Milan Fashion Week: Reinvention and Tributes

Milan Fashion Week SS26 opened as a moment of reinvention and reverence, with new creative directors — including Demna at Gucci, Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta and incoming Dario Vitale at Versace — debuting presentations that ranged from Gucci’s star-studded short film to considered collections at Prada and Fendi. The season was tempered by mourning and tributes to the late Giorgio Armani and film and style icon Claudia Cardinale, with retrospectives and exhibitions honoring Armani across the city. Runways and front rows supplied plentiful looks — Prada revived early-aughts details, Fendi experimented with proportions, and celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Ice Spice drew attention for standout outfits and repeated sightings of Gucci monogram boots. Accessories were a focal point, notably Sergio Rossi creative director Paul Andrew’s Spring 2026 collaboration with artist Richard Zinon producing sculptural, carbon-fiber and repurposed-wood heels. Offstage moments — backstage candids, street-style photography, Diesel’s scavenger hunt and events like Vogue–Kering’s Cinemoda Club dinner — rounded the week, which also coincided with parallel cultural programming abroad such as Lucknow’s Libas-e-Lucknow show at Karamat Husain Muslim Girls' PG College that paired ghararas, shararas and chikankari with Mission Shakti 5.0 empowerment, safety and social-media guidance.