Fashion Week is returning to Milan, widely regarded as Italy’s fashion capital. The northern city is part of the “Big Four,” the world’s top fashion cities that include New York City, Paris, and London. Milan Fashion Week (MFW) takes place twice a year in September and February, a glamorous spectacle meant to showcase and promote Italian fashion to a national and international audience through “sfilate” (runway shows), designer showrooms, and fashion exhibitions. This year’s February fashion week will run from February 21 - 27 and will feature 56 runway shows and five digital displays debuting designers' Fall/Winter collections.
THE LEGACY OF ITALIAN FASHION
Milan Fashion Week was created in 1958 by the Camera Nazionale Della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion) with the intention of promoting and protecting Italian fashion talent. The move also came about in response to the demand for slightly more affordable luxury design products to counter those being produced by Parisian designers. Milan’s strategic position as an industrial, manufacturing city naturally drew many designers to establish their brands’ headquarters there.
It wasn’t until the 1970s and the 1980s, with the increasing popularity of designers Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace, that Milan was catapulted into the realm of international fashion excellence. Furthermore, Versace’s glamorously extravagant 1990s runway shows, walked by the likes of supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista helped cement Milan as a fashion powerhouse. This level of excess and glamor was soon matched by other Italian houses such as Gucci, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana.
Today, Milan Fashion Week is still organized by the Camera Nazionale Della Moda Italiana (CNMI). Its schedule and lineups are still ruled by many of the original designer brands that helped launch it into fame – Giorgio Armani, Prada, Gucci, and above all Versace, whose iconic black and gold designs have remained within their original stylistic vein despite Gianni Versace’s death, an homage on behalf of his sister Donatella Versace. Other luxury designers have also joined the ranks along the way, including Fendi, Missoni, Moschino, Valentino, Hugo Boss, Miu Miu (a subsidiary of Prada), and Salvatore Ferragamo, all of which have given a coveted sense of status and luxury to the “made in Italy” tags stitched onto their products.
THIS YEAR’S SCHEDULE
This year’s schedule will kick off on February 22 with We are Made in Italy, (WAMI), a digital show hosted by designers and fashion professionals of color. All digital shows will premiere on the last day of Fashion Week. Take a look below at this year’s runway schedule:
FEBRUARY 22: FEBRUARY 23:
10:00: Iceberg 9:30 Max Mara
11:00: Antonio Marras 10:30: Genny
12:00: Daniela Gregis 11:30: Calcaterra
13:00: Diesel 12:30: Anteprima
14:00: Fendi 14:00: Prada
15:00: Del Core 15:00: MM6 Maison Margiela
16:00: Marco Rambaldi 16:00: Budapest Select
17:00: Alberta Ferretti 17:00: Emporio Armani
18:00: N21 18:00: Blumarine
19:00: Roberto Cavalli 19:00: Moschino
20:00: Etro 20:00: GCDS
21:00: Onitsuka Tiger
FEBRUARY 24: FEBRUARY 25:
9:30: Tod’s 9:30: Ferrari
10:30: Act N1 10:30: Ermanno Scervino
11:30: Sportmax 11:30: Ferragamo
12:30: Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafin 13:00: Dolce & Gabbana
14:00: Gucci 15:00: MSGM
15:00: Cormio 16:00: Bally
16:00: Andreadamo 17:00: Missoni
17:00: Sunnei 18:00: Tokyo James
18:00: Vivetta 19:00: Han KjØbenhavn
19:00: Jil Sander 20:00: Bottega Veneta
21:00 Philipp Plein
FEBRUARY 26:
9:30: Shuting Qiu
10:30: Hui
11:30: Tomo Koizumi supported by Dolce & Gabbana
12:30: Luisa Spagnoli
13:15: Annakiki
14:00: Vitelli
15:00: Giorgio Armani
16:00: Aniye Records
17:00: Francesca Liberatore
18:00: Atsushi Nakashima
FEBRUARY 27: Digital Shows
10:00: Alabama Muse
10:30: Münn
11:00: Avavav
11:30: Husky
12:00: Laura Biagiotti
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura,The Christian Science Monitor and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.