Milan Fashion Week opens with light collections from Fiorucci and Fendi

Spring-Summer 2025 promises to be hot and sensual. As the Fiorucci and Fendi brands can testify. Fiorucci opened Milan Fashion Week with a delicate collection sprinkled with touches of humour. Fiorucci, which took to the catwalk immediately afterwards, adopted the same highly feminine lingerie spirit. Fendi celebrated its centenary with a highly successful collection by Kim Jones.

On Tuesday, Fiorucci held the very first fashion show in its history. It was held outside the official calendar, at the Milan Triennale, in the presence of the architect Stefano Boeri, president of this design museum, which from November will be devoting a major retrospective to the label’s founder, Elio Fiorucci. Bought in October 2022 by Swiss businesswoman Dona Bertarelli, via her family office, the label is in the midst of a relaunch, repositioning itself in the accessible luxury segment with products made in Italy.

To mark the occasion, the iconic Italian brand unveiled its new course under the aegis of Creative Director Francesca Murri. She gave Fiorucci a more feminine and sophisticated touch, while playing on the brand’s codes, as seen in this look where the house’s classic denim mini-shorts are worn under a transparent tunic embroidered with flowers and a heart on each breast.

Symbolically, the designer chose the theme of waking up, to anchor the brand in the present and under its new face after years of floating. The catwalk was accessed through a bluish tunnel filled with cushions. An old clock radio blared out the news. Roused from their sleep, their dreams already far away, the dishevelled models presented themselves in improvised outfits, picked at random from their wardrobes.

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Women and men invariably wear each other’s clothes. She wears a suit. He combines a camisole with Bermuda shorts, sometimes with lacy granny shorts peeking out, with sequined ballet flats and sheer knee-highs. All in white, or in pastel shades ranging from baby pink and blue to lilac, they all seemed to have woken from their dreams, in flip-flops and pyjama trousers in imitation satin, or in dresses that look like nightgowns, with the black bin liner in hand to throw away… In fact, a new model of Fiorucci bag that should appeal to fashion victims.

Blouses, T-shirts, maxi skirts and dresses with thin straps are cut from Tyvek. Tyvek is a fabric from the archives that looks like soft crumpled paper, and is usually used for overalls in laboratories. One of the dresses is decorated with openwork cherubs, a clear reference to Fiorucci’s angels. Other ensembles bear large turquoise numbers: 1967. The year the house was founded.

Without literally quoting Elio Fiorucci, Francesca Murri prefers to appropriate his ironic style through new, offbeat creations, like these two-tone cardigans that can be completely unbuttoned at the front and back, so they can be recomposed ad infinitum, Or a top and skirt made from a long lock of blond hair, or a tee-shirt dress in the shape of a plastic bag, made from shiny silk that perfectly recreates the illusion of a plastic-coated material that reads “Fiorucci cash&carry”. And don’t forget these hand-knitted slippers, usually slipped under the covers on chilly nights.

Boudoir spirit at Fendi

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At Fendi, we find the same sensual femininity and boudoir feel in powdery, skin tones, accentuated by evanescent outfits with caressing, fluid movements. With this anniversary collection, designed for next summer and aptly titled “Dal 1925” (since 1925, when the Roman fashion house was founded), creative director Kim Jones seems particularly inspired, succeeding in recreating through some forty looks the invisible thread between the very chic 1920s and the whispered luxury of today.

He delicately balances the simplest pieces with the most precious creations, creating a unique, soberly sophisticated wardrobe. The narrative is underscored by the voices of Anna and Silvia Fendi, daughter and granddaughter respectively of Adele Fendi, the founder of the Roman fashion house.

“She liked to get as close to beauty as possible,” Anna recalls, as if echoing the fashion show, as the models with their natural, dishevelled looks walk through an immense white space, accompanied on the piano by the delicate notes of neo-classical German composer Max Richter. The collection was a mix of daytime and evening wear, divided between everyday basics such as tank tops, t-shirts, suit jackets, pencil skirts, trench coats and knitwear, and richly decorated silk and organza pieces that could be layered or mixed with the ensemble.

The designer played with superimpositions, layering transparent tulle tunics hand-embroidered with Art Deco designs or tiny flowers and leaves in pearls, sequins and silver, over sensible lingerie, or a black apron skirt over a fine printed white silk dress. He also slips long coats or jackets over knitted micro-sets (short-culotte with jumper or cardigan). This effortless, natural look is enhanced by the choice of comfortable lace-up walking shoes.

Kim Jones loves to pay attention to detail, especially in her designs. Like this shirt dress, which transforms at the back into a classic shirt leaning against a dress, or this tank top worn inside out with its straps falling over the legs, which becomes a skirt. Elsewhere, a shirt is gathered at the back and fastened with a belt, like a jacket, while a textured velvet coat with kimono sleeves, tied at the waist with a ribbon belt, looks like a bathrobe.