MILAN, ITALY — If the Milan Spring/ Summer 2027 shows had a word, it would be freedom. Nearly every designer used it to describe their hope-filled collections, tinged with bright tones and winsome, breezy silhouettes. Hey, in the political climate we’re all experiencing, any dreamy, joyful moments are a welcome respite. But in the absence of clothes laced with hard-hitting messages or powerful notions of resistance, one does crave a little statement dressing.
The bulk of the designers’ collections this season were much softer and less rigorous than garments that might have been worn in seasons past. However, this season’s collections teach us that these are designers who never stray far from their core style vernaculars, while remaining adept at tweaking them here and there.
Marni Spring/ Summer 2027
Marni Spring/ Summer 2027
At Marni, presence and absence shaped the collection. Openings, exposed linings, fragmented surfaces and dissected constructions make the inside visible. The same dialogue between what is there and what has been removed extends to the show design, conceived with Formafantasma. Techniques of construction become decoration in their own right, expressing the pleasure of making and building anew.
Femininity is heightened and reworked through curves, underwear details and unexpected materials. The outline of a brassière is built into a garment, turning an inner layer outward. Buttons and loops suggest the possibility of opening and reveal; enlarged and moved onto leather and wool, they become playful elements of design. Rectilinear shift dresses in double-duchesse silk gabardine carry enlarged prints drawn from the surfaces of earlier garments.
Jil Sander Spring/ Summer 2027
Jil Sander Spring/ Summer 2027
Jil Sander’s Simone Bellotti kept asking himself these questions from day one. As he glanced at Castello from his studio window, on the corner of this stark ambience, an illuminating connection appeared in the dialogue of opposites: strictness and lightness, grace and severity, control and freedom. This collection looks forward while standing on its roots, exploring pureness as a mode, not a limit: a tightly edited expression of contrasts.
Tension and calm, straight lines and torsions are laid out in a counterpoint of sombre neutrals, dusty pastels and vibrant hues, while textures add a tactile element to the discourse. The mirroring of womenswear and menswear was constant, brought to life with meticulous handwork and obsessive attention to detail and quality.
Etro Spring/ Summer 2027
Etro Spring/ Summer 2027
Signs loosen up and leap forward at Etro, evolving lightly while remaining rooted in their essence. Weightlessness is pervasive; prints appear blurred, faded, barely perceptible, almost sun-bleached. Paisleys are dematerialised into auras or turn into patches. Bohemia persists as a state of mind, and yet it appears airy, fluid, sun-kissed and on the move.
Simon Cracker Spring/ Summer 2027
Simon Cracker Spring/ Summer 2027
Simon Cracker’s Simone Botte had his mind drifting back to a summer in the countryside when he was eight years old, in his grandparents’ fields in Romagna. Refusing to go to the beach, his sanctuary was among the cherry trees. Every day, he worked on a variety show put on in July for the neighbours on Via Francia—the street that gives this collection its name.
The brand’s stage costumes were made from massive, everyday items retrieved from the great-grandparents’ trunks: granny skirts, tablecloths and curtains that, in his childhood eyes, felt like luxury fabrics. Patterns were layered and clashed, transforming into oversized underwear worn over floral tunics.
Victor Hart Spring/ Summer 2027
Victor Hart Spring/ Summer 2027
Proportion play also ruled supreme at Victor-Hart’s SS27 outing, where denim panels were rendered in soft tints of blue, and shapes came across as both roomy and cinched in equal measure. Tailoring made the cut too, with breezy trousers whose hems were trimmed and tousled.
Titled Denim Diplomacy, the show emerges from the blend of two perspectives. On the one hand, it touches on the landscape of Ghana, tinged with its history, its sense of community and rhythm, and a strong knack for using clothing as an expression of identity. On the other hand, one can find Italy’s tailoring touchpoints by way of sartorial precision, construction, and attention to quality and finish.
by Chidozie Obasi