Building a Wardrobe of Timeless Essentials With Milan’s Fall 2025 Presentations
MILAN — Young designers and established brands anchored their fall 2025 collections in wearability at Milan Fashion Week, adding inventive twists that turned basics into desirable items to attract customers in-store amid a global slowdown in luxury consumption.
Here, WWD rounds up the key womenswear wardrobe pieces for consumers to add to their closets come next fall, from the perfect business suit and pencil skirt to new takes on knitwear and leisurely outerwear.
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The Must-have Bomber Jacket: Armarium
Giorgia Gabriele’s Armarium brand definitely deserves more attention. With her polished, elevated take on wardrobe essentials, top-notch fabrications and impeccable execution, it makes for a compelling challenger for the Totemes of the world.
The fall 2025 collection charmed by juggling between a British countryside inspiration expressed with an earthy color palette and nods to the timeless style of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy — one of Gabriele’s muses — that informed the minimal lines and sleek silhouettes.
On top of handsome fitted tailoring and great knitwear — both soft and sensual when playing with halterneck shapes in wool tops and dresses — there was plenty to choose from in outerwear, from luxe shearling coats to extra-lightweight puffers.
Gabriele also tweaked the familiar silhouette of a supple leather bomber jacket by introducing a sinuous panel to cover the zipper and render the item in a dense burgundy shade. One can accessorize it with the brand’s newly introduced chunky jewelry in 24-karat gold-plated brass and cool sunglasses styles for an even bigger impact.
The Timeless Coat: Agnona
In the expansive collection Agnona presented in its design headquarters, creative director Stefano Aimone looked to cover every occasion the demanding customer of the brand might face next fall, from a stroll in the city to a weekend getaway to the mountains.
Leaning on the understated elegance of the brand, he put a heightened focus on fabrics while reinterpreting some of Agnona’s hero shapes, including coats he cut from wool and cashmere blends. With their elongated silhouettes, gentle proportions and nonchalant elegance, they are likely to stand the test of time and always find a place in the suitcase of the Agnona woman on the move.
The Elevated Trenchcoat: Blazé Milano
Blazé Milano grows bigger and stronger season after season. After building a reputation as a go-to brand for cool blazer jackets that draw customers, celebrities and royals alike, the brand keeps stretching its lexicon and brings its signature Smiley pockets to new shapes and fabrications.
In particular, founding trio Corrada Rodriguez d’Acri, Delfina Pinardi and Maria Sole Torlonia are increasingly committed to make their muse recognizable from her first impression by focusing more and more on outerwear. Cue to the double-breasted Noma coat in a micro-check pattern, a shorter quilted option in corduroy, and the trio’s take on the trenchcoat, which is essential but still likely to draw attention.
The New Business Suit: Fabiana Filippi
Who said business suits should all look the same? Tweak the sleeves of a blazer jacket to have a curved, graphic effect and pair it with a matching pencil skirt — and voilà, a new take on the theme ideal for the boardroom.
For even more daring acts, Fabiana Filippi replicated such proportions on long coats in popping red and a white set with a crinkled effect, which nodded to the fall 2025 collection’s inspiration, the art of Alberto Burri. Fine cashmere, double-face wools, soft shearling, tweeds and sequins added a textural quality of the refined lineup, which also featured handsome capes, belted coats and the brand’s signature knits.
The Pencil Skirt: Peserico
Delving into its archives, Peserico continued to channel understated sophistication with its fall collection, hinged on unfussy silhouettes responding to practical needs without giving up on glamour. Call it “quiet luxury” if you wish. Many of the effortless looks were anchored with fluid pencil skirts offered in an array of textures, from liquid-looking silk to textural fringes and micro beads, the latter conjuring a demure flapper girl élan. Paired with double-breasted blazers cut loose as if they were borrowed from a man’s closet or chunky knits, they made for versatile pieces to easily carry the wearer from day to night.
The Mannish Pants: Tagliatore
Tagliatore’s creative director Pino Lerario likes to keep things unfussy and easy-to-approach. In his vision, that never means banal, though. For fall 2025, he looked to refresh the familiar appearance of fashion archetypes with little twists — from the use of alpaca or cashmere for coats down to little details, such as horn buttons on jackets. A simple double-pleated construction can go a long way in mannish pants to include in the wardrobe for everyday use.
The Hunting Jacket: Seafarer
Working an eclectic mix of references, Seafarer’s Manuela Mariotti offered a range of cool hunting-style blazers, embracing the countryside chic vibe that has popped up here and there this fall Milan season. The boxy-cut numbers done in mannish textiles such as checks and frescolana featured patch pockets with leather-covered buttons borrowed from field jackets. Heavy on novelty tailoring with power shoulders and slightly flared pants, some coming with over-kilts, the collection subtly nodded to the grunge movement.
The Corduroy Suit: Slowear
In a seamless transition of its menswear codes into the women’s wardrobe, Slowear — which groups specialists in every wardrobe segment such as Incotex, Zanone, Glanshirt and Montedoro — offered handsome corduroy suits with a belted overshirt-like blazer and straight-leg pants in a range of versatile colors, from baby blue to beige. These aligned with the lineup of essentials, including modern takes on outerwear — best expressed in the new “Primo” bomber jacket and lightweight woolen Loden coat — as well as a feminine reinvention of quotidian items, from silk pencil skirts to loose culottes.
The LBT: Marina Rinaldi
You may already have a little black dress. What about the little black turtleneck? The essential item underpinned many of the looks in Marina Rinaldi’s fall collection, which was a transitional one ahead of a rebranding set for the spring 2026 season. It was still strong and brimming with classics, including skirt suits in menswear fabrics such as check and Donegal tweed, and coats in double-face cashmere and alpaca, some dotted with sequins or crystal embroidery. There were long and elegant knitted jersey dresses and a lovely leather trench in aubergine.
The Outdoor Jacket: Eleventy
There was no shortage of neutral-hued coats and jackets at Eleventy. Cut in different proportions and blending fine yarns such as alpaca, cashmere, camel and yak, these made for the backbone of the fall 2025 collection, which was imbued with a cozy, laid-back vibe. The attitude was reinforced in the sportier designs, intended to warm the brand’s customers in their off-duty moments at higher altitudes, as seen in a furry cream jacket, soft to the touch and paired with quilted technical pants.
The New Vest: Yali
Traveling was also the concept Pia Zanardi built the Yali fall 2025 presentation around. Inspired by the comings and goings seen at airport lounges, she conjured different characters — from the jet-setter to the bon-ton girl, from the young dandy to the rapper — to dress in her effortlessly cool clothes.
The brand is best known for its genderless velvet blazer jackets and day-to-night cropped vests, which over the years were reinterpreted with many new fabrications. But this season Zanardi introduced the Departure blazer crafted from fine Italian sartorial wool and finished with vintage buttons as part of her travel-ready wardrobe. The piece added to a new vest shape — minimal, graphic, secured with a single jewelry-like gold button and perfect for him and her. A smart choice to optimize space in the suitcase, too.
The Cable Cardigan: Lorena Antoniazzi
Lorena Antoniazzi launched a “no season” capsule collection focused on knitwear crafted from a mix of yarns including cotton, cashmere and silk. The collection was intended to promote more conscious consumption, delivering timeless garments 100 percent manufactured in Italy. One of the key pieces of the collection was the cream cable cardigan with rib-knit details, which came with a QR code certifying its traceability. Ditto for all the pieces in the range, which also included a knitted vest and comfy sweaters, all rendered in the same cream tone.
The Arty Knit: Cavia
Knitwear has been a dominant category in recent years, ignited by the pandemic period of cozy dressing. It came as no surprise then that Cavia’s Martina Boero, whose indie brand of upcycling is rooted in handknit galore, channeled a cozy, homey feeling at her fall presentation, having models taking power naps on mattresses lying on the floor. Her knits, typically flamboyant and colorful, were more grounded in reality, working ivory white yarns into shrunken turtlenecks and cropped cardigans, which Boero spiced up with multicolored, 3D braids. In keeping with her blueprint, patchwork oversize pieces nodded to grandmothers’ blankets.
The Denim Pants: Federica Tosi
With their pleated shape and washed-out effect, the denim pants Federica Tosi included in her fall 2025 collection made for a cool piece to build everyday looks on. The item channeled the sense of versatility imbued in the lineup, which included easy-to-approach pieces ranging from an oversized leather bomber jacket to cashmere cut-out knitwear. Conceived with a day-to-night approach, the collection was elevated with asymmetric drapery, fringes and sequined appliqués, all enhanced by an earthy color palette with pink and purple touches.
The Cape: Federica Bonifaci
The architect-turned-designer Federica Bonifaci is known for her capes, modular jackets that combine the easiness of blazers and coats with cloak constructions for extra drama. For fall she homed in on her signature double-breased tuxedo number offered with matching pants but also intended for layering over slipdresses or mini frocks. “I want my capes to look contemporary. As a piece of clothing, it’s often seen as too dramatic, stiff or old-fashioned,” Bonifaci contended. She worked the same construction on A-line trenchcoats, leather numbers and a captivating leopard print piece. The brand, founded in 2021 by the Roman creative, is carried at a selection of local and international stores, including Jimmy’s on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The Shawl: Taieur x Vitale Barberis Canonico
Taieur, the brand established in 2023 by Camilla Cappelli and known for its colorful embroidered jackets, linked with woolen mill Vitale Barberis Canonico as part of the latter’s support of up-and-coming names via its Heritage & New Talents project. The brand worked sartorial and mannish fabrics into outerwear with an eclectic undercurrent. Among the standouts were several iterations of a shawl — crafted from wool flannel, trimmed in blanket stitched threads in contrasting colors and embellished with tassels — made for perfect trans-seasonal accessories to complement one’s look.
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