Land fashion shows of Milan Fashion Week 2022 are upon us. From the 22 to 28 February 2022the big names who made MFW history, from Gucci to Fendi to Versace to Pradaare preparing to take the field once again. But when did it all start? And what are the most beautiful and memorable fashion shows ever?
Milan Fashion Week, the story
Among the cities known as fashion poles, Milan it is the only one, unlike London, New York and Paris, that is not a real capital. Few people know that the Italian fashion shows as we know it were born in Florence after the Second World War, thanks to an idea of the entrepreneur Giovanni Battista Giorgini. Then Rome and Venicein the wake of the success of the Italian fashion in cinema – just think of the Fontana sisters and the most glamorous films, such as The sweet life (1960) by Fellini. The National Chamber of Italian Fashion was born in 1958, with the aim of promoting and protecting Made in Italy, which has always been the strong point of the boot in the fashion scene. Fashion shows arrive in the city hand in hand with the rise to an industrial city and with the affirmation of Milanese designers by birth and adoption – Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli And Gianni Versace primarily. It was the 70s and 80s.
The glamorous twist and the super tops
There is a moment that marks a change of course: the parade of Gianni Versace Fall Winter 1991/1992, which sees super top models take the field, from Cindy Crawford to Naomi Campbell to Linda Evangelista. The glamorous turning point which turns the spotlight on the city and leads more and more designers to choose Milan as an amplifier and incubator of styles and trends. Miuccia Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and the unforgettable Tom Ford’s debut at Gucciright at the Milan Fashion Week shows with the collection Autumn Winter 1995/1996.
A look by Gucci Fall Winter 1995/1996, the first collection designed by Tom Ford in Milan (Photo: Getty Images).
Alessandro Michele, Miuccia Prada. And Raf Simons
After the murder of Gianni Versace in 1997, Donatella takes its place and paves the way for change. The new air that draws is fully breathed in the second half of the 2000s: from Moschinowith the arrival of Jeremy Scott in the’Fall Winter 2014/2015 – impossible to forget the irreverent debut with the themed collection McDonald’s. And then, the new course of the Maison of the double GG with the arrival of Alessandro Michelethe most eclectic stylist, who also made the installations an integral part of the message and the look: just think of the show staged on a psychiatric hospital-themed catwalk, for theFall Winter 2018/2019.
A look by Gucci Fall Winter 2018/2019, the fashion show set in a psychiatric hospital (Photo: Imaxtree).
And then, the woman from MFW, Miuccia Prada. Which focused his collections on bourgeois Milanese style, starting from the premiere of the Autumn Winter 1988/1989, and has made the city the home of the brand. Nothing has changed even with the arrival at the creative co-direction of Raf Simons in 2021, in full pandemic: another historical moment to remember. A bit like the Jil Sander show Autumn Winter 2012/2013the latest signed by the Belgian creative for the Maison, right at Milan Fashion Week.
A look by Jil Sander Fall Winter 2012/2013, the latest by Raf Simons (Photo: Getty Images).
MFW, solid presences and new protagonists
The strength of the Milan Fashion Week shows lies precisely in the solid presences that are reconfirmed as protagonists every season. And if even Valentino, after 13 years of absence, he returned to Milan under the guidance of Pierpaolo Piccioli with the Spring Summer 2021 to give a strong signal of trust and solidarity to the city, the most recent history teaches that the MFW always finds a way to amaze. From the surprise Fendace fashion show in September 2021, to the last show by Karl Lagerfeld of Fendi Fall Winter 2019/2020just two days after his death in the historic headquarters of the Maison of via Solari.
Until the brilliant debut of some of the most talked about brands still today, from Bottega Veneta with Daniel Lee at the Arco della Pace forAutumn Winter 2019/2020 to the journey undertaken from Milan by the N ° 21 by Alessandro Dell’Acquawith the Fall Winter 2010/2011 collection. Looking forward to new twistsin pure MFW style.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED