Italian dressing: highlights from Milan Fashion Week spring/summer 2026

In the final debut of the week, Louise Trotter took the reins at Bottega Veneta and delivered a masterclass in staying true to the signatures of a wildly popular fashion house, but putting her own distinctive mark on it. “I like that the ‘Bottega’ is a workshop – one with a long and multifaceted history in Ital0y. It involves the collective effort of craft; with craftsmanship, the people who make it, and the people who wear it matter. It’s where the hand and the heart become one,” she shared in her notes to press. It translated to a celebration of the brand’s incredible fabrications in substantial leather and wool tailoring, feather-light gathered cotton gowns and deconstructed knitwear. Elsewhere, is signature intrecciato woven leather was the protagonist, appearing on everything from coat lapels to boilersuits. The British designer admitted after the show that she felt like she was in a candy box with all the tools and toiles at her disposal. “It’s been unbelievable for me, it’s the most wonderful entrance to this house to discover the hands, the craft, the willingness to always say let’s try. It’s a wonder.

Dario Vitale’s debut at Versace was one of the most hotly anticipated of the week and arrived with a mic drop of a show on Friday evening. Uncovering a fresh point of view for the va-va-voom house, he staged it in the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, a former bourgeois private residence turned secret museum and transformed it into a set inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema. Having mined the early Gianni Versace years, as opposed to the last 30 under his successor and sister Donatella Versace’s reign – it was a mash-up of 80s and 90s-inspired silhouettes – see tight high-waisted multicoloured denim, off-the shoulder cocktail dresses, and bejewelled bras – but styled in the way that Gen Z is wearing it now (having probably bought it off Vinted). Having explored the Versace archive not for the clothes, but for its founder’s ephemera to capture a spirit rather than tangible inspirations, Vitale laid the foundations for a new Versace world that feels as real as it does aspirational.

As the first big reveal of the season, the stakes couldn’t have been higher for Demna at Gucci. The previous provocative creative director at Balenciaga – where he was responsible for dad-core, gorp-core, and all the “cores” you’ve seen fashion tribes lose their minds over in recent years – it seems Demna’s remit is clear at Gucci: create a world in which people aspire to live and therefore want to buy everything in it. To do so, Demna spurned catwalk convention to present his ideas in a Spike Jonze-directed film starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Elliot Page and Ed Harris. Think The Substance meets La Grande Belleza. They were all wearing his new collection that riffed heavily from the recent golden-age of Alessandro Michele and was all immediately available to purchase. Staging a screening in central Milan and a red-carpet outside to rival Cannes, it spoke volumes about where this new era of Gucci sees its opportunities lie: leveraging celebrity influence and facilitating the “see-now-buy-now” opportunity that comes with it.

Having stepped back into the creative director seat for the 50th anniversary year of her family’s brand, Silvia Fendi has been enjoying rave reviews. “It was emotional and beautiful and made me very proud of what I’ve done and the people who made me who I am today,” she said backstage ahead of show. Her new collection – that played out on a multicoloured cushioned catwalk designed by the designer Marc Newson – spoke to a similar joyful mood. Bright turquoise, Pepto-pink, sunshine yellow and scarlet red appeared on louche tailoring, fair-isle knitwear and figure-hugging fishtail dresses, offset by technical anoraks and lace that had been printed with flowers to almost look pixilated. Fendi described it as a "psychedelic promonade”, and that it was.

“Inevitably, when we create we think about the world around us. The future is unknown. This collection is about reacting to the uncertain – clothes that can shift, change, adapt,” shared Miuccia Prada in her show notes. The resulting collection, entitled Body of Composition, gave classic Prada signatures a spontaneous new energy. Cut away from the body, sheer pinafores presented an almost ethereal protectional layer, ruched balloon skirts were cloud-like, and acid green pierced the pink and pistachio Prada palette. Meanwhile, the utilitarian silhouettes for which the brand is synonymous  were worn with silk gloves. “We always hope to offer something new, but going to the past is unavoidable. You start to think about the meaning of clothes, what things meant, how we can reevaluate them for today,” said Prada’s co-creative director Raf Simons. “Uniform is part of a Prada history, for us, there is the idea that a woman can be beautiful, elegant and strong in a uniform. It is a challenge, to a hierarchy of perception. To free women from this.”

Creative Director Alessandro Dell’Aqua is the undisputed master of modern femme-fatale chic. Think a little bit scruffy, a little bit sexy, and utterly, achingly cool. The impact of his collections owes as much to how they’re put together on the catwalk as they do to the credentials of the actual clothes. This season, the familiar pencil silhouettes and diamanté-embellished twisted knitwear were layered with a dabble into grunge. Anoraks, cargo pants and technical cagoules entered the chat, infusing a brand that riffs so successfully off the 1950s with a touch of irresistible 90s Brit Pop cool. Unlike a lot of clothes that appear on catwalks, everything here has real-wardrobe potential and styling references to help us all nail that laissez-faire look.

Tod’s creative director Matteo Tamburini has a deft touch at it making summer leather look feather light. For his SS26 collection, leather bandeau dresses came with whispers of braided chiffon at the neckline, striped handkerchief tops and skirts appeared to be paper thin, and jackets were artful with whipstitched detail. This relaxed, off-duty mood was matched by the introduction of unbuttoned striped shirts, over-the-head cagoules, and big canvas tote bags oozing escape-the-city appeal. Tamburini also took Tod’s signatures in a stripped back direction. The Gommino driving shoe for which it is famous, came with open toes, while loafers became backless and slip-on – perfect for summer.

While fashion week is all about what’s on the catwalk, it would be negligent to not mention that the start of the Dolce & Gabbana show was dominated by the late arrival of Meryl Streep in character as Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada in the front row. The Hollywood team behind the 2006-sequel was in town to film scenes and where better than household name D&G to capture the high-wattage, catwalk-strutting, camera-ready energy for which the industry is parodied. With lights down, all attention was on the clothes. Recently, co-creative directors Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have done an excellent job of doubling down into their house code of exquisite tailoring, deliciously sensual loungewear and the one-off pieces that would stop a room of people in their tracks. With jewel-encrusted nightwear worn with draped denim and 80s leather jackets, and a strong line of brocaded blazers, the boys were more than ready for their close-up.

Creative director Maxmillian Davis looked to the 1920s in researching his spring/summer collection. “This was a moment where women were creating a new femininity. It was a celebration of freedom, a reclaiming of self,” he shared in his show notes. It started with the discovery of an image of silent screen star Lola Todd dressed head-to-toe in leopard in 1925 in the Ferragamo archive, which led Davis to delve deeper into the exotic prints that were prominent during the “Africana” movement of the Jazz Age. It translated here to beautiful dropped-waist gathered-silk dresses with abstract exotic prints and cascading tassels that modernised the famous flapper silhouette, while Harlem Renaissance zoot suits inspired the menswear tailoring.

Creative director Ian Griffiths is currently one of the longest-standing designers at a luxury fashion house, having celebrated his 40-year anniversary this year. That means that he’s in a position to mix things up. This season, he served classic and elegant MaxMara – see paper-thin linen tailoring and pristine Bermuda shorts – but with a heavy dose of abstract detailing – see iridescent-effect silk, blazers with massive silk epaulettes, and aquatic influence that resulted in coral-reef effect silk dresses. It was, he said, inspired by “the 18th-century fascination with the cabinet des curiosités that inspires prints featuring all kinds of life on earth, fauna and flora of land, sea and air delicately painted in layers of ethereal organza.” It resulted in a collection of super high-volume statements that will delight the extravagant MaxMara fanbase, while giving just enough of the classic Italian elegance to keep MaxMara devotees something to shop next season.

Following his critically acclaimed collections at Bally, the debut collection of Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander was a hotly anticipated affair. While there have been several designers helming the house since its eponymous founder held the creative reins, Bellotti’s first outing steered the ship back to the principles of purism and minimalism on which she founded it. Spliced leather skirts and strict, shrunken knits were countered with a millefeuille of gelato-hued silk on skits and dresses and butter-soft leather jackets in a shade to match. It created a positive tension of architectural-like discipline and spontaneous individualism – the same beguiling combination that defines the city Bellotti has been immersed in while designing this collection. Much like Milan, this collection sets Jil Sander off on an intriguing new course.

Staged at the majestic Pinoteca Brera on Sunday evening, the Giorgio Armani show was both celebration of the king of fashion who passed away aged 91 in September and a moment to reflect on his inspirational life’s work. Amidst flickering bamboo lamps and a live piano recital by Ludovico Einaudi, the designer’s final collection was presented on the catwalk by models both past and present, including Gina Di Bernardo who was “the face” of Armani in the 80s and 90s. While the show took place in Armani’s long-adopted home of Brera in Milan, it was inspired by Pantelleria, the southern Italian island where he loved to holiday. It translated to classic Armani codes of weightless silks, intricate-embroidery, and undulating tones of blue inspired by the Mediterranean Sea. Front-row guests – including Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton who were famously dressed in Armani in American Gigolo – watched as the final model walked solo around the porticoes wearing a glittering gown bearing Mr Armani’s face, before rapturous applause and a standing ovation for the man himself.

Main image: Meryl Streep, Simone Ashley and Stanley Tucci at the Dolce & Gabbana SS26 show