Milan So Far: The Spectacle of Dsquared2, 100 Years of Fendi, and Prada’s Critical Show
There’s never that much going on during Milan Fashion Week, apart from Prada, which only became interesting last season, and Bottega Veneta, which isn’t even showing this time. Fendi was ruined by Kim Jones until his recent departure, and Versace, no matter what people say, will never interest me again after it fell under the control of Capri. However, the spectacle at Dsquared2 did grab my attention.
Dsquared2
Dsquared2 is famous for its theatrical shows, which gave the brand enough publicity to be a successful business during the early 2000s. The brand seems to have stopped progressing after that, however, continuing to show lackluster clothes. This season, they invited the recent Grammy winner Doechii to open the show, stepping out from a military armoured truck. To say it was not for publicity would be a blatant lie. As the models began to walk out, it was undoubtedly clear that the clothes had minimal design merit, no matter how famous the models themselves were.
The clothes included a series of military green puffers and jackets, paired with miscellaneous fur items, either as a hat or vest. There were numerous cowboy looks that were uninspiring. A selection of Robert Mapplethorpe-inspired leather ensembles was presented, which, again, were a snooze fest. The stacked cast—Naomi Campbell, Kit Butler, Alton Mason, and Alex Consani—certainly added to the spectacle, but the clothes still felt like a project birthed from the marketing department. Note how Americana is everywhere, whether at Urban Outfitters or Zara.
Fendi
Fendi, for the past four years, was under the tyrannical rule of Kim Jones, apart from menswear, which was designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi, granddaughter of the founder. Kim Jones finally left his seat in October last year. I must say that decision was long overdue, considering not a single show was memorable, nor did they reflect what Fendi is about—luxuriously decadent fur.
For the Fall/Winter 2025 show, Venturini Fendi designed for her family’s brand’s womenswear again, which she had done for a short period after the death of Karl Lagerfeld. Not only was it her first womenswear show in a while, but it was also a celebration of the brand’s centenary. The Fendi she offered was true to the brand’s heritage yet undoubtedly modern.
Her show opened with a high-collared fur coat cinched lightly by a gilded belt. It was luxurious, as expected, but it was also recognizably something a Roman aristocrat would wear. It was the Roman touch I missed during Kim Jones’s time, which I think is something a Roman house cannot live without—just as a Parisian house cannot live without its romantic gestures. Some beautifully tailored coats followed, paired with fur scarves or fur capes. Channel-stitched leather dresses with Tudor-like sleeves were also shown, along with shaved fur coats made to look like velvet. They were all theatrical, bold, but practical.
Note that, as before, Silvia won’t continue to design for the brand; she is merely an interim as LVMH seeks a successor to Kim Jones. A sad development for the brand, since she evidently knows it better than anyone, having worked at Fendi alongside Lagerfeld for decades.
Prada
Prada has been a bit of a letdown ever since Raf Simons joined the house—until last season—and it was only interesting because Miuccia Prada decided, perhaps lazily, to self-reference. Almost every look of that show echoed her previous works, which led to an incoherence that was rare for a Prada show. This fall season, the duo returned with a take on contemporary minimalist obsessions and the female body. It was nice to see a Prada show with a distinctive point of view again after the last one, as Prada is not Prada if it isn’t somehow philosophical.
There were several seemingly minimalistic dresses that, upon closer inspection, were adorned with enlarged comical buttons found on classic swallow-tail tuxedos. It was an attempt to mock the idea of quiet luxury, which has been paraded through almost every house without much thought. Note how the silhouettes of these garments didn’t highlight a commonly recognized sexy shape but were rather voluminous, almost matronly. Prada doesn’t provide sex appeal by dressing models in minimal fabric, nor does she fall into the sexless camp like many quiet luxury brands. She masterfully denotes sexiness in unexpected details, which this time manifested in coats and skirts constructed in thick leather, an opulent operatic gown emboldened by a luscious fur collar, or a slightly bubbled dress that cinched into a bow at the breast. Her idea of sex comes from the imagined lives projected onto her clothes. She makes us do an intellectual exercise to understand her fashion world truly.
Despite an interesting show, I still miss the old Prada before Raf Simons. The great menswear designer added his own vision, which was strong on its own but unharmonious with Prada’s language. You can always see how certain elements of the clothes are Simons’s ideas and how others are Prada’s. They never successfully had a symbiotic design relationship, and I hope Prada explores more potential successors before her retirement.
Featured Image Courtesy Of Prada