Six things you need to know about Milan Fashion Week SS23

Of all the world’s fashion capitals, Milan is renowned as being the one most steeped in sartorial tradition. Where London owns wild creativity and Paris sits at the bleeding edge of Gallic chic, Milan is the home of storied fashion monoliths like Giorgio Armani, Gucci and Prada. It’s a place where creativity thrives, so long as it plays by the rules. For the SS23 season of shows, however, there was a renewed energy on the city’s runways. Here, we reveal the key things to know. 

1. Bottega Veneta returned to elegance

Nascent creative director Matthieu Blazy showed his second collection for Veneto-based fashion house Bottega Veneta over the weekend, and it lived up to the brand’s recently reinstated insignia ‘when your own initials are enough’. Easy-wearing pieces like plaid shirts, blue jeans and roomy rugby tops were elevated by way of the label’s exemplary fabrication processes, while feathered skirts injected proceedings with dressy elegance. The things to buy? A pair of the banana-heeled, sky-high court pumps, ideally worn with one of Blazy’s razor-sharp suits.

2. The Brits came (and conquered)

Bat sh*t and brilliant British designer Matty Bovan showed a playful and eccentric collection, his first time on the Milan Fashion Week calendar, while beloved British designer Maximillian Davis mounted his debut collection for Ferragamo (the Florentine label has dropped the ‘Salvatore’ under 26-year-old Davis’s exacting aegis). Davis’s first outing didn’t disappoint, either; syrupy tailoring cut from silk rubbed hems with teeny-tiny leather shorts. Whether Ferragamo’s slightly older-angled customer base will appreciate the more outre items remains to be seen, but that’s not really the point. Davis has brought the buzz back to the brand, which is precisely why they’ve hired him. 

3. Kim K collaborated with Dolce

Dolce & Gabbana demonstrated its continued heavyweight status in the city of Milan by teaming up with the most famous woman in the world for its SS23 collection. Titled ‘Ciao Kim’, the capsule was a paean to sexed-up Italian luxury, featuring figure-hugging gowns galore, cut from beaded lace and leopard-print silk. Like it or loathe it, one thing you can be certain of is that it’ll sell. 

4. Kim Jones proved his womenswear chops

Over the course of his career, British designer Kim Jones has proved himself as one of the most commercially successful menswear designers of his generation. His work at Dior flies off the shelves, and at Louis Vuitton – his former alma mater – it did the same. Jones’s womenswear has had a slightly slower start, but his SS23 womenswear collection for Fendi showed that he’s more than capable of designing beautiful clothes for all genders. Elegance came in the form of asymmetric silk gowns and leather trench coats tied with obi belts, while commerciality came in the form of chunky flatform boots and fur tote bags. The overall picture? Refined in the extreme. Lagerfeld would be proud. 

5. Twins were the thing

Perhaps he was influenced by the recent spate of so-called ‘twinfluencers’ turning up at fashion shows wearing matching outfits, or maybe he’s spent too much time watching The Shining. Either way, for his SS23 show (which had a distinctly Vanilla Ice-tinged 1980s flavour – all cropped jackets and voluminous leather harem pants) creative director Alessandro Michele sent all of his looks out on the backs of twins. Quite where he found so many beautiful identical siblings to wear the collection’s 68 looks is one question, but really the show proved something we’ve known for some time – one Gucci outfit is never enough, you always need two.

6. Swiss luxe gets sexy

Under the aegis of bleeding edge designer Rhuigi Villaseñor (of Rhude), old school Swiss luxury brand Bally was given a welcome dose of new school sex. Metallic leather skirt suits, yolk yellow mackintoshes and kinky little snakeskin boots all added to the elegant yet edgy mood. One of the most exciting collections shown in Milan for the past few seasons? We’d bet our last Toblerone on it.

Click here for all the images from our Cities Without Houses Milan Fashion Week dinner at Dimore Centrale