Milan: Gucci and Sportmax explore the many facets of women
In Milan this season, there has never been so much talk about female representation. All the clichés were reclaimed and processed in an attempt to unravel the mystery, revealing the woman in all her nuances and facets. Sometimes the looks telescoped from one catwalk to the next. Shirtless, the Gucci woman was covered with a mini crystal bra and a black maxi skirt, and at Sportmax, she wore a simple pair of braces holding up her trousers, a bit like Charlotte Rampling in Night Porter (but without the cap).
Gucci bit farewell to Alessandro Michele on Friday with a goodbye collection as it awaits the arrival of its new creative director Sabato De Sarno in September. The in-house studio, which is still at the helm this season, was warmly applauded when it emerged at the end of the show in its entirety. For autumn-winter 2023/24, Gucci is proposing an eclectic wardrobe largely inspired by the whimsical and colourful style of its former designer. Between androgynous looks and sexy outfits, buyers will find what they need for this final transition period.
Behind her big black glasses lies a sophisticated woman who likes to play with styles. She is sometimes bourgeois chic, wearing pointy pumps, a long grey coat and a suit, always carrying her latest handbag. She plays it boyish with her oversized men's suits, or in a white shirt, baggy jeans and a mackintosh and the de rigueur double-G belt, sometimes giving Jean Seberg vibes.
She is, of course, sexy without looking it, wearing coloured tights, which protrude at the waist under a tight velvet skirt or under a double skirt-combination, revealing her underwear under a black transparent tulle dress. Sporty in laced combat boots, just wearing a fluffy knit dress, she changes her look in a second, transforming into a vamp by wearing big coats in glittering silver or turquoise curly wool, or by wearing flashy evening gowns, with big pearly sequins, in generously slit pink satin or in black lace exposing the shoulders.
Fun accessories punctuate these different looks, from long-haired headdresses, British Guardsman-style, to fury snow boots, to endless earring chains falling in braids down to the thighs.
Sportmax turned up the heat with a collection of all skin tones, with a subversive touch, where the body is at the same time enclosed and liberated, exposed here or there, or on the contrary, overprotected. For next winter, Max Mara's young line plays on ambivalence, with strong contrasts. The attitude oscillates between raw masculinity and suggested eroticism.
On the one hand, virile cowboy silhouettes with tone-on-tone lizard skin suits or long fringed shirts, XXL square jackets, sometimes tightened at the waist with straps, and cowboy boots topped with leather gaiters, whose folds merge with those of heavy trousers. Not forgetting the raccoon tail hanging from the belt.
On the other hand, a very feminine look in short flesh-coloured outfits and frilly sandals with stiletto heels. The dresses were made of various materials (leather, jersey, terry velvet, crumpled nylon, fine mesh) draped over and embracing the body. Seams were banished, the pieces of fabric being tied together with large knots in a spirit of free improvisation. At times, knots and fabrics hinder the woman, imprisoning an arm close to the body.
Feminine codes were rethought, like a transparent beige tight skirt, which looks like a nylon stocking. On the other hand, masculine accessories were diverted. Like the straps, which were wrapped around the body, tightening a jacket at the waist or the edges of a cardigan, or linking a skirt to a corset like a garter belt.
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