14 ageless trends to inspire your wardrobe

Milan Fashion Week drew to a close on Saturday after several days of shows. The message from designers this season? Chic style needn’t be boring.

Read on for the elegant yet exciting looks you’ll want to take note of for spring/summer 2025…

1. The shirt dress – Fendi

For an outfit that requires almost zero thought, is extremely comfortable to wear and looks smart enough for work, a shirt-dress (as seen at Fendi) is your secret weapon. Long sleeves, a sharp collar and a flattering length that sits just below the knee add up to the ultimate no-brainer wardrobe staple. It came in a pale aquamarine too, but the taupe version is more practical as well as effortlessly chic. Fringed bag and embroidered socks optional. SS

2. Luxury but make it colourful – Brioni

For the past couple of years, luxury fashion has been associated with beige and more beige. At Brioni, creative director Norbert Stumpfl takes a more creative approach. No one in Brioni-land wants a fuchsia trench. But when it comes to the perfectly formed blazer, why not render it in tomato red or powder blue silk, then wear it with cream?

Stumpfl has been in place since 2018 and has quietly made Brioni – particularly its womenswear – one of the most talked-about off schedule collections. No flashy big shows for this house. Instead, a chance to get up close and touch those fluid trousers, flawless shirts and supple bucket bags. “It’s all about the drape and the fabrics,” Stumpfl told me, as a model strolled towards us in a mismatched trouser suit that seemed the easiest thing to wear because so much thought had gone into its construction. “The idea is to make it seem like nothing but everything at the same time,” he says. LA

3. The uneven hemline – Bottega Veneta

At Bottega Veneta, which many took as the best of the Milan season, creative director Matthieu Blazy was in a playful mood. Taking inspiration from a child dressing in their parents’ clothes, he showed oversized jackets and coats and voluminous knits. An uneven hemline makes a (literally) sweeping statement and this lovely orange version has the potential to be a showstopper. But paired with a relaxed slouchy jumper and flat shoes, it offers that elusive combination of comfortable and cool. SS

4. The longer line shirt – Brunello Cucinelli

Three noteworthy developments here. 1. A new detail on trousers which are sometimes gathered and pleated at the waistband but always elegantly slouchy. 2. The longer line shirt, designed to show under blazers or cropped jackets. (How this will work for shorter women remains to be seen but designers everywhere are playing with these proportions – its translation to real life will depend on how well they scale everything down at retail.) 3. The maxi skirt – which is no longer just a floaty, bias cut piece for off duty, but a tailored item with real presence.

Add some intricate embroideries and twinkly beading, and Cuccinelli is now aiming not just for the billionaire tech set, but for the red carpet crowd too. LA  

5. How Now, Brown Wow – Max Mara

Brown is already making for a strong Autumn line up – check out the high street. But the way Max Mara wove it into this collection might make you consider wearing it in spring and summer too. All you need are good fabrics, clean lines and a pop of white. In more details: slim maxi skirts with matching cropped jackets or longer-line blazers and flat sandals (many worn with crisp cotton shirts and gold jewellery) add up to a pleasingly smart but relaxed summer work or dinner outfit. LA

6. The 50s coat – Prada

Miuccia Prada and her co-designer Raf Simons were in an uncompromising mood with this collection which spits in the eye of prettiness. We’re talking jarring proportions, loose trousers tucked into white cowboy boots topped with a pea green thigh length jacket; bizarre, forehead-obliterating sunglasses and futuristic metallic skirts with circles punched out of them.

The colour combinations are punchy too: medicinal pink, orange and purple. But if you’re interested in the wiles of modern marketing, there’s a case study here: how to put on a confounding ‘art-crowd’ show, yet still deliver commercial pieces in-store. And there were plenty: this animal print 50s-esque coat, wearable knits and, of course, bags galore – including a compact, patent bucket style. LA 

7. The scarf top – Missoni

‘Loosen up and have fun’ seemed to be the message at Missoni, where chiffons and jerseys in primary colours were artfully layered up in modernist and Mondrian effects. The best iteration was in origami-esque scarf tops – wear them on holiday evenings next summer with easy wide leg trousers. CL

8. Armani without the price tag – Emporio Armani

The classic Armani silhouette is unmistakable. The Italian master of relaxed elegance has made stylish androgyny his trademark for almost half a century. But those long-lined unstructured jackets and cropped trousers can come with a rather unrelaxing price tag. The answer is to turn to Emporio Armani, the brand’s younger sibling. This sleek belted shirt-waister, in soft grey blue with a dropped-shoulder sleeve and matching cropped trousers, is unmistakably Armani but without the wallet-busting side-effects. SS 

9. Blue belle – Tod’s

The Tod’s look is all about sleek, casual daywear. In a season when shades from chocolate to cream via caramel and taupe dominated – not least on the Tod’s runway – the house nevertheless offered up cheering jolts of colour. While lemon yellow may be a challenging shade for a raincoat, you can’t argue with the pleasing effect of a cerulean top. The cut of this azure number is minimal and forgiving and the proportions of the navy trousers are as generous as those of the conker-coloured bag. And that sky blue will lift any outfit – or mood. SS

10. The flapper dress – Dolce & Gabbana

Designers mined the 1990s and the 1920s for inspiration this Milan fashion week – sometimes mashing those references together. At Dolce & Gabbana, a smattering of history’s most famously fun blondes inspired the collection – from Marlene Dietrich to Madonna. The midi dresses, dripping with fringed beading, are just asking to be taken out to a party and accessorised with a champagne coupe next summer. CL

11. City shorts – Loro Piana

Designers are forever throwing shorts down the runway in the hopes that one day the trend will stick. Usually it’s a lost cause. But for the first time in Milan, there were fashion editors on the front row actually daring to try the look. So how to make them doable in real life? We’ll leave the hotpants for others to champion, but Loro Piana has delivered a city-friendly pair of bermudas that makes an excellent case for culottes as work wear. And all with Loro Piana’s superlative fabrication and expert cutting. SS

12. Casual Grandeur – Gucci

Separates are well and truly back at Gucci, along with co-ords – in chocolate or black leather. Trenches and parkas sweep the floor and, as elsewhere, there are silver mirrored dresses and separates for those Gatsby-style parties someone, somewhere is still throwing. Creative director Sabato De Sarno calls this “casual grandeur”.

But the first few and final looks sum up next season’s forecast pretty well: relaxed zip front jackets, loose trousers or shorts and even more focus on shirting and flared jeans (not that most people look to Gucci for daywear).

This is a house still best known for bags (look out for the fringed one and for Blondie, inspired by Debbie Harry who was in the front row). Mind you, nostalgics (and increasingly that includes Gen X) will also appreciate the draped, Tom Ford-era column dresses. LA 

13. High/low dressing – Versace

Going for maximum impact on your lower half with, say, a shimmering gold pencil skirt? Then balance it up top with a classic brown shirt. These are the new rules according to Donatella Versace who made a compelling case for wearing glitter at all hours of the day. CL

14. Ballet shoes – Ferragamo

Fashion’s obsession with ballet continues next season – we’ve seen tutus and leotard wraps on the catwalk in London, and now Milan too. At Ferragamo, designer Maximilian Davis took a particular interest in the rehearsal wardrobe – knitted wrap cardigans and jersey leggings, in mixes of blush pink, lilac and burgundy. The two takeaways that anyone could bring to their day to day wardrobe are those wrap cardigans and, easiest of all, ballet shoes. The Ferragamo ones come with particularly impressive silk ribbon ties. CL