Milan Fashion Week: Crafty wears

Donatella Versace’s womenswear collection for next winter tells a story of a woman who battles and emerges victorious.

The story starts with a simple female warrior, a soldier low in the ranks with just a smattering of gold buttons on the bias-cut uniform, snug-yet-modest dress.

The mood intensifies with double-breasted military style coat with epaulets, a short colored fur with metal buttons down the V-front, a cropped military jacket worn with slim trousers and satin-finish dress capes. And the collection wraps up with form-fitting sensual silky dresses worn with gold-embroidered macrame sashes and one big golden medal, Olympic style. Her victory is clear.

The bling in the collection is at a minimum for Versace and the message is clear: power comes from within.

Photo by mermaid wedding dresses

Nomadic looks

Veronica Etro infuses the label’s trademark paisley print with an exoticism in a collection of ethnically inspired looks.

Etro seems to have taken the globe up in her sweep, with plaids reminiscent of the Scottish highlands, shawls that suggest the Andes and Oriental accents on sheer tops that evoke an East-West travel route. The silhouette is flowing and the clothes easy to wear. A blanket shawl with fringe finish is worn over printed skirts with boots. Short, wide trousers are worn with a boyish patchwork knit sweater.

Embroidery, lame and jacquard are employed generously. The colours are warm, mostly Earthy tones, like Bordeaux, rust and mustard, with very little black. Looks are finished with folksy bracelets and necklaces — or a scarf nearly long enough to brush the floor.

Etro said the collection was “like a clash, a melting pot of different nomadic cultures.”

East meets West

BluMarine designer Anna Molinari has seemingly set out to preserve Italian craftsmen singlehandedly by dint of her elaborately embroidered collection.

Golden needlework adorned midnight blue suits and sweeping robes. Jacquard lame highlights are woven into evening wear. Sequins are sewn into jewel-colored dresses, one a mini and one a snug gown with blousy top.

The collection evokes Japan, in its kimono colours and floral prints as well as the subtle addition of understated Obi belts, while retaining contemporary Italian fashion in the supple leather jumpsuits, tuxedo accents on silky pantsuits and thigh-high boots. Molinari dubbed the collection ‘‘unexpected heritage.”

La Femme Nikita

She’s Nikita, a femme fatal, short black hair tusseled and worn at times under a distinctive felt hat.

The Emporio Armani Nikita wears smart wide-legged pants with youthful accents like pearls that lighten up the dark palate and playful, if ironic, ties out of Plexiglas. The wide pants are a replacement for the long skirt, which Armani says the young women he targets with the Emporio line look at as something from the past.

While the designer acknowledged that the runway collection was “put together in a way that projects a strong attitude,” the pieces, in their singularity, are soft, appealing and wearable for women of any age.

The colour palate is black and white, which can be a metaphor for the way masculine and feminine pieces in the collection interact. Offering contrast is a cold turquoise.

Armani says no one should consider Emporio “a second line.” The designer said he reworked the collection eight times.

“There is a crazy amount of work,” he said.

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