Milan unveils the most hidden facets of femininity

Milan’s fashion designers celebrated women on Wednesday, revealing the most hidden facets of their personality through small touches. For autumn-winter 2024/25, the designers imagined wardrobes that were at once simple, concrete and sophisticated, defining in two or three key silhouettes a very precise allure or trait of character. The woman is fatal and mysterious at Del Core, sensual and playful at N°21, bohemian and baroque at Etro.

Alessandro Dell’Acqua is proposing “anarchic couture” for next winter, with a wardrobe designed for young and old alike, who want to play the chic card while having fun and not worrying about tomorrow. The wardrobe classics are shaken up and reworked in a lighter, more contemporary spirit, with an almost austere, masculine design enhanced by precious details.

The little black dress was reduced to the strict minimum, ultra-short with a plunging V-neckline, or it opened completely sideways, made up of two straight panels held together by just a grosgrain ribbon. The pleated skirt, too, was cut in two and slit at the sides. The bow was present, but diverted. Flattened, it embraced the chest at the top of a strapless dress or was placed on a mini-skirt. Later in the show, it twirled around the back of a knitted dress. The bodysuit was knitted in a coarse wool blend with a turtleneck, and the leather jacket was available in neoprene, so much more modern. 

The Neapolitan designer also shortened the jacket of a suit in thick woollen cloth, generously widening the collar. “I started from the Italian couture of the 1980s, from Valentino to Odicini and Fausto Sarli, and I had fun destroying everything in a liberating way,” he explains. “I’m still independent and I can afford not to follow the rules that are imposed on us. Glamour exists, but only in your head. It’s not flashy. It’s the attitude that counts. There’s an enormous amount of work in this collection, whether in the finishing or the crystal embroidery, but also in the choice of fabrics, with satins and double silk crepes,” he continues.    

It’s all about contrasts, between this couture femininity and a more masculine edge. Vapid boas coloured with marabou feathers were combined with retro coats in coarse wool or salt-and-pepper tweed. Strass brooches closed large Norwegian jacquard cardigans. Colours clashed, like in this daring combination of a royal blue chunky knit jumper and a poppy red chiffon dress.

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Etro has returned to the bohemian vein that has long characterised the label, infused with the baroque vein contributed by its creative director, Sicilian Marco De Vincenzo. The collection blends different cultures and horizons in a successful patchwork of precious fabrics and time-honoured craft techniques.

The autumnal hues of the first models, with carmine jackets, black suits and brown coats, were immediately ennobled by antique gold- or bronze-coloured decorations, turning to stronger colours to arrive at an explosion of plant or decorative motifs, while the silhouettes were illuminated by important gold jewels.

The styles were intertwined, between a more concrete, urban spirit, with striped shirts, men’s suits and knitted dresses, and a more opulent, ethnic style, where a Berber coat with a glittering hood alternated with a leather overcoat embroidered with flowers, or a tapestry suit trimmed with faux fur. Wool tops and more classic jackets were extended into long scarves.

Jacquard-knit tunics and trousers were hand-worked inside out to play on the 3D effect of the texture. Silk Georgette strips simulated a boa effect, wrapping around the body in the edges of fluctuating dresses. Leather ensembles were enriched with prints. And we mustn’t forget the weighted coats and velvet pieces, another House classic.

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A change of style at Del Core, where women drape themselves in large swathes of flannel and grey wools to create elegant blouses, dresses, baggy trousers, dinner jackets and suits. This minimalist vein was gradually subverted by unexpected constructions and materials, such as wool, which was used in coarse-knit tops with thick collars that extended into cosy, wrap-around bonnets, or in long openwork dresses with oversized collars ruffled with fringes.

Skin-tight jumpsuits in shades as if diluted in water revealed strange spikes, like blisters. But above all, the clothes were stripped or peeled like forbidden fruit. Suit jackets, in particular, opened at the top and unzipped at the shoulders and along the sleeves, transforming themselves into corsets. These corsets sometimes enclosed another jacket or jumper. In other cases, the corset jacket was worn next to the body, and when its edges folded down over the chest, they revealed a shimmering lining.

The same process was applied to fluctuating dresses in light flesh-toned or aqua-coloured chiffon, where the top fell over the body, exposing the shoulders and revealing the underside.