Milan Fashion Week: Max Mara

Hilary Alexander reviews Max Mara’s latest autumn/winter 09/10 collection from Milan Fashion Week…

By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director in Milan

The item which opened the show told the whole story – a mid-calf, camel coat, collared and sashed; impeccably-cut, desirable, and wearable. Here was a brand which intended to play to its strengths. Not for nothing is this venerable Italian company called ‘the king of coats’.

Trenches, car-coats, college-coats, sheepskins and wraparounds followed, in alpaca, cashmere, and pure camel hair, all in subtle shades of camel, tobacco, beige and grey, with the occasional navy and one brilliant bright red. New was the wide, kimono-style, cuffed, short-sleeved coat – also seen as a jacket – sashed or belted over polo-necks, slim pencil-skirts and below-the-knee, sarong-style and pencil skirts, some of which featured an under-layer, like a petticoat. The rolled-up sleeve treatment was also shown on a knitted, sash coat in navy.

As an alternative to suits and trousers, Max Mara showed body-conscious sweater-dresses, in plain black knit and sequins, with a polo or scarf neckline, and a deep scooped-out back.

To underscore its strength in coats, Max Mara also used Milan Fashion Week to launch a new ‘couture’ collection of 17 coats, precisely-tailored and hand-finished in the atelier tradition. Egg and cocoon-shaped, in the manner of Balenciaga, or slimline, these pieces represent the excellence and experience of half a century.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Photos: COUTORTURE

Milan Fashion Week: Marni

Hilary Alexander reviews Marni’s latest autumn/winter 09/10 collection from Milan Fashion Week…

By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director in Milan

The necklace was the essential element of the Marni collection for next autumn/winter.

In a dazzling collage of rich and unusual materials –horn, flakes of emerald and amethyst, ceramic flowers, crystals, beads and 24k carat gold – it shimmered like a miniature treasure-chest around the necks of the models, tied with blue ribbons or actually worked into the fabric of the designs.

The colours and exotic, rich mix of elements of these jewel-box neckpieces were perfectly mirrored in the clothes themselves.

Patchworked in squares of fur; woven in intense jacquards in forest-green and violet, exotic florals in tan and turquoise, or brocades as richly embroidered as a Coromandel screen in pink and gold; made from blends of plain knit with gleaming metallic Lurex inlays; embellished with Swarovski and veiled in chiffon – the shift-dresses, pea-coats, fur shrugs and kimono-jackets were each of them little jewels in themselves.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Photos: COUTOTURE

Milan Fashion Week: Versace

Hilary Alexander reviews Versace’s latest autumn/winter 09/10 collection from Milan Fashion Week…

By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director in Milan

The flash of silver on a sculpted Little Black Dress which opened the Versace show illuminated the message of the collection.

But this was nothing to do with bling; there was scarcely an item of jewellery to be seen on the catwalk. Instead, the heavy metal theme was in the fibres of steel woven into the wool; in the rectangular silver buckles and hardware of the belts around slinky jersey dresses; in the lightning flashes of metallic texture which were brush-stroked across the hems of slim coats and glamorous, wrap-trenches; and in the pewter and aluminium shades of the slim, tailored trousers, boxy jackets, leather bombers and potent day-dresses, with just a slither of fabric sliced away at shoulder or breastbone.

This was a strong collection; strong on silhouette, strong on colour and strong on its message of real clothes for “powerful, strong, confident women,” as Donatella Versace said.

The silk jersey dresses, in particular, revealed a new side – in more ways than one – to this Versace woman. They were sensual, rather than in-your-face sexy; draped off one shoulder, one-sleeved, sliced open at the back to show spinal cleavage or a sheer, mesh, racer-back T beneath; or came with deep V plunge-fronts.

The brilliance of the colours – aquamarine, shocking pink, emerald, orange, cobalt, crimson –alongside matt and wet-look black, added to the impact and was made even more dramatic when the dresses slithered right down to the matching double-platform shoes with 14cm heels – and a sky blue sole.

Of course, no Versace collection would be complete without paparazzi fodder – in the shape, literally, of Isabeli, in a turquoise stretch, cleavage-mini, intersected with slashed panels which were held together by silver clamps.

The finale parade, reinforced the sultry, sensual theme with “goddess gowns” in a rainbow of colours, cut with a minimum of seams, in chiffon and silk jersey, which flowed around the body like clinging togas.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Photos: COUTOTURE