Milano Moda Donna: the Made in Italy label is back with a smile on its face for Spring/Summer 2011
…..
There has been much excitement and anticipation in the build up to this year’s Milano Moda Donna, “a revolutionary event on the international fashion scene”, as it was defined by the Italian Fashion Chamber. In fact, after the controversy of recent years, Milan Fashion Week has shone its spotlight on the best of collections for next Spring/Summer 2011 to show the press and the public, ready to start a new discourse of substance and sensibility around the many catwalks, presentations and events that animated an always original Milan with new energy and lifeblood for a whole 7 days.
However, this time the city opened its historical buildings and medieval galleries, revealing treasures unknown to the international public, and even to many Italians who think of Milan just as a business capital. But more than this, even in Milan it is possible to dream around the infinite fashion shows, as usually happens in Paris, the queen-city of glamour.
Fashion is business, but it is also art, history and memory of our country, Ambassador to the world of our lifestyle and our culture, perfectly synthesising Milan’s image as innovative and creative.
So, the catwalks took over the medieval Loggia dei Mercanti, as well as the 16th century Palazzo Clerici and the Circolo Filologico, masterpiece of Liberty style. Of course, there were also the more usual venues of the big fashion houses and spaces organized in gardens and in other historical buildings.
The program that put Milan at the center of the international fashion world’s attention from September 22nd to 28th, was crammed with shows and events, with exactly 78 fashion shows sensibly distributed over the whole week. Gucci opened the event and Giorgio Armani was the grand finale, obliging buyers and international press to stay in Milan for the whole duration of the event.
Numerous well-known brands displayed their creativity and inspiration, as well as many new talents, as always supported by the Chamber of Fashion, to celebrate our coveted Made in Italy label, which seems to be making a recovery after two terrible years, allowing the Italian designers’ genius to regain prestige and creativity, competing favorably with New York, London and Paris to attract and magnetize buyers from all over the world.
The Made in Italy tradition is a long one founded on efficiency and creativity, the two fundamental pillars upon which the fashion industry in our country was born and developed, and sustained by extraordinary designers.
A wind of revival, vintage and heritage blew through the collections for next Spring/Summer 2011, celebrating a return to the origins of chic and elegance, and creating an image of the modern woman that is sophisticated, beautiful and dreaming, because, once again, fashion interprets the mood of the times, aesthetically revealing a very strong need for certainty, as never before.
This year’s Milan Fashion Week gave us the opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of the icon-dress of all international wardrobes, the Little Black Dress, created in 1926 by Coco Chanel (she called it “petite robe noire”) and then repeated by Givenchy in the famous image of Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in 1961. Reflecting feminine power, with its simplicity and extreme wearability, this dress has been interpreted in various way by the majority of designers for the collections of next Spring/Summer 2011, underlining its energy and freshness.
There was plenty of fine craftsmanship on display at Milano Moda Donna for the summer season of 2011. We find it in dresses made of chiffon and organza, when the woman becomes a romantic nymph as conceived by Alberta Ferretti, or in African style in vivid colors such as orange, purple, emerald green and black, for the Masai woman pictured by Gucci.
Legs are always on display, as the epitome of the modern seduction: so there are a lot of shorts, tunics and shirt-dresses.
To give the collections for next Spring/Summer 2011 a sense of light, fabrics are delicate, such as chiffon, organza and lace, contrasting with PVC and other high-tech applications.
However, to launch a new meaning of elegance, the fashion gurus put their money on the accessories, which are treated with a particular emphasis: the numerous collections displayed infinite models of sunglasses, belts and foulards, together with a notable new entry, the stole, made of multicolor fur, soft and light enough to carry even during the warm season. The real focus was concentrated on handbags, from shoulder models – classic or hippy-chic with fringes, like those proposed by Gucci and Roberto Cavalli – to elegant trunks, also made in PVC in the fluoro tonalities like Furla’s, and including limited edition bags such as Maliparni’s showing a combination of canvas and leather.
This is just a small preview of Milano Moda Donna for next Spring/Summer 2011. If you are curious to know more details of the collections of the most famous and world renowned Italian labels, don’t miss our next article!!
