Why will Prada open the next Milan Fashion Week? All the news about an unusual but interesting calendar
Yesterday, the calendar for the upcoming Milan Fashion Week Women's SS27 this September was released. And it's not like the others. Despite the fact that all the usual appointments are on the schedule, the September edition remains dotted with illustrious names: we'll talk about Prada shortly; but there's considerable anticipation for Gucci's new show on home turf, for Meryll Rogge's second show at Marni, for the third Fendi show signed by Maria Grazia Chiuri (in the hope of seeing some color), and for Bottega Veneta and Jil Sander. Etro will present a show without a creative director, Tod's and The Attico will finally return to the runway, and of course there will be Vogue World.
But what are the most interesting novelties in the provisional calendar?
1. Prada will open the week
The big news is that Prada, for the first time in many years, will abandon its classic mid-week 2:00 PM slot to open the Milan schedule. But why? On one hand, the opening position speaks volumes about what Prada has become in recent years: while for decades the brand was a highlight of the schedule, it is in recent times that its stature has grown to titanic proportions and that the brand has become synonymous with fashion with a capital "F". There is, of course, a more cynical logistical consideration: the opening day will also be the day of Vogue World at the Galleria, an event that Milan's fashion crowd will move heaven and earth to attend, drawing an enormous audience and a great many celebrities, many of whom will also be coming to the Prada show. The workload for PR teams, stylists with their assistants, and drivers will be nothing short of brutal that day. At least there won't be the same heat wave as in June.
2. An Italian-style Met Gala?
Instead of the classic and somewhat self-congratulatory CNMI Sustainable Awards, this year an attempt has been made to put together an Italian-style Met Gala. On the second evening of the week, there will be an exclusive gala dinner at Palazzo Reale that will also mark the opening of the exhibition "Dalí and Fashion." To draw parallels with that other gala, all the signs are there: a supremely elegant event, right in the city center, held to open a museum exhibition exploring the connections between fashion and art. Anna Wintour, the most indispensable ingredient, will certainly be in attendance. And all of this at the moment of maximum concentration of celebrities and fashion personalities in the city. Let's hope it goes well, because it would be a more enjoyable and less geriatric event than both the awards ceremonies no one believes in anymore and the classic after-party where the guest lists are "closed" but the queues outside stretch for miles. Here too, mid-level fashion insiders will be working overtime to crash the party and score an invitation whatever it takes.
3. The debut of the new Moschino
Moving on to fashion proper, the truly new appointment of the season is the new creative direction of Moschino, which will make its debut on Friday, September 25. Beyond the next creative chapter of Moschino — a brand that every fashion insider would love to see shine again — the show will also mark the return to the scene of Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo, creatives much beloved by the city's fashion community and collectively nicknamed "the ex-Sunnei guys." When the two left the brand with the brilliant auction concept (though the show concept was always one of their talents), it felt like the end of an era for the Millennial contingent of the Milan scene, many of whom had watched the brand come into being and didn't want to see it fade away. So much so that the last sample sale drew quite a crowd. After the show, we hope to be able to update their nickname to "the new Moschino."
4. Independents and guests
An indie designer immensely beloved by the Milan fashion bubble is Vivetta Ponti. And how could you not love her? Over the years, the designer has won the hearts and minds of fashion insiders with her ideas that are often naïve but never trivial, her almost childlike imagination that nonetheless translated into flawless execution in reality. And now that Ponti has left the brand bearing her own name, she will make her runway debut with Venerdì Pomeriggio. And we have never been so seated and on the edge of our seats. Alongside her and the other two names from Milan's indie fashion scene, Murano and Rambaldi, this year we will finally see Victor-Hart — whom we had already encountered at the Camera Moda Fashion Grant with their incredible denim tailoring — along with a small cohort of new names such as the Portuguese Marques' Almeida and Miguel Vieira, and alongside them Neithan Herbert, who is Ecuadorian, works in Milan, and produces in Mexico.
5. Notable and not-so-notable absentees
Of course, no fashion week could go by without a few absentees. But every party, at the end of the day, is defined by who isn't there, right? The most glaring gap in the calendar is undoubtedly Versace, whose debut will now take place next season despite Pieter Mulier having already been operating in the city for several months. But we know how it goes: Rome wasn't built in a day, nor Versace in a month. Let him cook. Another absentee — a shame, as the shows were getting better and better — is Ferrari, which this year will head to New York instead, and also missing from the program is N.21, which has by now become a classic fixture of Milan.
