Sexy isn’t always the case for Italian designers. Subtle seductiveness was embraced by Prada and Versace while Susan Fang leaned on optimism. Diversity, though, still shows sluggish signs of progress.
MILAN, ITALY – It’s a painful time to tell stories about the arts. Last week, I found myself musing over the creative system’s inner structures—and changes—that took substantial effect ever since 2020’s societal reckonings.
Before you get any ideas, let me explain: I was at PDF’s winter 2025 show, and the brand brought in dozens of medium-sized spray cans and masks to serve front-row seats. This being the first day of Milan Fashion Week, I think everyone was okay with getting a little surprised…and maybe even getting a “wow-effect” before the next day’s set of shows.
I was thinking about that, though, because PDF designer Domenico Formichetti was inspired by downtown subcultures this season, specifically those of minorities and underrepresented folk. If you aren’t familiar with the collection, the designer’s vision awakened a progressive step for character study and body representation in Milan, spending last summer researching how to empower these voices while giving them a platform through clothes.
PDF awakened similar desires for me last week. As for the design of the clothes, Formichetti reinterpreted a community’s ground with brick walls, billowing volumes and fleshy fabrics. He also treated the collection like a blank canvas, including performances from a slew of graffiti artists who painted with upbeat tempo.
Ferragamo AW25
At Milan Fashion Week, I’ve seen a few attempts at character study. Last week, the brands Ferragamo, Max Mara, and Dolce & Gabbana all showed versions of finely sculpted dresses, low-rise shorts, and revealing cutouts, which were provocative in their own ways. But hardly any collection felt as diverse as PDF’s. There were no gimmicks or seductive tricks. Instead, Formichetti took raw forms of beauty, stripped them down, and brought them back to life in ways that felt fresh and true.
Dolce & Gabbana AW25
Restraint, coupled with tradition and a dash of feel-good optimism are threads that weave through the minds of Milan’s designers this season, as the creative industry continues to grapple with downturns.
But here’s the thing: are any of these ideas modern and inventive, and I mean the furry trims and the uniform styles? With few exceptions, Milan’s creativity has lived at the same intersections of design and identity for countless seasons, yielding little new focus, inclusion or direction.
Similarly, we’ve seen a plethora of collections from rising designers who attempt to explore their ethos or contrast it with an archival mode, yet the results are often thwarted. Given the harshness of the modern day, I don’t expect designers to be as ingenuous as they once were. Nor are we likely to see a well-rounded consent around a single designer or house, as we witnessed across the last decade. Because fashion is a reflection of society. No one expects unanimity, either.
Marni AW25
Marni AW25
Among the appealing proposals, though, Marni stunned with a collection that reinterpreted the Salon, transforming the runway into a living canvas that layers the past, present, and future of the house into one singular expression.
Within these walls, the creative process unfolded in the same exuberant spirit of that initial communion—underscored by the smoky atmosphere of a Milanese cafe, complemented with Martini vermouth spritzes.
Marni AW25
Marni AW25
The Salon represents our unwavering dedication to craft, marrying the Marni we first glimpsed and the Marni we have since shaped, cherished, and reimagined. A continuous evolution, sculpted by the hands of many, designed to be treasured and preserved. A sentiment that echoes in Versace’s collection, bringing forth an instinctive and authentic expression reinvented for a new, more youthful mentality.
Empowered by visual and emotional motifs intrinsic to the House, Donatella Versace employs the past as a road to the future, paved with the timeless values of Versace: freedom, individuality and integrity.
Versace AW25
Versace AW25
Versace AW25
A deconstruction that hit the mark and toyed with opposites occurred at Jil Sander. Urban and nocturnal, tough and decorative, all garments are equally glitzy, and real. A nod to the rebellious, inverted nostalgia of the New Wave, to the free appropriation of the codes of tradition. Whatever sparks Lucie and Luke Meier’s imagination turns into the tender desire to be beautiful, glamorous, and refined.
Jil Sander AW25
Jil Sander AW25
Jil Sander AW25
Speaking of refinement, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons questioned the definition of femininity and interrogated it by questioning and provoking its ideals. Displacement, re-contextualising and decontextualising are all part of this season’s lingua franca, where dresses are constantly transformed, through both form and how they’re worn. Fragments of garments shift around the body, liberated from their original function and language.
Prada AW25
Prada AW25
Prada AW25
But can a language ever evolve its codes and feel light? Ask Susan Fang, who for her AW25 outing explored the pursuit of happiness: a heartfelt tribute to her mother Ai Lan. This collection also acknowledges her mother’s own dream of holding her first art exhibition. A particularly special aspect of the collection was the desire to feature Fang’s paintings of her mother throughout the collection.
Susan Fang AW25
Susan Fang AW25
“She only began painting in her 50s after her retirement,” she noted, adding how, “her self-taught and inspiring style captures the vibrancy of nature, from the plants and flowers that she knew and loved so well from her farming background to the landscapes that she paints.”
She has reimagined her paintings into sequins, with the support of Dolce & Gabbana, and created sneakers, embroidered flowers, birds, and ballpoint pen-style denim sketches. The runway installation design brings the collection to life through the abstract combination of 3D-printed petals and optical membranes, forming a continuously flowing spatial form. Creating a sense of airiness and a rainbow-like warm glow, she immersed the viewer in a dreamy atmosphere full of happiness, while paying homage to childhood memories and maternal love.
Susan Fang AW25
Susan Fang AW25
Susan Fang AW25
There is never a bad time to simply show mesmerising works of fashion, painting, creativity, and performance art, knowing that it speaks for itself. It’s impossible, if you engage properly with fashion, not to see it as a value in itself, rather than – as the wider system sees it – something that does deserve attention.
This is why, as Italy’s and the world’s design institutions stand on the brink of a creative collapse with potentially generational consequences, it needs to broaden its gaze beyond the fixtures of traditionalism.
by Chidozie Obasi