogue Arabia’s February 2022 cover star, Rita Ora.

Of course, no fashion week is complete without some Arab representation, and this time, our It Girls brought their A-Game to the streets of Milan. While Karen Wazen—the first Arab woman to feature in a Roberto Cavalli campaign—attended the Italian fashion house’s show in a striking yellow and black tiger print blazer (paired with matching leopard print heels, no less), Tunisian model Rym Saidi took over Instagram feeds in her risqué Fendi ensemble, which comprised of a white bikini top, ivory trousers and cosy coat, all paired with the brand’s logo handbag.

And then there were the big runway moments. After opening for Fendi, model Bella Hadid was joined by sister Gigi Hadid at the Moschino show, which celebrated outlandish, whimsical pieces. In case you missed this week’s coolest fashion moments, catch up below.

Photo: Instagram.com
Gigi Hadid has had a busy start to Milan Fashion Week, beginning the day on the Alpine-themed Max Mara runway and ending it at one of the most bonkers Moschino shows to date. Closing Jeremy Scott’s extravaganza, the model wore a dramatic gold gown with a sweeping tulle train, which was paired with matching gloves featuring gold leaves wrapped around the arms.

With Gigi stopping to pose with her arms aloft, the show harked back to the fun fashion spectacles from the ’80s and ’90s – which was appropriate for a flamboyant collection that saw models going down the catwalk in candlestick headpieces and harpsichord dresses.
Gigi’s sister Bella also walked the show, wearing a keyhole dress featuring gold baroque detailing, followed by a sultry floor-length number. The sisters were later seen posing backstage with Scott, who himself donned a red space suit (a replica of David Bowman’s in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey that gave an insight into the creative director’s incredible mind).

With both Gigi and Bella in Milan, expect the Hadid sisters to continue dominating the catwalks this season – though the theatrics of this Moschino show will be hard to beat.
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Prada’s autumn/winter 2022 collection was a redefining moment for the Italian fashion house. Below, fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen rounds up five things you need to know.
The collection was founded in classic wardrobe pieces

With Kim Kardashian in the audience and Kendall Jenner on the runway, this season’s Prada show was something of a redefining moment for the Prada woman. “This collection is about the history of women, the history of people, not the history of fashion. I have always said this, but now it feels significant to be re-stated”, Miuccia Prada said. “Using these pieces – being inspired by history – connects with the lives of the past. You want to live again, to be inspired. And to learn from the lives of people.” She was referring to the classic wardrobe pieces that characterised the collection: the white vest, the sweatshirt, the bomber jacket, the aviator jacket, the leather jacket, the little black dress and so on, nearly all of them founded in function before becoming a tool for fashion. “Tradition is about humanity: connections between people, passing down knowledge; a human history. These ideas interested us – to look at how and why things had been created in certain ways”, she continued. “But there is only a trace, a memory. It’s not retro, at all.”
It referenced the Prada archives

Identifying the outerwear tropes of the workwear and military wardrobes, Prada and co-creative director Raf Simons played with their genre language, magnifying volumes and adding surface decoration to garments that haven’t historically called for it. They embellished pilot jackets with kitschy, chunky sequins in floral patterns, and adorned coats lifted from the heritage gentlemen’s wardrobe with extra-fake-looking faux fur in saccharine colors. “In taking from the past we translate the beauty, [the] quality of tradition; even of couture. This is always something Prada has done”, Simons explained, alluding to the archival spirit that filled the show. “Valuing history includes us valuing Prada’s history. I think of revolutionary moments in Prada’s history, and we echo them here. There are never direct recreations, but there is a reflection of something you know: a language of Prada. And those moments have helped define our idea of beauty today, which we are now redefining.”
Prada signaled a new openness

With a cast that included everyone from Erin O’Connor and Arizona Muse to Hunter Schafer and new faces, Prada and Simons staged through characters the time-spanning dialogue they wanted to convey through their designs. But it was the appearance of the Kardashian-Jenners – a new addition to Prada’s brand values (although Jenner has walked Miu Miu before and Kardashian has been photographed in Prada) – that really spoke to the redefinition taking place in the intellectual halls of Prada. By including stars known from reality TV and social media on its cast and guest lists, Prada was signaling a wider embrace, which was echoed in the straight-forwardness of the collection. Formidable as they were, these were statement clothes most would be able to understand: enlarged ideas of familiar garments decorated with fun, frilly embellishments that wouldn’t just turn heads, but jump through a social media screen, too.
It was a simplified Prada

If there’s a simplification process going on at Prada, it’s what Simons referred to as an ongoing stripping-down process. “There is an important aspect to me, which is the idea of stripping down. The process of reduction, of focusing – something we have explored from our first collection together – is present again”, he said. “Any narrative has been stripped away, but the pieces themselves have a paradoxical complexity: an internal, personal narrative. Architecture redefines the relationship between a woman and her clothes through something intimate; hidden. And traditional decoration is used in non-traditional forms, to challenge or contradict the visual conventions of pieces. It is never obvious.” Translated for a new, younger Prada customer, the message was this: wardrobe classics, updated; familiar but new; complex-seeming but quite easy to wear.
Accessories included triangle bags and silver boots

Speaking of appealing to the social media generation, Prada and Simons concocted a number of photogenic accessories to whet the appetites of a merch-manic audience. Next to the alien hairdos – a futuristic version of a mid-century up-do – the designers layered their collection with sculptural Santiago-heeled occasion shoes, some rather subversive fade-leather handbags, triangle-shaped and triangle-print evening bags, and knee-high silver boots. But the defining detail may have been the beaded silver chain that closed around the neck of black dresses, attached to a big Prada triangle.
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Bella Hadid at Fendi
The collection referenced Fendi’s SS00 collection
 Since joining Fendi a year ago, Kim Jones has been exploring the codes of Fendi and what they could mean to a new generation of shoppers. Because this house was built around fur and handbags, that’s no easy task. While everybody knows the Fendi logo designed by Karl Lagerfeld, “the Fendi look” is perhaps more elusive. “I’m still working them out, but I’m looking at points in time which are relevant for now,” he said backstage, referring to those codes. “Particularly, the spring/summer 2000 show was something I really always looked at, even when I was at college.” That collection epitomized what Lagerfeld, with typical loaded elegance, would refer to as “the unbearable lightness of being”: lightweight, diaphanous, buoyant garments, which he’d sometimes layer to create filtrage effects that looked like modern art.
It also referenced Fendi’s SS86 collection

Jones fused his memories of SS00 with reinterpretations of the prints Lagerfeld used in his spring/summer 1986 collection for Fendi, an ode to the geometric language of the Memphis movement. “I’m not a fan of nostalgia, but when something is really good and it feels right to look at, I do it. I’ve been looking at lots of the codes of the house, and, you know, he was there for 54 years so it’s hard to ignore,” Jones said, referring to Lagerfeld. The fusion between the two memories made for a Fendi collection that sometimes evoked the late designer’s spirit, but through a lens adjusted to the sexier, more sensual, more erotic female image that currently surrounds us on social media.
It was soft vs hard

“There’s something quite lingerie about Fendi,” Jones said, referring to the transparent slip dresses, bustiers, and pyjama-like shirts and trousers that embodied the soft side of the collection. In contrast, tailoring – also informed by the SS86 collection – was sharp, tight, and layered with tonal panels that had an industrial quality to them. That sensibility was heightened by the tunnel-like concrete runway Jones had erected within Fendi’s in-house show space, adding a certain chilliness to looks otherwise often tactile in spirit. “Concrete and chiffon and how that can be put together. Women are hard and soft,” Jones pointed out.
Delfina Delettrez inspired the Memphis idea

At Fendi, Jones’s methodology is family-focused. Working side-by-side with Silvia Venturini Fendi and her daughter Delfina Delettrez, he observes the way the Fendi women dress, shop and borrow from one another. It was, in fact, Delettrez who inspired the re-introduction of the Memphis collection. “Delfina came in, in one of the Memphis blouses, and I loved it so much that I took it off her back and put it on the research rail. That was how that started,” he said, referring to a print blouse Delettrez had nicked from her mother’s wardrobe. Both women are excellent muses – Venturini’s handsome, tailored elegance could definitely play inspiration to a future Fendi collection as depicted by Jones.
There were more bags than ever

Any collection that seeks to explore and define the codes of Fendi would have to be bag-centric. Jones and Venturini – the brand’s head of accessories – went all out, embellishing almost every look with a bag, and sometimes several, like the miniature bags attached to the clothes. New bags included additions to Fendi’s Hand-in-Hand project, which commissions artisans from around Italy to interpret the Baguette, as well as three Baguette revivals: one in cashmere, one in shearling-lined leather, and one in intarsia mink. “That was the thing for me when I first came to Fendi: I knew the handbags much better than the clothes,” Jones said. “Silvia does an amazing job, and I like to celebrate that because I love Silvia.”
Originally published in Vogue.co.uk

Karen Wazen. Photo: Instagram.com/karenwazen
It’s that time of the year again, when the streets of the Big Four are taken over by the Arab world’s It girls, all dressed to the nines. As fashion week kicked off in Milan, Rym Saidi, Karen Wazen, Deema Al Asadi, and more were spotted dashing between shows in inspiring looks.
For the Fendi show on Day 1, Wazen opted for a modest monochrome outfit from the Italian fashion house in a fresh pastel pink shade. The three-piece satin ensemble featured a lapel collar shirt cinched at the waist with a double-F belt, topped with a collarless cropped blazer and wide-legged pants. Adding a bit of logomania to her look, the Lebanese entrepreneur styled the separates with gold O’lock earrings, and a pink Fendigraphy bag with the brand name spelled out in big gold letters at its base.
The arm candy was also worn by Saidi, who attended the show in a monochrome look as well. In contrast to Karen Wazen, however, the Tunisian model chose to make statement outerwear the hero of her outfit, and wore a long white shearling coat with black detailing on top of a white bralette and matching loose-fitted trousers. Saidi wore her hair parted down the middle and slicked back in a braid to let her disc-shaped O’lock earrings stand out. Joining her at the show was also Deema Al Asadi, who walked in wearing a patterned black and white dress, thigh-high black boots, and the very same statement Fendi bag, this time in black.
Other shows at Milan Fashion Week that saw a host of Arab’s best dressed in attendance were Alberta Ferretti and Roberto Cavalli. At the former’s showcase, Miryam Labiad had a sultry moment in body-hugging black separates that came with edgy cut-outs, while Alice Abdelaziz proved that head-to-toe animal print is always a good idea, making an appearance in luxe snakeskin-print separates. Abla Sofy seemed to have the same idea in mind while checking out the latest Cavalli collection, and topped off her grey patterned dress with a matching handbag and a cool graphic eye makeup look. And then there was Diala Makki, who made a strong case for the Little White Dress, a winner no matter what the occasion.
Take a look at all the noteworthy outfits worn by the region’s It girls in Milan below.
Rym Saidi in Fendi. Photo: Instagram/@rymsaidi
Karen Wazen in Fendi. Photo: Instagram.com/karenwazen
Deema Al Asadi in Fendi. Photo: Instagram.com/deemalasadi
Maram Zbaeda Maalouf. Photo: Instagram.com/maram.zbaeda
Miryam Labiad in Alberta Ferretti. Photo: Instagram.com/mimialeblanc
Diala Makki in Roberto Cavalli. Photo: Instagram.com/dialamakki
Alice Abdelaziz in Alberta Ferretti. Photo: Instagram.com/aliceabdelaziz
Abla Sofy. Photo: Instagram.com
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