Up until now, grand gestures have been the norm at this season’s fashion week in Milan. From Prada’s multimedia extravaganza to Alessandro Michele’s Nabokov inspired show and Moschino’s models-as-paper dolls collection, there has been a tendency to add exclamation marks and air quotes to the garments.
But if this bells, whistles and kitchen sink approach has dominated, two designers have gone against the grain. Bottega Veneta shied away , taking it back to the moodboard to create a show with a simple message: it’s just about the clothes.
Discreet nods to current styles such as short-cropped high-waisted trousers, boilersuits and slashed crop-tops intermingled with elegant classics like the trench coat, shirt dress and leather jacket. As one might expect from a label renowned for their high-end bags, leather featured heavily in the collection; most eye-catchingly in the form of a shocking pink Audrey Hepburn-style dress.
The fact that the label is celebrating their 50th anniversary gave the mixed, all ages show (Karen Elson and Eva Herzigova walked the catwalk) a narrative grandeur, while the setting, the church-like Accademia di Brera fine art school only added to the sense of hushed timelessness.
But it wasn’t until the denouement that the show packed its double whammy emotional punch. The assembled crowd, which included actresses Marisa Tomei and Andie McDowell, gasped adoringly as Gigi Hadid walked arm-in-arm with the visibly frail modelling legend Lauren Hutton who was carrying the revived Intrecciato clutch she famously had in American Gigolo.
Next, creative director Tomas Maier took a bow alongside his misty-eyed team. A standing ovation ensued – unprecedented at fashion shows – and sent a clear message: it’s time to put the focus back on the atelier.
After the show Maier waxed lyrical not about Hutton or Hadid, but about the material and the quality of the clothes. “It’s not in your face,” he said, echoing a line in the show notes, “Bottega Veneta is about the craftspeople.”
At the Jil Sander show, the craft was in the gentle deconstructing of workwear. To a soundtrack of psychosexual tension (snippets of Kim Basinger in 9 1/2 Weeks played, as did The Chauffeur by Duran Duran), the show pivoted around the idea of Women On The Verge of a … Business Meeting.
There was a Gatsby-esque suit with sleeves that dangled below the tips of the fingers, a stiff crepon shirt with half-moon shaped sleeves worn with a business skirt, a deconstructed pinstripe suit with cropped trousers and a V-neck all-in-one, which was delicately held together like a tie that was about to come undone.
Backstage, creative director Rodolfo Paglialunga said he “didn’t want it to be average,”, and it was anything but. Like Maier, he had shifted our attention back towards the clothes.
