‘Break the rules’: Designers take risks at Milan Fashion Week

To take a risk, or not to take a risk? That was the question at Milan Fashion Week this season.

Amid a precarious economic climate, evolving consumer tastes, and a constantly revolving door of CEOs and creative directors that has picked up unprecedented pace of late, the Fall-Winter 2025 collections were a polarizing mix of expanding on existing brand codes and rolling the dice.

Many big-name brands opted for the latter.

At Prada, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons spoke of “liberating traditional ideals of femininity” with a collection that left its usual conceptual polish at the door and conjured an, at times, awkward dishevelment. Simons told reporters backstage after the show that “liberation comes with risk taking – you cannot liberate if you don’t take risks.”.

Over at Versace, Donatella looked to the interior residences of her late brother and brand founder Gianni, mining the Medusa, Barocco, and Greca emblems for the padded puffball and 3D-printed A-line silhouettes. Versace didn’t host her usual press conference to talk about the collection, but her message in the show notes was: “Be yourself. Believe in yourself. Break the rules.” (Speculation of a potential sale of Versace from its current owner to the Prada group hung over the show, though Versace has so far declined to comment.)

At Tod’s, Matteo Tamburini, who presented his third show as creative director, said that he envisioned his Tod’s woman to embody “authentic elegance and charisma that follows no rules,”, while at Emporio Armani, Giorgio Armani gave the most literal interpretation of changing up his hand, with playing card motifs popping up as prints, brooches, and embroidery. His show notes relayed that “dressing is always about taking risks.”.

Creative consistency

Elsewhere, it was a case of creative consistency. Gucci is currently without a creative director after Sabato de Sarno’s abrupt departure about two weeks before the show, and the collection was designed by the brand’s in-house team. They opted to focus on Gucci through the ages: see the gold horsebit detailing first introduced 70 years ago, the sleek suiting of ‘90s Tom Ford, the geek-chic styling of designer Alessandro Michele who left in 2022, and the slinky lace looks recently pushed by de Sarno.

Gucci appeared to address this in the show notes, which read: “A continuum of craft, taste and culture that passes through time, the fashion house is one that has many owners and guardians. Craftspeople and artisans, creative directors and designers, communicators and customers, each with their own histories entwined.”

At Fendi, third-generation designer Silvia Fendi was back creating both womenswear and menswear following Kim Jones’ exit late last year. Celebrating the brand’s centenary by having her twin grandsons open the door that the models appeared through, she straddled past and present with a glamorous Fendi familiarity. “I was looking to the archive – it’s such a rich history, it’s unavoidable, but I think the best way to celebrate is to deliver a new collection,” she told a small group of reporters before the show. “This is how it should be (at the brand) and how I was trained. Especially from Karl (Lagerfeld, former Fendi creative director), who never wanted to repeat himself and have retrospective.”

Making his debut at Alberta Ferretti after its namesake founder stepped down last year, Lorenzo Serafini didn’t stray from the house’s romantic style and opted instead to elaborate on it, presenting sculpted Grecian-inspired gowns styled with sharp tuxedo tailoring and a striking pop of Yves Klein blue. Elsewhere, at Moschino, after a few discombobulated seasons following his strong debut, designer Adrian Appiolaza dialed down the conceptual and went cohesive, though there were enough off-beat ideas to stay true to the DNA of the historically idiosyncratic brand.

And at Max Mara, long-term creative director and famously voracious reader Ian Griffiths (who marks his 40th anniversary at the brand this year) found his sartorial starting point once more in literature – this time, that of the Brontë sisters. His luxurious swaths of camel cashmere and impeccable close-fit tailoring were designed for the Max Mara woman who is “more likely to be marching through the corridors of power (than the Yorkshire Moors) but still bringing a dream with her,” he said backstage.

Stage presence

Several brands leaned on performance-art to make an impression. At DSquared2, twin designers Dean and Dan Caten had the Grammy-award winning Doechii perform on the runway alongside Naomi Campbell. The British supermodel later popped up on the front row at Dolce & Gabbana, where designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana opened the doors of their HQ and had models walk straight off the runway out onto a makeshift catwalk on the street.

Meanwhile, as Bottega Veneta waits for the freshman collection of new designer Louise Trotter in September, it hosted an intimate evening with Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective that saw the American songwriter and poet perform their spoken-word collaboration “Correspondence” and a moving rendition of “Because The Night”.

Changing tides

As a result of an industry in flux, the era of “the big fashion week trend” has also gradually lost ground to brands betting on multiple disparate ideas. There are still nuggets to be found if you look hard enough: similarities in Milan were — somewhat symbolically — a chaotic amalgamation of wild fringing, inside-out frayed seams, pleasing bows, and postering big-shoulder energy. But the overwhelming feeling was one of designers searching for — rather than providing — answers. As Simons noted backstage at Prada: “You never really have an answer, you just challenge yourself and try to push it,” he said, referring to designing collections and working in fashion.

In conversation with American Vogue editor Anna Wintour (who said it feels like “a seismic moment” and “hurricane season”, in regards to the constant change of designers at brands) at the Triennale Museum on Thursday, Versace agreed that creativity was currently being sidelined in a volatile economic environment where risk-adverse brand executives often demand designers focus on more commercially viable styles. “Being told what to do, being told what’s going to sell… I think fashion is creativity and creativity is instinct. If you try to please too many people, too many managers, creativity is gone,” Versace said.

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