Building a Wardrobe Step by Step With Milan’s Fall 2024 Presentations
MILAN — Young designers and established brands anchored their fall 2024 offerings in wearability at Milan Fashion Week, banking on reassuring and somewhat conservative designs at a time of slowdown in luxury consumption.
Italian fashion has always been rooted in high-end craftsmanship ideal for wearable fashions and the more cutting-edge variety. Here, WWD rounds up the key womenswear wardrobe pieces for consumers to add to their closets come next fall, from the perfect suit and white shirt to new takes on knitwear and puffer jackets.
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The Suit: Kiton
Kiton continued to build on its beautifully tailored suits for women, juxtaposed with soft silk shirtdresses and evening dresses — presented in the brand’s unique prints but also in a bold allover red. Maria Giovanna Paone, creative director of the ever-growing women’s segment of the brand, said her “ideal suitcase is monocolor.” In this vein, models wore tone-on-tone crêpe trousers, double pile jacquard coats and oversize shirts in cashmere with knitted yarns — each group in a single color, including a beautiful sea blue hue. Kiton also presented an après-ski capsule collection, with trousers in white and gray that evoked a print that is snowy and marbled.
The Coat: Massimo Alba
The designer’s coats were luscious, with a boho vintage feel and surprises here and there. A wool bouclé coat came in a delicious shade of champagne with a subtle rose tint. A washed velvet peacoat was the color of pea soup, while a plaid shacket came with patch pockets and an outdoorsy feel. A navy blue topcoat was lined in an original, colorful bird-and-flower design in chinoiserie style. Other shapely, cozy jackets came in bouclé, boiled wool and wool knit. Alba’s made-in-Italy collection also took in fluttery shirts done in printed crepe de chine; brushed cashmere sweaters, and a fun lineup of soft velvet trousers printed with stars.
The Caban: Herno
Although Herno’s offering has been expanding to a total look, aiming to scale and court customers looking for excellent quality and soft-spoken designs, outerwear, its bread and butter, continued to steal the spotlight for fall, with peacoats and cabans in light gray nuances crafted from various blends of wool, alpaca, camel and cashmere, juxtaposed with faux-fur coats. Puffer jackets in pinstriped mannish fabrics speckled with tiny sequins or in a hyper-glossy finish with matching bum bags repurposed the practical garment into a dressier item.
The Blazer Jacket: Slowear
“Why can men expect to have a blazer that lasts a lifetime but not women?” asked Slowear’s chief executive officer Piero Braga. “Why can men expect to have sartorial details and extra quality material in their jackets, but not women? They have a right to the same materials as men.” Braga and his team are attempting to answer those questions by making womenswear that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with men’s and still fit the forms of a woman’s body. “We’re beginning to identify the women we want to dress, and we plan to do it properly,” said Braga. For fall there were blazers and jackets galore, in flannel, houndstooth and chevron wool while a double-breasted sweater/blazer with pockets was done in merino wool. Slowear has been working on multiple styles, not just jackets. For fall, there were featherlight open knit or bouclé cardigans, a sharp raglan overcoat and a lineup of flannel trousers. “We see womenswear as a big opportunity, and going forward we’ll be working with our brand DNA to tell a more coherent story and offer refined Italian elegance to an international, jetset woman,” said Braga.
The New Skirt Suit: Blazé Milano
Coolest-girls-in-town Corrada Rodriguez d’Acri, Delfina Pinardi and Maria Sole Torlonia have built a solid — and increasingly expanding — business by focusing on blazer jackets, but they still find many ways to show range within those boundaries. For fall 2024, they played with different textures, ranging from flat bouclé and liquid velvet to cascades of sequins, to offer new takes on their favorite item, which comes with the signature half-moon-shaped Smiley pockets. Finding yet another way to turn a men’s staple into a feminine must-have, they also included the bon ton Petra skirt suit in powder pink mohair that oozed a lively, youthful vibe while being utterly chic.
The White Shirt: Albino
Shirting at Albino is a serious affair and all but a basic underpinning. Designer Albino Teodoro hosted showroom appointments during Milan Fashion Week after winning back the right to use his moniker and with plans to scale the business internationally. The fall collection reprised his key tropes of bourgeois femininity, with a range of standout wardrobe building pieces, from the camel coat and little black dress to cinematic nylon duchesse capes and fluid wrap dresses. Shirts proved his mastery in constructions and subtle embellishments, in the grosgrain ribbon detailing and the cotton duchess collarless numbers draped on the body or the whalebones-equipped, waist-nipping design for a dramatic effect.
The Puffer Jacket: Khrisjoy
Marzia Bellotti’s enthusiasm and joy are contagious and, as creative director of Khrisjoy, she infused a fun touch to her collection for the brand, colorful and brimming with embellishments. The theme for the season was fire, “metaphoric, reminiscent of the hearth, staying together, good feeling and love,” she said, as several heart shaped details — such as shearling pockets for example — appeared on the selection of puffer jackets. She worked with knit, denim and tweed in intriguing mixed media puffers. Signature graffiti jackets showed brushstrokes in pop colors and Khrisjoy’s Moon model was rendered in one-of-a-kind iterations, with multisize and multicolor, double-face sequins reproducing fireworks.
The Cape: Lorena Antoniazzi
In Milan’s Via Spiga store, Lorena Antoniazzi’s soft cashmere and silk knits in a beige, gray and earthy palette embodied ultimate understatement while maintaining feminine silhouettes and details, including micro sequins or a pop of red, the only strong color in the collection. Cocooning capes flanked wool and mohair double bicolor oversize jackets enriched by alpaca, resulting in super light garments. Sartorial double breasted jackets were shown over fluid pants. The brand’s signature braided technique on knits was reinterpreted on vests and dresses.
The Knitted Set: Fiorucci
Francesca Murri is continuing to build the new course of Fiorucci, fully committed to reigniting the playful and lighthearted attitude of the Italian brand and reshaping its disruptive heritage to make it relevant for today. Denim, candy graphics and pastel colors expressed her “sugar coating” approach, especially in daywear, while the brand’s more nocturnal side was conveyed through Lycra fabrics and playful lingerie details. Especially challenging considering the gloomy global context, Murri’s quest to inject a little fun into clothes went hand-in-hand with cozy fits and wearability for fall 2024. The pink and red sweater with matching pants in lollipop-like wavy pattern was a highlight: equal parts sassy and comfy, the look could appeal to any demographic, as the ironic look book images proved.
The Quirky Sweater: Cavia
A knitwear-obsessed and eco-minded designer, Cavia’s Martina Boero is working to anchor her handmade knits in wearability and for fall she introduced the first machine-woven designs, albeit without losing her penchant for all things crafty. Bows were scattered abundantly on bon ton cardigans, while a multicolor asymmetric striped sweater was drilled and distressed. Combining her pop-hued knit with moodier patchwork tartan fabrics, she offered alluring mixed-media designs.
The Knit Dress: Lisa Von Tang
Knit dresses came to the fore this Milan season as part of the demand for cocooning garments. Lisa Von Tang’s versions oozed both lounge-chic and subtly sensual vibes, coming with two side slits at the front or with skin-baring cutouts on the belly. Overall, the designer with a partly Chinese background and international upbringing kept the collection, unveiled through the presentation format enriched by a couple of runway shows, unfussy and relatable, working designs that have become a signature, including the airy versions of Qipao-inspired dresses. “Because of the times I wanted to create good investment pieces…things you can wear more every day,” she said.
The Denim Pants: Jacob Cohën
Is there a wardrobe without denim pants in it? Impossible. But for those looking for a new pair to add to their closets, Jacob Cohën had plenty of options. The brand’s artistic director Jennifer Tommasi Bardelle is focused on boosting the womenswear range to balance the business — historically stronger in men’s — via new cuts, washes or quilted treatments, as well as by developing easy-to-approach items that can complement the denim pieces and create total looks. For fall 2024, baggy denim pants and extra flared ones had an urban-chic vibe but it was a high-waist wide-leg option that rose as a go-to style with its simple yet polished look.
The Trenchcoat: Seafarer
Creative director Manuela Mariotti had a sailing theme and northern landscapes in mind while developing the fall collection, which was rich in investment outerwear with utilitarian details. Neatly cut trenchcoats crafted from thick and structured fabrics had military whiffs, in some instances belted with grosgrain ribbons, ditto for oversize duffle coats. Fair Isle patterns contributed to the cocooning feel of chunky, handknitted sweaters, cardigans and vests, paired with tonal roomy pants that straddle the line between sartorial and casual.
The Cropped Jacket: Mantù
Targeting women on the move, Mantù continued to put an elevated, urban spin on wardrobe essentials. The in-house brand of Italian manufacturing company Castor, the label spotlighted its expertise in outerwear and its sartorial know-how with a heightened focus on blazer jackets with oversize shoulders and fitted waists, double-breasted styles, as well as coats and bomber jackets. Key pieces blended tailoring with utilitarian flair, as seen in a graphic cropped design with maxi pockets that made for a versatile solution and an edgy introduction for the brand.
The Everyday Pants: Eleventy
In sync with its mission of offering a wide spectrum of wardrobe-building pieces, Eleventy showed an expansive fall 2024 collection that encompassed shearling coats and ski gear, blazer jackets and billowy printed dresses with a ‘70s flavor, up to knitwear revisited with Lurex and sequined details. Even in the vast assortment, which this time saw the brand’s signature earthy colors enriched with a mauve shade, it was hard to miss some basics that were standouts for their cuts and subtle details. Cue pleated pants with a diagonal folding that could elevate both corporate and off-duty looks with simplicity.
The Jumpsuit: T_Coat x Vitale Barberis Canonico
Verona, Italy-based brand T_Coat linked with Vitale Barberis Canonico, as part of the latter textile specialist’s support of up-and-coming names via its Heritage & New Talents project. The brand worked sartorial and mannish fabrics into unexpected tropes with an urban and workwear undercurrent, from padded jackets and overshirts to jumpsuits. The latter, a belted style with patch pockets, was crafted from a worsted twill with a slightly satin finish and stole the spotlight for its versatility and genderless connotation.
The New Robe Coat: Yali
Not just vests. Yali’s founder Pia Zanardi had more to offer beyond her cropped vest silhouettes that have become a byword for easy coolness. In addition to the design’s charming color block versions, she reworked the style in jackets and little cute suits that would easily charm “It” girls and Instagram girls alike, as well as introduced fluid velvet blazer jackets and robe coats that made for unfussy yet elegant options for both special occasions and relaxed nights out. Other additions in the fall 2024 collection were coats and pleated pants embellished with trimming toggles — a new detail that might infiltrate the youthful yet sophisticated world of Zanardi going forward.
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