This week the Men’s Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion Week is showing in Milan, and reminded me of my first experience of the Women’s Winter 2019 Milan Fashion Week in February this year, where I visited the sites of 5 fashion shows – Gucci, Fendi, Moschino, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana.  I was surprised how spread out these fashion shows were around Milan. I travelled for around an hour to Gucci’s compound in Via Mecenate in the southeast of the city, while Versace’s show was in a central city location, in the Palazzo Mezzanotte, the site of the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa) in Piazza Affari.  Bottega Veneta’s show was held in a transparent marquee constructed behind the Arco della Pace in Piazza Sempione and Fendi’s invited guests queued on artificial turf laid outside their premises in Via Solari, about 40 minutes by tram from the city.

While I was studying in Milan I came to understand that over the years since 1985 the leading fashion design houses were constantly negotiating with the city for venues in central Milan where the fashion shows could be held.  At various times, the fashion houses were forced to present their shows outside the city at the fairgrounds.  This was unsatisfactory from the point of view of both the designers and key stakeholders such as Vogue. Ultimately the fashion houses searched for their own venues within the city and resisted the city’s numerous efforts to create fashion ‘precincts’ as part of urban redevelopment plans.

Since 2016 Gucci have hosted fashion shows and international buyer events at their own compound in south-east Milan and Dolce & Gabbana ended their venue search by acquiring an old cinema, the Metropole in Via Piave, which is now used for all their shows.

Milan Fashion Week was a very different experience overall to what I expected.  I imagined the city to be awash with #MFW banners and posters, and with top models posing outside the Milan Cathedral in the Piazza Duomo.  However, there were no obvious signs, and unless a fashionista, the visitor to Milan would not necessarily know that Fashion Week was occurring!  The only tell-tale signs were the parade of black town cars transporting VIPs to each show.

Fendi

Versace

D&G

Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana is the official representative for organising Milan Fashion Week and their website provided a calendar of events and locations. This gave me the perfect excuse to explore my new home city of only one month.  Using my Milan transit app I was able to plot routes to some of the larger designer venues. My first ‘show’ was Gucci, and having to take two trams to reach Via Mecenate I was really heading into new territory and didn’t know what to expect. I knew I was heading in the right direction when I was joined on the tram by fashion photographers and more than the usual number of passengers wearing Gucci monogrammed belts, jackets and handbags! The stylish appearance of my fellow tram passengers belied the fact that the ultimate destination to which we were heading turned out to be a nondescript building, a former aeroplane factory adjacent to the Jaguar brand headquarters.

Outside Gucci

While the locations for each individual fashion brand were scattered across Milan I came to understand that the crowds were mostly fans and social media groupies who followed each of the shows. Cameras and iphones clicked away furiously at, what I observed to be two distinct groups: official invitees who wore the brand and clutched oversized invitation envelopes; and fans who were dressed to stand out and pose for everyone with a camera!  It was a toss-up as to which group deserved the most attention. The invited guests convincingly exhibited the respective brand’s ethos in all manifestations – daywear or gala-ready ensembles.  The cluster of fans outside the perimeter of the carpeted ‘in-zone’ were equally flamboyant and outrageous.  While some were unashamedly fodder for social media photographers, others showed remarkable originality in their compositions!  What I eventually concluded was that it was the fun and vibrancy of fashion on the street that was as part of Milan’s appeal as the business of fashion here.

From my observation Milan Fashion Week was a ritual for exclusive gatherings of influencers and power-brokers.  However I also came to realise that these are in the main business events.  I think the fashion designers who stood their ground and opposed moves to dilute the business of fashion within educational, tourism or cultural platforms have preserved a framework that champions the legacy, and ensures the future, of Milan Fashion Week.