Florals bloomed on skirts, shoes and from the ceiling at Italian designer label Prada’s Milan Fashion Week show.
Designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons turned wedding dresses into everyday looks, opening their autumn/winter 2023-24 catwalk presentation with a range of long and short white skirts embellished with white flowers and paired with knits.
Utility suits became long shirt dresses with trains, while large boxy jackets were matched with slim ankle-length trousers in mainly dark shades.
Models wore shirts with stick-out shoulders, knits and jackets with colourful inside collars, and pastel-coloured cigarette trousers paired with ribbed tops.
Kitten heels in a range of colours bore cut out floral patterns.
The collection also featured white puffer and dark asymmetrical mini skirts, colourful printed dresses, buttoned capes and a range of duffel coats.
Last month, the Hong Kong-listed fashion group said it had appointed a new chief executive, Andrea Guerra, taking the place of Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada and easing a transition to the next generation of the founding family.
Meanwhile, Italian luxury label Gucci drew from its past to present an eclectic mix of looks, paving the way for the next chapter as it awaits its new creative director.
The brand’s creative team revisited Gucci’s glamorous and colourful looks of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s - nodding to silhouettes and creations by past designers such as Tom Ford and Frida Giannini.
Gucci parted ways with its star designer Alessandro Michele last November as sales lagged competitors, and the prized brand of French luxury group Kering will welcome its new creative director, Sabato De Sarno, later this year.
A model wearing a tiny metallic bikini top, long black satin pencil skirt and gloves opened the show. Androgynous trouser suits followed as did plenty of faux fur coats in lilac, blue, fuchsia and yellow. There were furry lapels, oversized knits, footwear and bags. One coat dazzled with sparkling silver fringes.
Slim trousers were slit at the bottom front while bustier dresses had exaggerated sides. One model wore a crumpled shirt tucked into a miniskirt, others were dressed in coats with voluminous shoulders.
There were plenty of see-through designs: white embroidered sheer shirts and skirts and black transparent dresses.
Tights were red, orange, lime and pale blue.
There were new offerings of the Gucci loafer and the brand’s famed handbags.
Milan Fashion Week is the third leg of the month-long catwalk calendar, during which designers present their autumn/winter 2023-24 collections.
