Emporio Armani's show was the first by one of the big names in the week which kicked off on Saturday, with 103 catwalk shows and 137 presentations, where models were static rather than walking in the clothes.The designer had velvets in rich earth browns and blacks, dabbed with shiny patent leather accessories and spangled with glittering evening wear for its womenswear collection for winter 2008-09.
The line, designed by the doyen of Italian fashion Giorgio Armani, echoed his menswear collections for the same season shown in January with its focus on dark colours and variations on velvet.
A rich earth velvet coat with a voluminous skirt stopped above the knee for a shorter version of the New Look shape.
Black velvet jackets, some ending just below the shoulder blades, were teamed with grey wool skirts with the same full shape or with high-waisted, wide-leg trousers in dark tweed.
Armani broke into colour with an inch of shocking pink skirt peeping out from under a black topcoat or as a nod to a shirt under a sombre pinafore. Emerald green and purple also made appearances in a skirt or a neckband.
Patent leather pumps, handbags and belts or a pair of shiny black ankle boots stepped in to give a shine to the show. Silver and black were worked into tight ridges on dresses to look like flowing lava caught in sunlight.
But the designer put the biggest sparkle into his evening wear for the Emporio Armani line, with a variety of above-the-knee skirts and dresses spangled with silver and mirrored mosaic for an updated disco babe look.
For his womenswear collection, Armani took inspiration from gypsies and Japan, wrapping many of his outfits in shawls of velvet or lace and using floral print silks for evening.
The designer continued his passion for velvet this season, using black and chocolate shades for billowing short skirts or high-waist, loose-legged trousers.
A dove-grey velvet was embossed for a swinging cape jacket worn with a grey wool short dress, while a soft, grey fur wrap coat had rainbow-sparkle shoes and bag to brighten it. Feet were elsewhere slipped into pixie-like flat pumps with pointy toes and slingbacks.
Armani, known for his classic black and grey palette, played with colours, letting sky blue lining peep out from a chocolate fur-look cape, or using a band of multicoloured embroidery to jazz up the back of a black tailored jacket.
The designer again used a skirt shape that was full to just above the knee and with enough body to undulate on the move.
Bottega Veneta gave texture to plain black and grey wools with designs inspired by its classic intertwined leatherwork for its winter 2008-09 womenswear show. It stayed away from patterned prints seen at other shows this week and relied on the fabric to lift plain colours.
Designer Tomas Maier whirled black wool into stand-proud spirals to cover a jacket, or used curled up strips of material to decorate the shoulders of a dress.
A raspberry wool felt sheath dress was complemented by high red suede shoes and matching tights. A green version had matching leather gloves, suede shoes and woven belt.
Exaggerated epaulettes topped an iron-grey tailored jacket and trousers. Wide sleeves on a simple wool dress placed it somewhere between artist's smock and school pinafore.
Maier, whose designs often feature streamlined looks and soft materials, used ultrafine wool weaves for dresses that looked like swathes of material tied up with tiny drawstrings. And satin-look evening gowns had diamond backs that ended in an elegant train.
At Blumarine, designer Anna Molinari warmed up her winter womenswear collection with salmon, pink and turquoise. She swirled pale pink silk into a skirt that looked like a rose and teamed it with a dusky pink Aran knit jumper.
For evening, dresses were made of gathers of chiffon cinched at the waist in flowing grey or leopard print fabrics.
Models in her lingerie line wore negligees in coral silk with lace hem and bodice under fluffy coral long wool wraps.
A turquoise silk slip with spangled side panels was covered with an equally arresting soft shawl coat.
Miuccia Prada's theme was lace, with heavy, Chantilly-style fabrics for a Spanish mantilla mood. The predominant colour was black, worked dramatically in a straight dress over a pale pastel blue tunic or worn with barely nothing at all for a sexy twist to the traditional textile.
Prada spun out of black into startling bright orange for a straight lace skirt, or used gold for a glamorous jacket and skirt. And she lightened the texture for a black chiffon dress banded with net curtain panels.
The idiosyncratic designer's collection was shown in Milan's winter 2008-2009 fashion week but snow and ice had little to do with Prada's outfits. She has been in the forefront of designers moving away from an emphasis on seasonal inspirations.
Her models wore shoes that had wings back and front, or bows to the toes and heels, in bright metallics and black patents. A pair of boots turned out to be leg covers stopping just above the ankle gladiator-style.
Wings cropped up again for the handles of bags, or in undulating panels on dark grey wool dresses.
And she echoed her menswear show from January by taking a twist to tailoring, so that a waistcoat became a flat panel fastened at the back or a waistband was amplified into nearly a skirt. Frida Giannini thinks of her outfits for Gucci as a performance, while Roberto Cavalli says his are like paintings, the designers said on Wednesday.
Giannini, whose show put military overtones on a bohemian, hippy look, said she was inspired by the style of east European emigrees to Paris and Vienna in the 1920s.
Her outfits mixed brass buttons and belts with soft chiffon and velvet, with ample amounts of jewellery and ornament.
Models at the show wore tight black trousers tucked into high leather boots that covered the knee with hipster belts in brass chainlink or studded leather.
A rich, velvet patchwork of burgundy, black and jade was fine pleated into a short skirt that swung very much to a Russian tune.
Evening wear was long and liquid in patterned silk with belts whose tasselled ends were weighted with jewel-encrusted spheres. Flowing necklines were anchored in gold mayoral vees.
Roberto Cavalli, whose unwavering trademark look is a cigar, suntan and dark glasses, said he felt his fashion designs were paintings.
But he took inspiration from the late film actress Natalie Wood for the embroidered loose cotton and chiffon shifts in his womenswear collection. The designer used a full skirt with a hip-length, loose bodice for pale cotton dresses embroidered with pastel country flowers in his homage to the star of the 1961 drama Splendour in the Grass.
He used broderie anglaise for a white full-skirted dress that brought a touch of childhood innocence to the collection, while the same fabric's appearance in a black dress with trailing hems carried a more sombre, mourning mood.
A stunning black satin dress, again with a low waist and wide skirt, was dramatised further by a towering straw trilby hat with wide black band.
The designer kept heels high and could not resist putting some of his signature leopard print on some ankle boots, while others echoed the floral theme of dresses with tiny jewel coloured buds at the heel.
Colour in the clothes came in bands of heavy ethnic embroidery on the hems of jackets and lapels, or in bright satin applique flowers on black evening dresses.
And emerald, azure and pink swirled together in a silk evening dress whose folds clung to the body.
The line, designed by the doyen of Italian fashion Giorgio Armani, echoed his menswear collections for the same season shown in January with its focus on dark colours and variations on velvet.
A rich earth velvet coat with a voluminous skirt stopped above the knee for a shorter version of the New Look shape.
Black velvet jackets, some ending just below the shoulder blades, were teamed with grey wool skirts with the same full shape or with high-waisted, wide-leg trousers in dark tweed.
Armani broke into colour with an inch of shocking pink skirt peeping out from under a black topcoat or as a nod to a shirt under a sombre pinafore. Emerald green and purple also made appearances in a skirt or a neckband.
Patent leather pumps, handbags and belts or a pair of shiny black ankle boots stepped in to give a shine to the show. Silver and black were worked into tight ridges on dresses to look like flowing lava caught in sunlight.
But the designer put the biggest sparkle into his evening wear for the Emporio Armani line, with a variety of above-the-knee skirts and dresses spangled with silver and mirrored mosaic for an updated disco babe look.
For his womenswear collection, Armani took inspiration from gypsies and Japan, wrapping many of his outfits in shawls of velvet or lace and using floral print silks for evening.
The designer continued his passion for velvet this season, using black and chocolate shades for billowing short skirts or high-waist, loose-legged trousers.
A dove-grey velvet was embossed for a swinging cape jacket worn with a grey wool short dress, while a soft, grey fur wrap coat had rainbow-sparkle shoes and bag to brighten it. Feet were elsewhere slipped into pixie-like flat pumps with pointy toes and slingbacks.
Armani, known for his classic black and grey palette, played with colours, letting sky blue lining peep out from a chocolate fur-look cape, or using a band of multicoloured embroidery to jazz up the back of a black tailored jacket.
The designer again used a skirt shape that was full to just above the knee and with enough body to undulate on the move.
Bottega Veneta gave texture to plain black and grey wools with designs inspired by its classic intertwined leatherwork for its winter 2008-09 womenswear show. It stayed away from patterned prints seen at other shows this week and relied on the fabric to lift plain colours.
Designer Tomas Maier whirled black wool into stand-proud spirals to cover a jacket, or used curled up strips of material to decorate the shoulders of a dress.
A raspberry wool felt sheath dress was complemented by high red suede shoes and matching tights. A green version had matching leather gloves, suede shoes and woven belt.
Exaggerated epaulettes topped an iron-grey tailored jacket and trousers. Wide sleeves on a simple wool dress placed it somewhere between artist's smock and school pinafore.
Maier, whose designs often feature streamlined looks and soft materials, used ultrafine wool weaves for dresses that looked like swathes of material tied up with tiny drawstrings. And satin-look evening gowns had diamond backs that ended in an elegant train.
At Blumarine, designer Anna Molinari warmed up her winter womenswear collection with salmon, pink and turquoise. She swirled pale pink silk into a skirt that looked like a rose and teamed it with a dusky pink Aran knit jumper.
For evening, dresses were made of gathers of chiffon cinched at the waist in flowing grey or leopard print fabrics.
Models in her lingerie line wore negligees in coral silk with lace hem and bodice under fluffy coral long wool wraps.
A turquoise silk slip with spangled side panels was covered with an equally arresting soft shawl coat.
Miuccia Prada's theme was lace, with heavy, Chantilly-style fabrics for a Spanish mantilla mood. The predominant colour was black, worked dramatically in a straight dress over a pale pastel blue tunic or worn with barely nothing at all for a sexy twist to the traditional textile.
Prada spun out of black into startling bright orange for a straight lace skirt, or used gold for a glamorous jacket and skirt. And she lightened the texture for a black chiffon dress banded with net curtain panels.
The idiosyncratic designer's collection was shown in Milan's winter 2008-2009 fashion week but snow and ice had little to do with Prada's outfits. She has been in the forefront of designers moving away from an emphasis on seasonal inspirations.
Her models wore shoes that had wings back and front, or bows to the toes and heels, in bright metallics and black patents. A pair of boots turned out to be leg covers stopping just above the ankle gladiator-style.
Wings cropped up again for the handles of bags, or in undulating panels on dark grey wool dresses.
And she echoed her menswear show from January by taking a twist to tailoring, so that a waistcoat became a flat panel fastened at the back or a waistband was amplified into nearly a skirt. Frida Giannini thinks of her outfits for Gucci as a performance, while Roberto Cavalli says his are like paintings, the designers said on Wednesday.
Giannini, whose show put military overtones on a bohemian, hippy look, said she was inspired by the style of east European emigrees to Paris and Vienna in the 1920s.
Her outfits mixed brass buttons and belts with soft chiffon and velvet, with ample amounts of jewellery and ornament.
Models at the show wore tight black trousers tucked into high leather boots that covered the knee with hipster belts in brass chainlink or studded leather.
A rich, velvet patchwork of burgundy, black and jade was fine pleated into a short skirt that swung very much to a Russian tune.
Evening wear was long and liquid in patterned silk with belts whose tasselled ends were weighted with jewel-encrusted spheres. Flowing necklines were anchored in gold mayoral vees.
Roberto Cavalli, whose unwavering trademark look is a cigar, suntan and dark glasses, said he felt his fashion designs were paintings.
But he took inspiration from the late film actress Natalie Wood for the embroidered loose cotton and chiffon shifts in his womenswear collection. The designer used a full skirt with a hip-length, loose bodice for pale cotton dresses embroidered with pastel country flowers in his homage to the star of the 1961 drama Splendour in the Grass.
He used broderie anglaise for a white full-skirted dress that brought a touch of childhood innocence to the collection, while the same fabric's appearance in a black dress with trailing hems carried a more sombre, mourning mood.
A stunning black satin dress, again with a low waist and wide skirt, was dramatised further by a towering straw trilby hat with wide black band.
The designer kept heels high and could not resist putting some of his signature leopard print on some ankle boots, while others echoed the floral theme of dresses with tiny jewel coloured buds at the heel.
Colour in the clothes came in bands of heavy ethnic embroidery on the hems of jackets and lapels, or in bright satin applique flowers on black evening dresses.
And emerald, azure and pink swirled together in a silk evening dress whose folds clung to the body.