Milan Fashion Week has come and gone, but not without serving up a delightful platter of noteworthy moments, both on and off the runway. There were buzzy designer debuts—Sabato de Sarno at Gucci and Peter Hawkings at Tom Ford—star-studded front rows (Prada brought out all of our favorites), and some of the best street style of the season. But what is it really like being a part of all the action? To find out, we enlisted Jessica Wang, globetrotter and one of the most influential arbiters of glamorous style, to give us her first person account of one of the most anticipated stops on the fashion week tour. From stylish dinners to Missoni fittings and a show-packed schedule, Wang had nary a free minute to spare, but that didn’t stop her from showing up and showing out in some seriously dreamy looks. Here, she shares all her MFW highlights exclusively for Who What Wear.
Valentino is living up to his fashionable namesake.
Julia Fox took her mind-bending fashions from New York City to Italy, turning up at the Diesel show during Milan Fashion Week with a special date: her 2-year-old son.
The actress posed with the tot while arriving at the show, wearing a tiny bandeau top emblazoned with the brand’s logo, a low-slung pair of jeans and all-denim accessories, including her heels and purse.
Valentino was also decked out in denim, sporting a tiny jacket and jeans with a vest over a T-shirt and adorable black cowboy boots.
The “Uncut Gems” star held Valentino and showed off her signature fox-eye makeup look and her freshly dyed red hair, which she debuted in NYC earlier this month and did herself.
Diesel is a particularly significant fashion brand for Fox; not only was she born and raised in Italy, but she also starred in the brand’s Fall 2020 ad campaign.
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She really got the fashion treatment in January 2022 when her then-boyfriend, Kanye West, wooed her on their second date by surprising her with an “entire hotel room” filled with 40 looks by the brand — with a rep telling Page Six Style at the time that the clothes totaled up to $100,000 — which the rapper curated for her.
“It was every girl’s dream come true. It felt like a real Cinderella moment. I don’t know how he did it, or how he got all of it there in time,” Fox wrote in a blog-style Interview magazine story at the time, which was accompanied by a full photo spread showing the pieces and West dressing up his then-muse.
Though the highly publicized romance didn’t even last a month, Fox’s relationship with Diesel has stood the test of time.
One week after her breakup from Ye, Fox dutifully sat front row at the brand’s fashion show — solo.
Models at Milan Fashion Week took “fall” fashion to new heights at the AVAVAV show, tumbling on the runway and leaving the audience in shock.
The startling performance racked up millions of views online, with many falling for the looks, touting the topples as “genius.” One video alone amassed 11.1 million views and thousands of comments.
The drop-dead luxury fits were on display during the Florence-based brand’s first-ever live show led by creative director Beate Karlsson, who said the falling was all planned.
Playing up satire and slighting the fashion industry’s obsession with status, the “Filthy Rich” line included knock-off luxury logos re-designed with “AV” and graphic tops reading “cash cow.” Karlsson even crafted a necklace from three Rolex watches, which could be yours for a mere $300,000.
AVAVAV described the collection as commentary on the current social agenda, in which, “cash and escapism” are at the top, per a press release. The falling stunt, then, was meant to debunk the industry’s self-imposed gravitas and demystify the “fake” personas people adopt.
“It’s so easy in this generation to fake and filter parts of our lives on social media, but all of this can go away so easily,” she told Vogue. “Falling shows this. The fall makes you lose face when you hit the floor, reality catches you right there.”
But the designer isn’t blind to her hypocrisy, saying she isn’t “embarrassed” because she can “see the irony in it.”
“Lately I want something different. I want to look like I have my s–t together, look wealthy, like I have no problems. So many of us want to look rich, and now I do too,” she continued, noting that her collection mimics and pokes fun at the same realm it exists in.
“We’re trying to take the bits and parts of the fashion system we like,” she added, “but still live outside of it as well doing our thing.”
On TikTok, users were tripped up over the brand’s runway performance, unsure at first if it was accidental or ingenious.
“The opening of the show shocked me for a second,” reads text on the clip that amassed over 11 million views and dubs Karlsson a “genius” in the caption.
“This show is going to be extremely viral and all over the Internet just because of this simple concept,” the TikToker, called The Futurist, continued in the comments.
“I’m guessing it’s their fall collection 22,” quipped someone else.
Other videos with 1.3 million and 1.4 million views showed various snaps of the models stumbling on the runway, somehow still looking graceful. Commenters showered Karlsson’s idea in praise, crowning it as “iconic,” “amazing” and “cool.”
Since joining AVAVAV in 2020, Karlsson’s designs have caused quite the ruckus on social media — including Doja Cat’s chicken feet-like boots at the MTV Music Video Awards in 2021 and the realistic silicone rump modeled after Kim Kardashian.
But “doing well” online isn’t the main motivator for her designs — just a cheeky coincidence, and a wow factor she has clearly used to her advantage.
“I don’t necessarily want to design things with the intention of being meme-able, and that’s actually been an inner discussion I’ve had with myself,” she told Vogue, “Am I doing this because I think it will go viral or because it’s something I stand behind as a design?”
Missoni may be known for its prismatic, kaleidoscopic takes on ready-to-wear fashion, but things are different for spring 2023. Models stomped down the runway in black-and-white ensembles, with the exception of those who wore monochromatic looks in yellow, cyan, and magenta, marking this Missoni collection one for minimalists. One might assume that this may mean a new direction for the label (and no doubt, it certainly is). However, as you may have already noticed, these are the five shades one needs to create an infinite number of colors—which means the possibilities for what’s to come are endless.—Dale Chong, senior fashion commerce editor
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