The most stand-out shows at Milan Fashion Week 2024: from Gucci’s party-ready looks and Prada’s sure to be celebrity-loved dresses, to Fendi’s workwear-inspired yet chic pieces

Here, in chronological order, are six shows to remember from a hectic week of back-to-back events.

Fendi

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“Utilitarian” and “extravagant” were the two adjectives Jones used to describe the autumn/winter 2024 range. He looked at Fendi’s archives from 1984 and found a parallel with what was happening in London at the time: the Blitz Kids, the New Romantics and workwear.

Jones has shown in the past that he can deliver some breathtaking fashion; his Fendi couture collections have included some spectacular looks. He just needs to have more fun with ready-to-wear just like his counterpart Silvia does with menswear and accessories. There’s a reason one of the Fs in the double Fendi logo stands for “fun”.

Max Mara

Max Mara never fails to deliver what it’s best at: beautifully made daywear separates and long-lasting outerwear that stand the test of time. High quality textiles and great fit are at the heart of the label’s ready-to-wear, which defies short-lived trends and caters to women who are not flaky fashion victims.

For autumn/winter 2024, the brand’s creative director Ian Griffiths looked at the oeuvre of Belle Époque French writer, journalist, screenwriter and sometime performer Colette, the author of Gigi. The novella tells the story of a young Parisian girl pursuing a career as a courtesan, and has seen film and musical adaptations since it was published in 1944. In the show notes, Griffiths described Colette as “sophisticated, intelligent and sexually liberated” – all qualities that he also sees in the Max Mara woman.

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The reference to Colette, however, was more an attitude rather than an obvious homage, as the collection was consistent with the modern and spare approach to design that Max Mara has always been known for. There’s a reason why women who want to look well put together and still display a certain sense of individuality rely on the Italian label.

A grey version of the brand’s Teddy Bear coat, one of the label’s bestsellers and a staple in many women’s wardrobes, made an appearance at the show, which also featured some outstanding knitwear – a cable-knit dress, also in grey, was a winner – and mannish tailoring, inspired by Colette’s habit of wearing men’s clothes.

Small gestures such as the placement of pockets on the back of a dress, or the way a camel skirt was tied at the side almost like a sarong, were there to give the clothes just the right amount of detail without taking away from the no-nonsense chic aesthetic of the always reliable brand.

Prada

Miuccia Prada’s collections have that rare quality: they make you think, but also want to buy. While her shows are always directional and influence plenty of other designers, she doesn’t simply indulge in her flights of fancy. Reality seeps in too as the designer always keeps in mind what people out in the world actually want to wear.

In 2020, she hired Belgian designer Raf Simons as her co-creative director and, season after season, his impact becomes more and more visible, although the collections still retain their quintessential Prada DNA.

According to Prada’s often cryptic show notes, for autumn/winter 2024, the designers looked to history and how clothes from different areas can be “recontextualized” to give rise to new ideas. More specifically, they mentioned “fragments of history”.

Looks ranged from wardrobe staples such as biker jackets, bomber jackets and knits to elongated dresses embellished with bows.

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Only Prada, however, can make bows look far from pretty: they appeared almost undone on a couple of dresses, giving the pieces an unfinished look that harks back to some of Prada’s most celebrated collections and will delight diehard fans. Expect to see those dresses on plenty of celebrities and magazine covers.

Gucci

This season’s show, therefore, felt like the debut that never was. De Sarno, who joined Gucci last year after a long stint at Valentino, used his second outing as a way to evolve his vision of the Gucci woman by building upon the foundation of his first show.

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The silhouette he debuted in September – a sharp jacket or coat paired with shorts or miniskirts – returned for autumn/winter 2024, as did Rosso Ancora, the oxblood red that de Sarno launched for spring/summer and has already become a beloved signature.

This time around, embellishments were aplenty, from sequins to lavish embroidery applied to coats and evening wear. Most looks, including some fabulous party-ready dresses, were paired with equestrian boots – a nod to Gucci’s horse riding heritage. It was a simple styling gesture that made the collection relevant to what young girls want to wear today, something that De Sarno is clearly focusing on as he builds a new identity for the Italian powerhouse brand.

Ferragamo

The Florence-based house is first and foremost a footwear label – founder Salvatore Ferragamo was known as the “shoemaker to the stars” – which is why the clothes used to be almost an accessory to the bestselling shoes, bags and small leather goods that still drive the business.

In recent years, however, Ferragamo has started to shine the spotlight on its ready-to-wear, especially since the arrival of British designer Maximilian Davis in 2022.

Much like De Sarno at Gucci and other designers currently working in Milan, Davis, who was in his mid-20s when he joined the label, is attuned to the way young aspiring cool girls dress these days, and wants to cater to them with his offerings.

He is also a fan of red, a colour that was a key element of his first show. A smattering of looks in the autumn/winter 2024 collection came in that fiery hue, but the show opened with a series of sharply tailored looks in military green and also featured sheer, diaphanous dresses that were a great counterpoint to the outerwear.

Those dresses – some of them feather embellished – harked back to the “dropped waists, fluid fabrics and raised hems” of 20s fashion, as the show notes described, while the uniforms of that same decade were behind the broad-shouldered coats and jackets that the designer saw as a form of “protection”.

Bottega Veneta

French designer Matthieu Blazy was second in command when he was named Bottega Veneta’s creative director after the departure of his former boss, Daniel Lee, back in 2021.

A veteran of brands such as Raf Simons, Margiela and Celine, Blazy has made Bottega Veneta even more desirable than his predecessor did, building a strong ready-to-wear business at a brand that for years mainly relied on its woven-leather handbags for most of its sales.

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For the autumn/winter 2024 show, Blazy turned a warehouse in an artsy area of Milan into a desert landscape filled with cactus-shaped light sculptures. They were made of Murano glass and inspired by those found among the arid landscape of Calabria, a region in southern Italy.

The cactus, which can survive in very harsh environments, is a symbol of resilience and strength for Blazy. But how did that translate into clothes?

Blazy used tactile surfaces, broad shoulders, voluminous shapes and a palette dominated by the “colours of the night” to convey what he called a “monumentalism of the everyday” – or at least as “everyday” as you can get when talking about painstakingly made pieces that are extremely luxurious and almost one of a kind.

In order to fully appreciate Blazy’s creations, you often have to see them in movement, not hanging on a rack – fringes, pom-poms, streamers and the like have all been recurring elements in his work. Two outfits, one in yellow and one in red, stood out in particular: they were made of accordion pleats and looked simply stunning as the models walked down the runway, creating a magical visual effect.