Here’s What We Loved from Milan Fashion Week Fall 2019

Ahh, Italians. They are fun, they have great food, and they know fashion. Picking favorites from Milan Fashion Week is like finding a needle in a haystack — practically impossible. And this season, the Italian designers seemed to have gotten darker, edgier, with a bit more punch than the usual elegance. They seem angrier, if you will. We pin down the top five best shows Milan Fashion Week fall 2019 had to offer, below. So let’s get right to it.

Marni

Empowering and wild are the two words that come to mind when describing what Francesco Risso presented for Marni Fall 2019. And would you have it any other way? A red silk, slashed in the back covered in piercings and more rings; bold, fiery colors, an orange trench hanging on top of peeks of blue and orange shirt/skirt combo; a satin long tunic dress featured clean, uncomplicated silhouettes peppered by metallic hardware. Risso knows what the Marni woman wants.

Versace

Donatella and grunge is something you don’t hear often, but that is precisely where the Versace collection headed this season — buut through a very Versace lens (read: NOT Seattle grunge.) It also seems like Donatella is targeting the young crowd these days, and they seem to be all about the 90s. Hence the Versace prints, knit layers, slip dresses and corsets, and the faint glam thrift store vibe. Perhaps is the pressure of the new owners, perhaps Donatella just wants something new, but whatever the reason for this new Versace direction might be, we like the results a lot.

Prada

Miuccia Prada is one of the very few designers who know how to convey the specific want/need of their customer, while making the concept fashion-forward and innovative. Because the Prada girl is an intellectual and LOVES fashion, and for Fall 2019 she gets to play a dark role filled with uniforms, puffers, cargo details, pole climber boots, and backpacks. The dark role is coupled with Prada’s vision of romance, hence the lace, flowers, hearts, fairy-tale capes, and glittery red shoes. All topped off with a violin rendition of Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” What’s not to love?

Moncler 1 Pierpaolo Piccioli x Lemlem

When Pierpaolo Piccioli asked Liya Kebede to input the patterns of her sustainable Ethiopian label Lemlem to his couture interpretation of Moncler, the results were stunning and invigorating. Inasmuch as he adhered the concept onto the same voluminous designs as in his previous Genius collection, he did create a new point of view. Here’s how he described it for Vogue, “I don’t think that you can really do anything new today. But you can create new harmonies—new points of view and perspectives. Actually, I did this little collection while I was doing couture, while I was doing other things. And of course what I wanted to do is, through my own identity, interpret the worlds of Moncler. I felt I wanted to add the feeling of another perspective—specifically the Liya perspective. I think that inclusivity is not a just word; I really believe in the idea of working together in a way that gives you new points of view . . . and I was thinking that when couture was born it was not meant to be for black women. It was just for white women. Magazines like Jet were not even allowed to borrow clothes! So this collection is to show that the dream of couture should be allowed for everybody, and that’s why the idea of Liya worked so well.” Amen to that!

Gucci

Alessandro Michele’s imagination doesn’t have any limits, does it? For Fall 2019, it led him to darker, more subdued places (in very Michele’s terms) where Jason Voorhees masks, and fetish store masks with 2-inch-long spikes, are just as prominent as the clothes. The clothes were inspired by his grandmother’s 40s generation and featured wide trousers, androgynous coats and sharp shoulders. But it wouldn’t be a true Gucci collection of hodgepodge aesthetics if it wasn’t for the accessories: mixed-material sneakers, two-tone loafers, faux fur stoles, small, multi-functional duffle bags with crossbody and side straps, spiked chokers and kneepads. Pick your fashion poison, ladies and gents!