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FASHION

Five things we learned at Milan Fashion Week

Milan fashion week winds up on Monday with Italian veteran designer Giorgio Armani showing his autumn-winter 2017 collection before the international circus of critics, buyers and top models decamps to Paris.

Five things we learned at Milan Fashion Week
Models during the Dolce & Gabbana show. Photo: AFP

Here are five takeaways:

Flowers


Photo: AFP

It may only be February but the northern Italian city famed for its grey skies was in full bloom: there were blossoms across the board on dresses, skirts, coats and scarves, from Gucci and Fendi to Alberta Ferretti and Fausto Puglisi.

Dolce&Gabbana models not only had roses on their frocks but fresh petals and leaves in their hair, while Marras went so far as to have his models carry potted plants down the runway.

Bras on show

Thought bras were for your eyes only? Think again. Underwear is leaving the bedroom and hitting the streets. Luxury underwear brand La Perla got the ball rolling with its catwalk show in New York, where corsets met ready-to-wear.

And in Milan, Prada offered a crochet bra worn with nothing but trousers, Marni brought us bras and bikinis stitched over the top of dresses, and Philosophy Di Lorenzo Serafini offered a fearsome looking bra-corset hybrid.

Little red dress

Photo: AFP

That staple of every wardrobe – the little black dress – is being usurped by its racy cousin: slinky red dresses are the must-have for the coming season.

Karl Lagerfeld brought us a see-through number for Fendi worn with a thonged-leotard guaranteed to get the pulse racing. The less brave could plump for the No. 21 offering, worn with small shorts underneath. Or Max Mara's forgiving, oversized version which swaps sexy for elegant.

Animals

Photo: AFP

There were moments this week the fashion circus appeared to have transformed into a fashion zoo. Whatever your favourite animal, you will likely find a designer who slapped a picture of it on his fall-winter creations.

Gucci's Alessandro Michele brought us bats, foxes and wolves on clothes as well as cat-headed canes and fox rings. Vionnet, showing for the first time in Milan, went with bird prints on silk dresses. D&G favoured cats and bears.

The week also starred several canine fashionistas: a small white dog raced+ with the models around the catwalk circuit at the end of the Marras show, a model at D&G carried a tiny pooch with her down the runway, and a pup in white sunglasses and a dapper purple jacket became a social media hit after it was snapped trend-spotting outside the Gucci show.

Slogans

New York fashion week proved a stage for political slogans, and Italy's designers were not to be left behind.

Missoni ended her show with supermodels clad in Pussyhats, the pink protest symbols of women's rights.

Photo: AFP

Fashion queen Donatella Versace used one-word logos splashed across hats, scarves and the back of shirts – “Unity, love, loyalty, power” – to challenge attempts to turn back the clock on feminism.

And the star face on the Marras runway was Italy's 73-year old radical feminist and model Benedetta Barzini.

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FASHION

Paris exhibition celebrates 100 years of French Vogue

A new exhibition in Paris will tell the story of 100 years of French Vogue - from the post-war 'New Look' of Christian Dior through the sexual liberation of the 1960s to the dangling-cigarette waifs of the 2000s.

French Vogue celebrates 100 years
French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance. 

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