Milan Fashion Week has spoken: Bold maximalism is back

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Fendi celebrated its 100 years at the recent Milan Fashion Week, with the house’s matriarch, Silvia Venturini Fendi, revisiting the luxury brand's archives. The show opened with Dardo and Tazio Vascellari Fendi, the sons of Delfina Delettrez Fendi (Silvia's daughter and the label’s artistic director of jewellery), wearing equestrian ensembles that the late longtime creative director Karl Lagerfeld designed for the brand.

The show also included new versions of the iconic Baguette shoulder bag and the Peekaboo top-handle from 2008, with shearling intarsia and fluted suede techniques. The Versace show, too, was full of archival references—the embellished pockets drew from a 1991 collection and the metallic pieces referenced Donatella’s first-ever Atelier Versace haute couture collection from July 1998. In the early 1980s, her late brother Gianni had created evening gowns from a light metal mesh, giving a warrior-like touch.

This season, Donatella and her design team extrapolated 3D printing to engineer a dress, bustier and skirt, in recycled nylon polymers with crystal inserts. Besides designers looking at their archives, there were some other trends that emerged at the Milan Fashion Week—all pointing towards one thing: Maximalism is back. All eyes were set on Alberta Ferretti, as this was creative director Lorenzo Serafini's first outing at the label.

Titled Progressive Romantics, the collection reflected Serafini’s effort to channel Ferretti’s romanticism but with his own unique touch. “I wanted to portray romantic yet rational women—keen to both affirm themselves and nourish their personal lives," Serafini said in the show notes. "Women who do not have to choose between independence