Ciao, Milan Fashion Week Fall-Winter 2012-13

Gothic romance at Alberta Ferreti.

Blumarine was just being Blumarine. Bold, sexy and colour-popping.

Luscious and rich village girls ala Malena wears church ornaments at Dolce&Gabbana. It rocks.

Naughty Jackie O’ goes to school at Dsquared.

Less print more texture and structure at Emilio Pucci.

Fur, decadence and some more fur at Fendi.

Suits and colours that mean business at Giorgio Armani.

It seemed that the head of Gucci and Ferreti had too many coffees together as their visions were very similar. More dark and decadent choice for fashionistas.

Autumn exists not for Jil Sander. It’s blooming spring and everyone loves it.

Fur-roucious knits at Missoni.

Look at these three Prada designs. This is what you are going to wear all of next autumn.

Your best leg forward at Cavalli. In fact, it doesn’t have to be your best as long as you are showing a lot of leg.

(Images: Go Runway)

Milan Fashion Week’s trends wrapped up

20s chic gets a geometry lesson at Gucci.

Gucci RTW Spring Summer 2012

Sailor girls get a tad bit raunchy while looking at the world through colourful frames at Fendi.

Fendi RTW Spring Summer 2012

50s fun prints and belly bearing at Prada – so no, you can’t have extra cheese with that if you want to nail this trend.

Prada RTW Spring Summer 2012

The dramatic Donatella touch in next season’s Versace show. Sexy as hell.

Versace-RTW-Spring Summer 2012

The Moschino crew must have watched quite a few Almodovar flicks while putting this collection together.

Moschino RTW Spring Summer 2012

It’s a gothic gypsy that walked Emilio Pucci’s runway.

Emilio Pucci RTW Spring Summer 2012

A bit of Audrey Hepburn mixed with Grace Kelly minimalised to the max at Jil Sander.

Jil Sander RTW Spring Summer 2012

Summer breeze and popping prints at Dolce & Gabbana.

Dolce and Gabbana RTW Spring Summer 2012

Neo-hippies come back to Neo-Woodstock at DSquared2 – and boy, I want to be one of them!

DSquared2 RTW Spring Summer 2012

These are just a few shows from what proved to be a spectacular fashion week in Milan.

Some of the main trends:

• Boho-gypsy – maxi skirts with deep slits;
• Sailor girl, high time to earn your stripes;
• Short tops, time to work on that fab abs;
• Prints – clashing, matching, doesn’t matter, just print away;
• Wear white, a lot or often if not daily.

Ciao, Milan – next stop Paris.

(Images: Go Runway)

Pilot: Minimal to the max

And so, I had to learn the hard way, that there wasn’t anything more difficult to accomplish than pure basic simplicity.

Don’t get me wrong, detailed avant-garde looks are no piece of cake either, but one might get away with a bit of asymmetry here and there, a loose thread, or an unfinished design – this all might be placed under the artistic mess category.

None of those are acceptable when it comes to simplicity and minimalism, where less is more and perfection is not only achievable, but is a somewhat of an unquestionable must.

Let me illustrate. Picture these designs with the wrong accessories:

Jil Sander Martin Margiela Hussein Chalayan

And these… with the wrong shoes:

Calvin Klein Issey Miyake Rick Owens

All of the sudden, the designs which seemed to be so nonchalantly put together are falling apart. Put simply – they just do not work.

The same happened with the launch of prêt-à-reporter. It took me six hours (oh and half a year too) to make all the pieces fit.

What took me that long was not putting the meat on the bones, but taking the meat away in order to perfect the skeleton.

The juicy parts would come with my raw fashion reporting.

So, welcome to prêt-à-reporter, where I will share all the fashion I stumble upon.