Looking Back at Milan Fashion Week 2018. True to the roots with a touch of all things futuristic and innovative in Milan Fashion Week.
This year’s fashion week has come to a close. We have seen many shows appease our eyes, our taste and give us a new fresh outlook of what the year may look like. Although some of the collections may have taken the easy route, most have shown a modern twist and influence from what is usually expected. Milan Fashion Week was a myriad of new fluorescent and futuristic influences with exaggerated proportions, neon lights and baby dragons, asymmetry and patterns. There was much to experience and be immersed in throughout the shows that took place a few weeks ago and pinpointing some highlights and lessons is a great start to discover where the industry will take off to this year.
Gucci’s Runway Set Design via new.milktw.com
Unlike the previous fashion weeks that were vocal with the #MeToo movement and advocating social causes embedded in the runway show, Milan was more than needing to engage in political and social issues through the clothes. The collections unveiled in Milan were packed with the Italian pride, maintaining a lengthy passed-down of fashion traditions but it was also a window of many opportunities for innovation and new features. There were some 80s and 70s influences enhanced immensely through their shows. The long and oversized coats, the preppy skirts and pencil silhouettes along with shades of ocher, umber and grey dominated some of the runways including Fendi, Versace, and Roberto Cavalli. Hints of prints, floral and shimmers were also seen throughout some runway shows during Milan Fashion Week, evident of bringing up much of the contrasting Italian silhouettes and the intensity of the newness the shows manage to marry together.
Other than the ever innovation and take on new fashion forward concepts, other innovations include Dolce & Gabbana’s all drone models to replace the millennial models that most labels are taking. This was much of the grounded revolutions and appropriate way of utilizing technological advancement into fashion. Gucci has also presented an interesting showcase of an unnerving and eerie hospital scene combined with the creation of the Gucci aesthetics or known as the Gucci cyborgs of small dragons and model head replicas.
Exaggerative proportions were all that there were in the runway shows. That there was more, more and more offered with most of the collections. It was massive, grand yet authentic as designers took their Fall Winter 2018 collection to the next level with all their might. Exaggerated proportions were not only evident in the silhouettes but we saw colors, materials, silhouettes and embellishments complementing the designs and the concepts. Clashes of patterns of floral, geometry and asymmetrical silhouettes came off across as celebratory but quirky in its own ways. The many neon and fluorescent-influenced patterns made much of a difference from one collection to the other. And how Marni, Gucci and Prada conceptualized their runway shows were a feast for the eyes. For most part, there were many hits and misses with such concept and how well they laid out the collection, is one to ask to those with the taste and acceptance.
Other notable highlights of the fashion week were Moncler with its mega capsule collection made for buyers and consumers across generation. The Genius project was introduced in Milan Fashion Week and Moncler’s effort to tackle the challenges of the meeting consumer’s demands the label launched their one-off capsule collection that will be revealed periodically throughout this year. Eight different designers and art enthusiasts are among them chosen ones to create the collection and these include renowned Simone Rocha, Grenoble and Pierpaolo Piccioli to name a few. This effort was also part of addressing the shifting of buying patterns between the older and younger generations. The rise of social media, digital as well as street wear concepts of ‘drop’ is part of the mindset embedded among the younger ones, which is why Moncler has decided to tap onto the market strategically. This is a great shift in turning the fashion industry much more relevant for the younger ones but not losing touch of its past and genuineness in terms of character and silhouettes.
An overall eye-opening and new concept from Milan Fashion Week was one we could cherish and learn. Not to mention, there were more inclusivity for the most part, where colored models walked more on the runways. Anok Yai became the second black woman to open a Prada show, the first being Naomi Campbell in 1997. It was monumental and note-worthy to see more people take part in fashion week so we do hope to see more of these collaborations, more new approaches taking place this year with whatever we have seen throughout Milan Fashion Week.