Milan Fashion Week explores the meaning of luxury, from Vogue World to Prada | Canada Voices

The first days of Milan Fashion Week presented two radically different visions of luxury.

Nowhere was extravagance more apparent than at Vogue World, a star-studded mega-show held at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Grand in both scale and ambition, the event featured a cast of more than 360 artists, dancers and models who appeared on an extended runway to pose and perform across five themed acts. One, titled Made in Italy, was a tribute to the country’s most celebrated fashion houses. Another, Imagination, involved singers from La Scala and ballet star Roberto Bolle. Online, fashion lovers praised how the event brought together a Mount Rushmore of Italian designers, including Miuccia Prada, Alessandro Michele, Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana and Pierpaolo Piccioli.

It was Donatella Versace, however, who drummed up the most fanfare, as a lineup of A-list attendees formed around her for selfies. The excitement came just hours after she announced the launch of a new, as-yet-unamed brand.

Jennifer Lopez arrived in a Dolce and Gabbana gown looking like a character from Netflix series The Leopard; Cardi B wore an archival Versace dress by the late Gianni Versace; and Alicia Keys arrived in a painted Francesco Risso confection. Canadian representation, however, was relatively limited. Pamela Anderson attended in a metallic Ferragamo look from the label’s fall/winter 2026 collection, while Somali-Canadian model Yasmin Warsame and South Sudanese-Canadian superstar Awar Odhiang showed up in vintage Armani and Gucci, respectively.

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Echoing the lavish spirit of Vogue World was Peruvian designer Sergio Dávila’s spring/summer 2027 collection. Staged in a stately turn-of-the-century apartment whose soaring windows framed sweeping views of the medieval Sforza Castle, the show made its own case for opulence. The former fortress, now home to galleries housing works by Giovanni Bellini and Michelangelo, was a deliberate choice.

“It’s fitting we are beside a castle designed with such intention because this collection is inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics,” Dávila said following the presentation. “It seeks to embrace, rather than conceal, fractures. I believe imperfections become part of an object’s story and identity.”

Models circulated through the rooms in a choreographed procession, using the terrazzo floors as a catwalk and the deep green Fromental wallcovering as a backdrop against which to pose. Surrounded by Warhols and antiques, it was as though they embodied a new Peruvian-Italian aristocratic dynasty.

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The collection radiated that same noble sensibility. Dávila’s intricate knits and delicately cut dresses crafted from vicuña, silk, baby alpaca and Pima and Tanguis cotton were so richly detailed they nearly eclipsed the art and furniture. The designer spoke of working with more than 160 Peruvian women and artisans throughout Cusco.

“Together, we used jacquards, we crocheted, and we also took on patchwork,” he said. “Everything was done by human hands and minds. We had very little help from computers. We wanted the process to be as natural as the fabrics we source and use.”

That same commitment to craftsmanship formed the foundation of newcomer Edis Pala’s collection.

The strongest looks included recycled bovine-leather dresses and crocheted day and evening wear in slate grey, ivory and subtle tea-stained tones. A men’s ash-coloured sweater was especially striking. Crafted from leather manipulated to resemble fisherman’s gear and tangled TV wires, it looked like the product of an imagined collaboration between the designer and Salvador Dalí.

Drawing on his Bulgarian, Turkish, Albanian and Serbian roots, Pala titled the collection Merge. “I am living the idea that I brought to the runway,” he said. “This feeling of ‘what was distant becomes one.’ I arrived in Milan as an outsider, and now I feel a little more found and more embraced. These clothes are about connecting cultures and people in the same way my own life has.”

Prada’s design philosophy for spring/summer 2027, on the other hand, wasn’t centred on connecting as much as obsessing. About skirts. There were 63 of them on the runway, plus another one worn by designer Miuccia Prada. Pleated, maxi, flared, pencil, A-line and every variation in between, they arrived in wool, silk, organza and nylon. Viewed together, they transformed an everyday garment into something of a manifesto. Speaking to Women’s Wear Daily, Prada said that she and co-designer Raf Simons “realized that very little attention [in fashion design] was paid to what’s happening at the waist or from the waist down.”