Milan fashion week begins right after London’s ends but bears a stark difference in many ways.

There’s the weather for one thing - except for the first day when the heavens opened, it’s still mainly sunny weather in Milan and quite warm. This means there aren’t many coats and scarves in sight.

The shows are also different, the attendees wear their swankiest party gear, there’s a lot of air-kissing and hugging and most importantly, it’s not an industry-only affair.

In London, the shows and presentations are mainly visited by press and buyers, in Milan there are also many friends of the designers present, friends of the PR agencies, local celebrities and other ‘in crowd’ members.

Catwalk Shows

GENNY

The first show I attended was the made-in-Italy brand GENNY, the brand is all about ethically produced luxury fashion using high-quality textiles and fabrics and with an emphasis on all the little details.

The collection was inspired by Art Deco elements. The palette was mainly based around neutrals - bronze, silver and white with only one piece making an appearance in a bold colour, a stunning emerald green dress.

Lots of flowing pieces with some stunning ankle grazing gowns are to be found in this collection. There was an interesting use of metallics, both in fabrics and in other details such as gold embroidery.

Les Copains

The Les Copains woman for SS16 is described as a ‘contemporary geisha, an educated traveller, a sophisticate and an art lover’. The collection is inspired by nature, in particular, an oriental landscape and there are butterflies and bee accessories as brooches and adorning the shoes.

There’s also the use of an obi belt to highlight the waist of certain jumpsuits and pants. A varied collection with lots of interesting pieces, great accessories and some quirky styling.

Street Style in Milan

The street style culture in Milan is in my opinion, not really about personal style and image - there seem to be two sets of people - those that get dressed up in strange ways simply to be photographed and those that buy their pieces straight off the catwalk.

Outside the shows, many from the first set can be found, many have no tickets in hand to any of the actual shows, their aim is to get their photograph on one of the popular online magazines and become a social media star.

The second set do of course have tickets, but here, their looks are sleek and polished, refined over many years but there isn’t a huge sense of individuality. What amazes me about both sets is their capacity to walk over badly paved pavements in stiletto heels for entire days and still look calm and hassle-free.

Photos by Kurt Paris - www.kurtparis.com
Caroline Paris - www.carolinefashionstyling.com

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