Milan Day Five: Identity Matters

MILAN — Brand identity, in flux or reaffirmed, was a veritable obsession during this round of Milanese shows.

Louise Trotter’s sophomore outing at Bottega Veneta boldly reaffirmed the house’s identity as the temple of experimental craft: the true high-luxury icing on Kering’s cake. On display was a smorgasbord of textures and workmanship, an endless interplay of the natural and the man-made.

If the pieces were in fact very light — as Trotter insisted backstage — the effect was, at times, visually burdened, with some of the models drowning in matter. But this issue was limited to the womenswear. Her menswear expressed both a tautness and an unruliness that felt engaging and promising: perhaps the preamble for a direction Bottega should pursue.

The show, in terms of spectacle, was a joy to behold: a fast paced, dryly theatrical 80-look parade of texture and shape in a brutalist room bathed in sensual red carpeting. The contrast of brutalism and sensuality reflected that very Milanese contrast of stern façades and warm interiors, in which Trotter is now immersed, having moved to the city. There were other axes for playing with counterpoint — the severe and the wild, the sombre and the flamboyant. For sure the level of couture craft was high, and much of it likely meant for pure display: it’s the accessories that drive sales at Bottega, not clothing, and that frees ready-to-wear to be pure fantasy.

The message was clear, and understandable. What remained problematic, however, is how Phoebe Philo-inflected the exercise felt. Trotter has the talent. She just needs to find the guts to break that mould.

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Over at Ferragamo, Maximilian Davis produced one of his most focused collections to date. He still has a tendency to spin in many different directions, rather haphazardly, at once. But this time the collection coalesced into a precise, 1920s-inflected line that felt convincing and elegant yet devoid of overtly retro overtones despite its historical inspiration. The effect was graphic, lively: a face-off of discipline and unruliness. Davis mixed 1920s modernism — an enduring obsession for him, with details and shapes drawn from sailors’ uniforms (perhaps among the most fascinating specimens of military dress for both formal solution and symbolic meaning). It worked, delivering an electric, falling-apart kind of elegance. How or what all of this telegraphs with regards to the Ferragamo identity, however, remains unclear.

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When things get murky and they need a clean slate, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana revert back to their safe place: Sicily, where their core brand identity is rooted. They did it again this season, looking at a seminal moment for the label: the black-flooded late 1980s, with shapely tailoring, lingerie and socks, a sense of sensuality mixed with strictness. The show was endless deja vu — and intentionally so. A no-nonsense way to say: this is what we stand for, this is what our clients want from us.

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Since Act N.1’s Luca Lin parted ways with Galib Gassanoff, the identity of the brand they previously ran together has shifted in an interesting new direction. This was Lin’s first show alone, and it was worth taking note: an exploration of the classics which got twisted, fluidified and deconstructed into a unisex wardrobe, rendered in muddy colours that looked lived-in without the live-in affectations that too often occur in fashion. It felt authentic and Lin is a fresh voice worth following.

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