Milan Fashion Week highlights: All-white looks, casual grandeur and more

The fashion palate cleanser of the season: white. Milan fashion houses, more often than not this season, are opening their runway preview shows for next spring and summer with all-white looks. Tod’s put the emphasis on white with tables of artisans constructing white driving shoes inside the showroom, and followed by opening the show with a crisp white look, as did a host of other fashion houses this week, including Moschino, Alberta Ferretti, Del Core and Cavalli.
The fashion crowd arriving at the highly anticipated Gucci show passed through a white tunnel that burst into the colors of a sunset along the length of the runway. Highlights from mostly womenswear previews for next spring and summer on the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week on Friday:
Sabato De Sarno starts a new fashion cycle a year after debuting his first Gucci collection, focusing on some of his self-described obsessions: tailoring, lingerie, leather and a 1960s silhouette. In its simplest form, a white tank with Gucci-stripe piping was paired with dark trousers with a hemline slit over sneakers, referencing menswear. In its most elaborate, Gucci-monogram overcoats dragged imperially on the runway, and lingerie peeked out of glossy, textured leather.
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A blouse slinked insouciantly off the shoulder. Sequined dresses rustled. Crepe dresses were anchored with bamboo-shaped hardware. Mini-skirts bubbled slightly. Floral headscarves or big sunhats finished the looks. De Sarno dubbed the collection “casual grandeur.” “Moment after moment, I have built my ideas for Gucci,” he said in notes. ”A casual grandeur that takes shape through my obsessions … and always with an irreverent attitude.”
Gucci’s front-row glistened with Jessica Chastain, Kirsten Dunst, Nicola Coughlan — who stopped to take a selfie with fans — and Italy’s own tennis hero, Jannick Sinner, a Gucci ambassador. A crowd of K-pop fans chanted in anticipation of the arrival of Jin from BTS, another brand ambassador.
The opening movement of Beethoven’s Fifth signaled the start of the Versace runway show inside a courtyard of the medieval Sforza Castle. But as soon as the models hit the runway, the tempo shifted to contemporary house music as a drone recorded the scene from overhead.
The Spring-Summer 2025 collection was conservative by Donatella Versace standards, looks for good girls mixing and matching satiny pencil skirts, polos and demure cardigans, easily tied together by a car coat. The silhouette and the mod hairstyles suggested an inspiraiton at the cusp of the 1960s and 1970s.
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The most daring ensembles comprised short-shorts with tights and platform heels, or a chiffony dress left open from the belly button to reveal a pair of wavy-patterned panties. Gigi Hadid modeled an off-shoulder floral midi dress, that was pretty without being in any way provocative. A metallic-finish dress with a plunging cowl projected the most sensuality.
The menswear was very much a companion to the women’s looks: the same wavy knits in a trio of colors, and satiny floral prints as shirts or pajama suiting. That is, many pieces to mix and match, light on the attitude.
In a world abuzz over artificial intelligence, Tod’s highlighted artisanal intelligence. Dozens of craftspeople flanked the showroom, hand-stitching the brand’s trademark Gommino driving shoe. Models emerged from beneath a pair of sculptor Lorenzo Quinn’s oversized white hands, grasping a spiral of leather. “Artisanal intelligence goes against what everyone is talking about,’’ creative director Matteo Tamburini said before the show. “The focus is on a very elevated product, which is the cornerstone of Made in Italy.”
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The Spring-Summer 2025 collection started with crisp cotton pairings: trousers or skirts with oversized shirts. The looks were reproduced in a soft leather, intentionally fluid for the warmer months, while a leather overcoat was more sturdily vintage. Asymmetrical cuts and wraps gave the collection a touch of casual elegance. Looks were finished with barely there criss-cross sandals, the new Gommino in glove leather or a clog version. Tamburini said the only thing he uses AI for is to craft talking points for journalists. “I am not a writer,’’ he said, laughing.
The Sunnei fashion brand marked its 10th anniversary questioning the very notion of “growing up,” and casting aspersions on the idea of “maturing.” With a dose of irony and fob for diversity, brand founders Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina, both in their mid-30s, cast only older models, mostly graying, and most probably falling into a demographic of over 65s that the show notes say make up a quarter of Milan’s population.
The pace of the show, spanning two floors, was kept slow, which the notes suggested was due to the stairs, but could also have been in consideration of the colorful platform flip-flops the brand has created in collaboration with Camper. In any case, the collection retained the brand’s winning, youthful jubilance, depicted in oversized garb like billowing bubble tops gathered at the waist, a striped T-shirt so big it became a tunic, and a blouse that tented over an A-line pleated leather skirt.
The trouser of the season for men and women gathered at the ankle with fanning pleats. A more simply tailored pant has a built-in apron, over which to layer a utility belt full of zippered pockets. The designers candidly acknowledged an Artificial Intelligence fail, falling back on the human design team for the collection’s prints of six faces that appeared on dresses and tops, and which were available for purchase immediately after the show on Sunnei’s website. Backstage, brand founders Rizzo and Messina celebrated their team with hugs, tears and shouts of, “Bravissimi!”