Milan Fashion Week came with more heritage, drama and impact than ever before for their SS25 shows.
Toying between the weight of Milan’s fashion’s heritage and the lightness of spring/summer collections this season, Milan maintained maturity throughout its recent shows. Italian fashion house Fendi honoured its roots and celebrated the brand’s centenary, but there were plenty of child-like notes too – some expected, some not so much.
Including legacy brands Fendi and Ferragamo, as well as lesser-recognised Swiss brand Bally, these are Citizen Femme’s highlights from Milan’s SS25 shows.
Fendi
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Spring/summer 2025 marks 100 years of Fendi and, to celebrate, artistic director Kim Jones returns to the 1920s, a time that according to the designer constructed the foundations of how women dress today – and helped form how we think too. Founded in 1925, Fendi shares its birth year with The International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the Parisian art-deco exhibition that kick-started the modernist movement for the literary and artistic figures we still celebrate today; figures Kim Jones has returned to for inspiration since helming the fashion house. A large, cube set design slowly rose to unveil models decked in glamorous gowns, sheer frocks, co-ords and tailored outerwear. Plenty of fringe and dropped 1930s waistlines drew attention to the flapper showgirl, while strings of beading added textural and auditory depth. To honour the period in its truest form, Silvia Venturini Fendi spoke with her mother, Anna, who recalled stories from Silvia’s grandmother, Adele (who cut Fendi’s first ever store ribbon), about the brand’s origin. The result is a sartorial tale of female-led artistry, fashion, and thinking.
Ferragamo
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The balletcore trend has confirmed it’s sticking around – in all kinds of ways – for at least another year thanks to Simone Rocha in London, and now Ferragamo in Milan. While Simone Rocha detailed performance through elegant show-wear and costume-like design, Ferragamo took us behind the scenes with practice-wear garments. Designer Maximillian Davis turned back to Ferragamo’s historical ties with the ballet world, when Salvatore Ferragamo would fit shoes for dancer Katherine Dunham in Florence, 1950. This history of ballet danced through the collection in the form of wrapped cashmere cardigans, leotards over leggings, and tie-to-close outwear. The lace-tied ballet flat returned, but this time re-imagined with added high-heels and open-toe designs.
Dolce&Gabbana
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Perhaps no-one had the same impact on fashion and pop-drama as Madonna in the 90s, specifically the 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. So much so, that this era has been reborn under Dolce&Gabbana’s label for their spring/summer season. Yes, this does mean that the cone bra is indeed back, alongside bustier corseted dresses and blonde coffered wigs, originally designed by Jean Paul Gaultier for the acclaimed artist. Titled Italian Beauty, the consummate sensuality of Italian dressing was all there, from lace dresses to fur scarves, and of course, no-one does romantic drama better than Dolce&Gabbana. The highlight? Madonna herself, barely decipherable, veiled under dramatic throws of black lace, sat front row.
Bottega Veneta
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Our inner child – who they are, and why – has caused chatter across social media for a while now, and Bottega Veneta may have just answered questions about how to unlock it. Creative Director Mattieu Blazy broke down Milan Fashion Week’s renowned maturity (a city that has maintained its prestigious presence in the industry thanks to its Italian-heritage fashion houses) first of all, by seating his front row on bean bags – some bunny-shaped in reference to the brand’s viral autumn/winter campaign shoot. Garnering the child-like idea that everything is possible and everyday is an adventure, the collection journeyed back to a juvenile time with animal shapes and 15 animals in different colour ways featured in the collection. While the garments still saw a wearable and welcome approach to sophisticated tailoring, Blazy had a lot of fun with the accessories, including life-sized knitted sunflowers, mane-like fringed hats, and unexpectedly, supermarket carrier bags. It was a reminder of what fashion is supposed to be: fun.
Jil Sander
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Jil Sander’s SS25 looked at the idea of affinity, and the infinite ways this feeling can be felt and shown, from photographs, to colour, to place, to memory. Iridescent fabrics for the lightness of summer flitted between grey and burgundy-slash-Bordeaux hues (a trending Pantone for the season), while slate shades shimmered alongside camel beige, and hints of camel showed in green suiting. The SS25 collection took direct inspiration from Canadian photographer Greg Girard’s 1972 to 1982 prints, which document the luminescence of downtown Vancouver at night, and Hong Kong before the city emerged as a cinematic hotspot. Jil Sander’s colour palettes borrowed these vibrant, almost synthetic, contrasting tones, and added to them through shiny materials including silks, satins, and polished leather.
Del Core
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Daniel Del Core took us away from the studio and to the lab with Del Core’s spring summer collection. Titled A Day At The Lab, this season was all about “architectural construction and fluid forms: a harmonious narrative of modern elegance,” according to the eponymous designer. As a result, science took on an elegant, storytelling role, where lab coats took the free-flowing form of voile button-up outerwear to be worn over shirts and hot pants. To visually narrate this conversation between storytelling and science, there was plenty of unique tension between streaming skirts in the relaxed fabrics of voile, chiffon and tulle, but with an impressive attention – or scientific accuracy – to form. Pleated fans formed stand-out shoulder details for bodysuits while geometric cutouts on dresses showcased this refinery. Plus, none other than Naomi Campbell closed the show for a final fashion flourish.
Bally
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This Swiss brand has remained relatively under the fashion radar each season, perhaps for a few reasons, but is now emerging thanks to new creative director and ex-Gucci menswear Simone Bellotti. The brand started as a family-run ribbon factory in Schönenwerd before becoming a heritage shoemaker, working with leathers. Ready-to-wear is a newer concept to the 170 year old brand but Bally’s focus on craftsmanship remains clear. Titled Counterpoint 3, the spring/summer 2025 collection echoes the playful Dada movement in Zurich, which took Europe by storm in the 1920s; controversial for its ‘anti-art’ stance, Dadaism rejected conventional beauty. However, Bally’s collection showed an acute awareness of Milanese staples and fashion on a street-level, and produced garments attuned to wearable trends and pieces, rather than unconventional ideas. Creative director Simone Bellotti toyed with Dada’s playful collage approach through shapes, with blazers worn over leather bomber jackets and very structured skirting.
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Lead image credit: Jil Sander SS25
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