Designers take a walk on the wild side at Milan Fashion Week

Naomi Campbell’s first runway appearance at Milan Fashion Week this spring/summer 2025 season wasn’t for a big luxury house, but for rising star Del Core. A surprised audience gasped as the supermodel, wearing a floor-skimming white dress, closed the show for the Italian fashion label, founded in 2020 by creative director Daniel Del Core. “How on earth did he afford her?” mused one show attendee.

The relationship formed organically, out of mutual respect, the designer shared backstage. “She called me and said that she would love to do my show. We had started talking on Instagram and when she was like, ‘I absolutely want to walk for you’, I thought it was a joke.” But there was no facetiousness here on Campbell’s part. Del Core knew it was a moment not to be wasted. And so she was dressed in a couture gown — the sole one in the ready-to-wear show.

Del Core does not normally produce couture collections nor does it participate in Haute Couture week in Paris, but next January it will make its debut, the designer said. It’s a move that is sure to elevate the label following a bustling year, which included the opening of its New York flagship store and appearances on many a red carpet (most notably, Florence Pugh wore Del Core to the Oscars, rather than Valentino, for which she is a brand ambassador).

“Things are going to be a little different from now on,” Del Core said, before being whisked away to greet guests, including actor Kelly Rutherford.

To mark the centenary of Fendi, 1925 (the year the company was founded) served as a point of reference for designer Kim Jones, who looked at key movements from that era, such as art deco, and notable works including Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway and F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. “It was quite a bohemian time where lots of groups did things that changed Victorian values. And I think that’s what’s interesting,” Jones said.

On the runway, louche insouciance was met with a sense of ordinary realism. It was in part inspired by the personal style of Delfina Delettrez, a fourth-generation Fendi. See the ornamented vest-blouse sets, or the embroidered silk and organza dresses styled with Red Wing lace-up boots. Jones explained that “it can be very ladylike when you have these dresses, so I wanted to make it [look] more [like] the girl that I know”.

The LVMH-owned brand still uses fur, but Jones has made it his personal mission to create pieces without the controversial material that would still appear luxurious and desirable to high-spending customers. He hoped that, this time, embellishments would do the trick. One can appreciate his forward way of thinking.

You never know what might be percolating next in Francesco Risso’s weird and wonderful mind. This time, the Marni designer presented a collection of deconstructed shirts and floral dresses made only from cotton, leather and suede, worn by models with thin, dramatically arched eyebrows à la Marlene Dietrich. Attendees, who sat on chairs facing different directions, were treated to an emotional performance by a trio of pianists. It was a fantastical event, but one wonders if the lack of correlation between each of Risso’s collections is confusing for clients. Uniformity isn’t always bad.

After a pastel-coloured autumn collection, Lucie and Luke Meier of Jil Sander took a darker turn for spring, presenting coats with sheenier fabrics, and dresses with embossed florals and gradient shades. Raglan tops with boxy sleeves were tucked into blue or white denim trousers. The inspiration was the dim and moody lighting that appears before dusk, and urban landscapes, said Luke Meier, as well as the realities of “dressing for a darker world”, added Lucie.

Luke’s interest in the 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner also incited the moodier feel. But the focus wasn’t on futuristic silhouettes. Instead, the designers took a more nostalgic approach. Neon-hued prints of images — the slanted bird’s eye view of a parked car, or a space with lurid red and yellow lighting — captured between 1972 and 1982 by photographer Greg Girard in Vancouver (where both Girard and Luke Meier are from) were printed on the clothes. The mood was palpably neo-noir, emphasised by the venue’s cinematically draped curtains.

In its usual fashion, Prada’s womenswear offering had many of the details that were shown in the men’s collection in June, like the trompe l’œil belts. There were also printed fur collars (although some actual furry-looking collars and belts did follow later), and a typically oddball colour palette that mixed olive green with flamingo pink and light caramel. Several signature Prada shapes, such as the car coat, featured, but less of Miuccia Prada’s feminine touch could be felt (co-designer Raf Simons seemed to have a stronger hand this time).

The designs, Prada explained backstage, were a commentary on the dominating algorithms and “extreme” information that is being consumed and shaping lives. “Anything we know is because other people are instilling the terms.” She added, in a later statement: “We wanted not to critique but to engage with this idea, to open a dialogue inspired by our cultural moment.” That took shape in the many eras (and personalities) that the collection seemed to embody. I read the skirts and dresses with large mirrored panels, which bounced off light, as a chance for the audience to reflect on themselves.

Later in the day, Naomi Campbell caused another stir, simply by taking her seat on the front row at Roberto Cavalli, next to the late designer’s second wife and muse Eva. Less noticed was the Emirati billionaire businessman Hussain Sajwani, whose company Damac Properties acquired the Cavalli label in 2019. He sat more discreetly, with his wife Tabassum. It marked the first show since Cavalli’s death in April.

That was on the mind of Cavalli’s hand-chosen successor Fausto Puglisi. The show began with palette-cleansing cream looks, inspired by the architecture in Puglisi’s hometown of Messina, before going into more Cavalli-esque pieces, such as printed dresses and blouses featuring a sunset sea view, and ultimately closing with a gaggle of famous models, including Natasha Poly, Karen Elson and Eva Herzigova, in archive looks designed by Cavalli himself.

Puglisi wanted to be respectful, but made an effort to push things forward. “I designed many of these,” he said, gesturing to looser-fit trousers that, in his view, circumvent the male gaze. “Roberto didn’t, because he never had to think about it. It was a different time. Women don’t need to please men any more and fashion is much more free.” But he retained some signatures too, like snakeskin print, and the overall mood still felt molto italiano — a very sellable spirit.

This article has been amended since publication to correct the name of Tabassum Sajwani

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