17 Oct
2026
Milan Fashion Week opened on Tuesday, September 22, with Prada sending out a Spring/Summer 2027 collection that contained no trousers and no dresses. Only skirts. It was a provocative start, and it set the tone for a week in which Italian houses kept returning to the same questions: how much structure does a modern wardrobe need, how much skin is too much when designing for heat, and what does imperfection look like when it is done on purpose?
Spring collections take months to reach stores, so this is not a shopping list for tomorrow. It is a read on where the mood is heading and which ideas from the runway are likely to filter into everyday wardrobes over the next year.
The Associated Press reported that co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons kept their focus "waist down," revisiting a traveling Prada exhibition from about 20 years ago that examined the skirt's place in modern wardrobes. Simons said the idea came from an old interview in which Prada compared the skirt to a man's T-shirt, "the place where she can put all her ideas."
The range was wide: woolen skirts with industrial Velcro for adjustable slits, sheer nylon pleats, short cotton skirts in naïve prints, and sheer crinoline over crumpled silk with flattened ruffles. Black tops served as a blank canvas for the first group. Hypebae added crystal embroidery and organza shells to the list and noted skirts were styled with thick sweaters, structured shirts and bra tops. Prada's own explanation was the most quotable line of the week: "Everything is so complex — how can you be just one thing?"
The takeaway: the skirt is being positioned as the most versatile piece in the wardrobe rather than the most feminine one. Expect the styling idea, a statement skirt worn with a plain knit or shirt, to be more influential than any single silhouette.
At Jil Sander, Simone Bellotti continued what Dazed called a restoration of the brand's profile, with garments that looked minimal from a distance but were "pinched, gathered and tucked" up close. The South China Morning Post described distorted tailoring and creased fabrics presented as a celebration of imperfection.
This is a quieter but important signal. After years of crisp "quiet luxury," the next wave of minimalism looks lived-in: creases, puckers and intentional asymmetry. For everyday dressers, that translates to linen and crinkled cottons worn without the anxiety of keeping them pressed.
Several houses designed explicitly for heat. Sportmax, the younger arm of Max Mara, focused on heatwave dressing, with Dazed reporting coats whose sleeves were removed, and Hypebae highlighting ultralightweight, semi-sheer pieces and trompe-l'oeil suit lapels.
At Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri's collection was described by the SCMP as upbeat and body-conscious, with sheer, party-ready glamour. Dazed picked out stilettos with socks, baggy jeans with 18th-century-style frock coats, and delicate camisoles with cheetah-print chokers. Chiuri told AnOther that "to me Fendi is about lightness."
The takeaway: sheerness is being framed less as provocation and more as practical heat dressing. Layering a semi-sheer piece over a simple slip or tank is the wearable version.
Tailoring did not disappear; it got bolder. At Giorgio Armani, Dazed described double-breasted suits with dramatic shoulder pads worn with nothing underneath, drawing on 1980s silhouettes with a nightlife energy. Max Mara, under Ian Griffiths, went for what Dazed called "utility luxe": earthy beige tones, military silhouettes, chunky leather belts cinching the waist, cotton gilets with extra pockets and popped collars. Tod's paired boxy suit jackets with even boxier shorts in coral, mustard and crimson colour blocking.
The takeaway: the suit is loosening up. Shorts suits, belted jackets and vests worn as tops are the practical routes into this trend.
MM6 Maison Margiela built its collection around flipping familiar garments: trousers turned into a mini dress with the zip left open, a shirt worn as a dress, a jacket worn as a skirt, plus a Havaianas collaboration on platform flip-flops. At Diesel, Glenn Martens signed off his six-year tenure with a show the AP described as bathed in red light, with knitwear that seemed to dissolve into denim and leather and shorts that got progressively shorter until the final look was little more than a strip of fabric. Martens called body positivity and "loving each other" part of the Diesel DNA.
Elsewhere, Loro Piana showed functional daily dressing, including camel blazers, pleated skirts and silk ties, inside Milan's Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, while Bottega Veneta's Louise Trotter worked florals, leather and raffia, according to Hypebae.
Most of these ideas can be tried with pieces already in a wardrobe or easily found:
If you are refreshing staples for the transition into next year, a few versatile skirts, knits and layering pieces from a women's collection will cover most of these ideas without chasing any single runway look.
Three Milan ideas look set to last beyond the season: the skirt as a wardrobe workhorse, deliberate imperfection replacing polished minimalism, and lightweight, sheer layering designed for heat. Watch for how quickly these filter into high-street ranges, and whether Emporio Armani, which released a lookbook instead of a show this season ahead of a creative transition, takes a sharper position next time.
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