All The Moments You May Have Missed From Milan Fashion Week, So Far

Milan is currently abuzz as buyers, models, editors and insiders converge on Italy’s fashion capital for the Spring/Summer 2026 runways. And this season, the stakes feel exceptionally high. Beyond the usual parade of new silhouettes and colours from the city’s heavyweight houses, the week marks the start of a much-anticipated creative director reshuffle. New leaders at Gucci, Versace, Bottega Veneta and Jil Sander are unveiling their first collections, and new visions. Indeed, at Gucci, Demna Gvasalia has already set the tone, previewing his vision with a star studded cinematic debut on the first day of the Milanese leg of fashion month.

This year, Milan will also be tinged with loss following the recent passing of Giorgio Armani. The week began with an acknowledgement of his death: “We are celebrating Milan Fashion Week in memory of one of its founding fathers,” Carlo Capasa, president of the National Chamber for Italian Fashion, told the media. Fashion photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri, who died earlier this year, captured iconic images of Audrey Hepburn, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Donatella Versace. His work will also be celebrated in the city this week with a retrospective exhibition.

Louise Trotter will make her debut at Bottega Veneta as one of the few female designers appointed in this reshuffle. Dario Vitale will succeed Donatella at Versace, while Simone Bellotti, formerly of Bally, will debut at Jil Sander. Below, find the standout moments.

Fendi: Pixel Play

Fendi delivered an instant jolt of colour on Wednesday afternoon, as Silvia Venturini Fendi spliced the sporty energy we’ve been spotting on the streets with childlike whimsy and a flicker of psychedelia. The show unfolded against a pixelated set by Marc Newtown, a nostalgic nod to analogue-era video games that amplified the collection’s pop-art sensibility. Sheer floral silks drifted beneath plush faux furs, grounding the dreamscape in something tactile—most memorably, a sculptural “negative space” coat worn by Alex Consani. Cheeky peep-toe heels added to the lineup.

Accessories, however, took centre stage. Cheeky peep-toe heels finished off the look, but it was the reimagining of the Peekaboo bag that provided a show-stealing moment. The house’s beloved Peekaboo handbag re-emerged with a wink: a roomy trapezoid built to hold phone, keys, wallet—and perhaps a library’s worth of lipsticks. For Spring 2026, its discreet façade gave way to interiors that quite dazzled, lined in chartreuse, sapphire and lavender sequins. More demure versions offered suede linings in jewel-toned greens and blues. It was a mischievous twist on a classic, proving that even icons benefit from a touch of play.

Jil Sander: What Lies Beneath

Simone Bellotti’s debut at Jil Sander was held in it’s Milan headquarters were the ex-Bally designer sent a series of pop-art office sirens in contrasting primary colours to meet the press pack. In conversation with WWD Bellotti, who worked behind the scenes at Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Bottega Veneta before taking the reigns at Bally and now Jil Sander said he was drawn to the concept of “apparent simplicity,” and it did feel like these “basics” were loaded with subtext.

Tailoring was exacting, knitwear flirting with skin through abrupt slashes and calculated reveals. A cropped knit ends abruptly baring a midriff here a glimpse of a nipple through a sheer sweater threre. Or, if you like a yawning cut out acting as portrait to a fully exposed bra. Spartan but sexy these office workers wore loafers and had the uncanny stiffness, and slightly dystopian aura of the Severance office.

They’re working in comfort though. The precise knitwear and clean tailoring carried a tactile allure, proving that this ascetic brand of purism can still be seductive.

Knwls: Club Kinetics

KNWLS pushed athleisure into new territory with their Nike collaboration, creating what co-creative director Alexandre Arsenault (who designs alongside Charlotte Knowles) described as “running to the club.” The London duo are celebrated for blending couture-level craftsmanship with a sensual, technically daring edge, often reworking lingerie, corsetry and body-conscious design through an athletic lens. On the runway, models strode briskly down a semi-transparent catwalk in sculpted bodysuits—bustier tops and micro shorts that felt unapologetically bodycon, with echoes of Milla Jovovich’s Fifth Element wardrobe.

Leather collided with neoprene to forge militaristic silhouettes and tactile contrasts. Other looks featured 70s style boho dresses only deconstructed with cut-outs and cinched waists worn with skin-tight, perilously high boots. A punk interpretation of the prairie dress.

Standouts from the Nike collaboration included a futuristic pointed-toe shoe in TPU, based on KNWLS’s archival “Raptor” boot, and a Made-in-Italy handbag with leather straps and a waffle-sole base. Together, they sharpened the collection’s fusion of sport and style.

The overall impression was of a collection alive with kinetic energy, where streetwear, fetishwear and hyper-modern athleticism coexisted in precise, high-octane harmony.

Loro Piana: Soft Power

Loro Piana unveiled its Spring/Summer 2026 collection with a celebration of colour. Long synonymous with sumptuous materials and immortalised on Succession as the emblem of quiet luxury, this season proved the house is no wallflower. The show was staged at Palazzo Citterio, an 18th-century Milanese mansion that houses masterpieces by Umberto Boccioni, Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani. This elegant backdrop allowed the collection’s palette to converse with Italy’s artistic canon.

Womenswear balanced restraint with romance, and a eccentric marine influence softening the house’s classic tailored precision with playful details. Neat knits finished with frilled Peter Pan collars slipped into sharply cut trousers, while lace-trimmed shorts appeared alongside polished brogues. Felted hats gave particular looks an offbeat, almost fisherman’s quality to complement the seashell prints and jewellery that ran throughout the collection. Textures, such as cashmere, silk, and Merino wool, appeared in the house’s signature palette of coffee, camel, and greige, punctuated by jolts of marigold, turquoise, crimson, pink, and cobalt. And classic styles were complimented by youthful, on trend pieces like a pair of silk shorts trimmed with lace.

Several of the Maison’s icons were reimagined: the Maremma jacket was recast as a bomber, the Spagna was lightened in linen, and the Traveller was rendered in airy organdy. True to form, accessories commanded attention. Leather goods—the Extra Softy Bag and Extra Softy Case—were presented in buttery hides. At the same time, fresh silhouettes like the Gioia Shopper Tote and Lotus Basket offered a sun-drenched invitation to summer.

Etro: Boho Futurism

It’s been six decades since the “Summer of Love,” and psychedelic flourishes have resurfaced across runways from Fendi to Burberry. Etro, however, leaned fully into that lineage—no surprise for a house long rooted in boho elegance.

Under the guidance of Marco De Vincenzo, the show invoked the brand’s founding moment in 1968, a year of countercultural ferment and the same era in which Gerolamo “Gimmo” Etro launched his namesake label after travels across counterculture hubs.

The collection felt like a contemporary extension of that DNA. Metallic jacquard suits gleamed under the lights; inky black accents grounded voluminous blouses in vibrant hues. One striking piece included a figure-hugging knit dress in black, embroidered with neon-green paisley motifs, cut in a nod to 1950s proportions. Another standout: high-waisted fringed hotpants in shades of sunset copper and turquoise, that swayed to the rhythm on the runway. 

On the musical front, the Spring 2025 collection’s runway was scored by Sardinian musician Daniela Pes, whose live performance wove together electronic textures and vocal elements rooted in Gallurese phonemes, lending an emotional, immersive layer to a presentation that harkened back to the original 60s boho jet set rather than the 2010s festival kitsch of more recent memory.

Prada: A New Uniform 

Before a front row that included Emma Chamberlain, Maya Hawke and Carey Mulligan, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons presented a collection that felt at once pragmatic and playful. As at Jil Sander, there was an undercurrent of officewear, but here it was twisted into something subversive: silk opera gloves worn with sneakers and kitten heels, statement midi skirts elevated to centrepiece status, and grey proposed as the season’s most compelling neutral.

The show opened with a navy utility boilersuit—sharp, streamlined, matter-of-fact—followed immediately by its twin in brilliant blue, punctuated by opera-length gloves. From there, the collection unfolded into hybrids: skirts spliced from chiffon and lace panels, half-sheer, half-structured; shirts unbuttoned to reveal bras beneath; leather jackets toughened against the delicacy of scrunched gloves in sherbet shades. Contrasts were deployed with surgical precision—uniforms set against eveningwear, masculine tailoring against overtly feminine flourishes. Function remained intact—cinched waists, clean lines, strong silhouettes. 

Muted navies and greys, carrying the gravitas of uniforms, were disrupted by jolts of neon green, searing yellow, lilac, even acid orange. A lime-green boatneck dress clashed knowingly with purple gloves; an oversized pastel-pink carpenter jacket was thrown over briefs, skewing proportion with intent. Accessories grounded the fantasy: black shoulder bags, clutches and carryalls dotted with subtle jewel details. Opera gloves reappeared alongside sneakers, the perfect finish for Prada’s eccentric modern woman.

Max Mara: Modern Rococo

Creative Director Ian Griffiths reimagined the patron saint of Rococo, Madame de Pompadour, as a modern woman in his SS26 collection. Novala Takemoto once described Rococo as “prizing elegance, sweet emotions and fantasy more than morals and truth” and as embodying the spirit of punk—a subversive streak Griffiths channelled to reflect the self-made woman of the 18th century, who debated with Voltaire and Montesquieu while hosting Rousseau and Molière.

His Pompadour of today favours cropped knits and jackets, low-slung midi skirts, trenches scattered with ghostly florals, and feather-trimmed minis cinched with black elastic belts and harnesses fit for a Friday night out. Rococo, from the French rocaille—shell-encrusted rockwork used in grottoes—was rooted in nature, asymmetry, and ornament. That influence echoed in Griffiths’ tailoring: wide-shouldered jackets twisted elegantly around the torso, structure softened by whimsy. The collection carried forward the Milan season’s prevailing dialogue—romance tempered by rigour—delivered with Max Mara’s signature precision.

Emporio Armani: Returns

The Emporio Armani presentation closed with a crescendo of applause from the models and a standing ovation from the press pack. There was no final bow.  Giorgio Armani, the master of Italian fashion, passed earlier this month, and his niece Silvana Armani, the house’s womenswear design lead, confirmed that there would be no bow from any other party. This was Mr Armani’s final, and highly anticipated, collection, and nobody would stand to take credit.

As the prelude to the house’s 50th anniversary celebration that will close Milan Fashion Week, the poignancy was unmistakable: Mr Armani’s last collection was about coming home. Titled Ritorni (Returns), a sequel to last season’s Pantelleria-inspired vacation collection, it evoked the clothes you reach for after a journey, the liminal moment when you view life with fresh eyes, still shaking sand from your suitcase, choosing garments that carry the same weightless ease as holiday dressing.

Whether grey, biscuity suits or sheer sequinned parachute pants, every look shared a single quality: the gauzy lightness of post-holiday glow. Some pieces hinted at souvenirs collected abroad: a band-collared jacket worn loose and unbuttoned to reveal a fading tan, ikat trousers, dangling fringed belt straps.

In the end, Mr Armani’s farewell underscored what made him a singular force for decades: a resistance to trend for trend’s sake, and a deep sensitivity to how women actually live. These louche, effortless separates spoke not only to the office but also to the intimate, transitional moments a woman carries home with her. It was a final reminder that Armani’s legacy rests in how he catered to women’s changing lives, stitch by stitch.