WHEN IN MILAN DO AS THE ITALIANS DO

The runway shows in Milan caused quite a stir. Armani lead the pack by offering a soft edge to offset a somewhat hard world.

The fashion press had this to say about the shows: “For next spring Armani wants his gals to don trouser suits for day: flat fronted, flared pants, worn with rather androgynous jackets. These were made with novel buttoning, angled and placed low at the waist, and an extra long cut without lapels… revealing some skin.

Armani was all about graphics, showing large swathes of daywear looks in black and white. A third of the way into the show, he switched register and cut his jackets school boyishly small with truncated sleeves and paired them with jaunty, battered trilby hats in a surprising change of register – from merely moneyed to hobo haute bourgeois bohemia.”

”For evening, Armani initiated his soiree by sending out Alec Wek and a fellow black model in two deliciously cut, body-hugging black robes. His catwalk exploded into color - faded roses, soft pinks and exotic turquoises ruled - as the images morphed into Arcadian views of a tropical beach. Worn with low-heeled shoes, parchment-like clutches and jet stone necklaces, it made for a super elegant moment.”

One reporter didn’t like the “tropheus hat extrusions that went from innovative to overpowering.” So be it.

ARMANI PANT POWER	AT ARMANI: WALK TALL AND WEAR A BIG HAT
ARMANI FLAUNTS FLOWER POWER	Armani goes soft for a hard edge in femininity These models are not in bondage, they are wearing scarves tied around their chest area. Perhaps Armani feels women are still tied up in formality…the jury is still out.
RIFAT OZBEK BRANCHES OUT TO MOTHER NATURE	Color and style serenade the new male

The Rifat Ozbek’s show had an Island flair with Polynesian feather crowns and Hawaiian prints.

“What’s essential is to have a true knowledge of the brand and of the consumer DNA. (This is so true). Tunneling down into consumer tiers has become an increasingly important strategy, it seems, as luxury-goods makers seek ways to grab and hold on to consumers bored with label culture and grown comfortably promiscuous in an iTune age.”

Nobody, Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor said, “wants to be inundated.” She added: “There is so much out there. What we need is fewer things, better edited.”

“Ms. Wintour’s observations echo the wisdom of marketing visionaries like John Seely Brown, the former chief scientist at Xerox.”