A season of chaos and ecstasy in Milan Designing a collection is easier than finding a cab in the city these days

Debuts, delays, elections: these were the three main themes of the just-concluded Milan Fashion Week. The debuts were those of Maximilian Davies at Ferragamo, Marco De Vincenzo at Etro, Rhuigi Villaseñor at Bally, and Filippo Grazioli at Missoni. Delays, on the other hand, were a bit of everyone's business-with editors or whoever running across town in worrying numbers of cars, with fashion shows starting an average of an hour late, constant problems with dead phones and traffic completely jammed after each show. And finally, the elections were the backdrop against which all the various and alternating events of the Milanese brands unfolded - a backdrop that in some ways detracted with its importance from the frivolity of dresses, faux-furs, bags and heels-without-heels that dominated this season's womanswear collections. If there is a common thread that can be found in the many different collections presented during the week, it was the relative cleanliness of the silhouettes, the absence of shouty logos, and the general search for a new commercial koine based on an underlying essentiality mixed with a certain amount of sensuality that much of the international press found bland and unradical. The best in summing up these instances was Blazy from Bottega Veneta who, speaking in his show notes of «perverse banality», of «erotismo dell’ultra-sofisticazione attraverso la sartoria», of «eroticism of ultra-sophistication through tailoring,» and of «souvenirs worn by a globe-trotter» created a sum of the main thematic and aesthetic directions of the season.

And if indie brands such as Cormio and Sunnei have avoided big statements by proposing a revisited, vaguely eccentric normcore, as Andrea Incontri also did for his inaugural show at Benetton and in a pop key Massimo Giorgetti at MSGM, Rocco Iannone's Ferrari has continued its stylistic evolution by moving toward a contemporary and wearable silhouette, reworking above all an iconic element present in the brand's imagination and that is the iconic racing suit that is proposed both in a form close to the real thing, with the brand colors and related logos, and in a more sophisticated, leather version. Significant, on the other hand, is the fashion show of Tokyo James, perhaps the only designer this season to convincingly fuse social, personal and commercial instances in a show that did not seem creatively dependent on any other inspiration but was on the contrary cohesive, focused and precise as a laser but above all represented the only outing of an independent designer with a strong and decisive voice and a vision unencumbered by commercial needs and rhetorical stunts of any kind. A designer who, we hope, will continue to use Milan as his platform and keep his independent scene alive.