Milan Fashion Week: Armani's ode to the sea and hyped-up glam at Dolce & Gabbana

As Milan Fashion Week draws to an official close on Monday, many of the industry's biggest brands unveiled their collections on Saturday, with Dolce & Gabbana lighting up the runway with its #DG Light show and Giorgio Armani presenting a gentle ode to the sea.

Add Salvatore Ferragamo's laid-back, easy-to-wear silhouettes into the mix, and the message from the Italian runways is clear: for the coming season, anything goes.

Maxi-glam at Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana lit up the runway for its Milan Fashion Week show on Saturday, with a bedazzling collection that delivered some much-needed glamour.

Set against a disco-like runway with glittering mirrors and roving spotlights, the #DG Light show featured sparkling, sequinned blouses, rock-studded miniskirts and trousers, crystal-encrusted tops and fringed gold and silver dresses.

This heady dose of glitz was a call from the design duo to leave behind the darkness of the pandemic. The collection featured many of the brand’s dominant codes – seductive silhouettes built around corsets, micro-mini dresses and lingerie, as well as embroidery, lace, flowers and animal prints.

The designers said they drew inspiration from the early 2000s, when their exuberant designs broke with the minimalist style that was trending at the time.

Easy femininity at Salvatore Ferragamo

Salvatore Ferragamo’s spring/summer 2022 collection favoured easy-to-wear silhouettes with hints of sensuality. Roomy apron dresses came with plunging necklines, smock dresses featured deep, revealing backs, and wrap dresses came with suggestive slits.

Loose-fitting harem pants were paired with criss-cross tops, while draped columns dresses came with cut-outs that offered flashes of flesh. Voluminous and languid, and paired with the brand’s famous Vara and Varina ballerinas in new materials, it was a collection that put comfort first, but still managed to feel feminine.

New shores with Armani

Unveiled in a basement room in his own Milan home, Giorgio Armani looked to the sea for his latest collection, which was brimming with pastel hues and soft shades of green and blue.

Elegant chiffon dresses, embroidered evening gowns and fluid trousers made models look almost mermaid-esque. They sauntered as if on a stroll by the shore, smiling openly on the catwalk, as Armani claimed that what the world needs today is more sweetness, kindness and smiles.

Gucci unlocks the Vault

While Gucci has stepped away from the traditional fashion week calendar, on Saturday, as Milan Fashion Week peaked, the brand unveiled Vault, an e-commerce site featuring vintage Gucci pieces, alongside capsule collections by young designers hand-selected by the house’s creative director Alessandro Michele.

Michele said the project was born out of his life-long obsession with collecting fashion. “Yes, I do this work to tell stories. But I also do it because I truly love objects," he noted.

Among the young designers featured on the site are London’s Priya Ahluwalia, who is of Nigerian and Indian descent. “Completely out of the blue, I got a message from Gucci. I thought it was an advertisement or spam,’’ she said. “When I realised it was real, I was extremely happy.”