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Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani has often seemed oceans away from the rest of Milanese fashion. But this season he brought his sea view to the runway – both as light-as-spray clothes and as a backdrop projection.

A film by Paolo Sorrentino, known for his movie La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), showed the seashores of the Lipari and Stromboli volcanic islands off Sicily.

Onscreen was the deep blue swell of the sea, a dog larking about on a rough beach and the slightly disturbing vision of a swimming-costumed couple entangled in naval ropes.

This all took the Armani collection into an area that the designer has visited before - but never with such a light breeziness.

The title was “Sand”, but when the models lined up with the maestro for an after-show picture, the effect was a wider reflection of the shore: sky blue for a jacket, or paler, faded shades including sandy beige, and a cluster of animal prints.

These zebra and leopard patterns – faintly printed on gauzy fabric – opened the show, while it was closed by a mysterious figure: a goddess of the sand in sparkling beige chiffon.

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What came between was light Armani: tailored jackets in transparent fabrics with silk fringe finishing an outfit. Trousers were semi-sheer, morphing at one point into pantaloons. Long skirts with shadowy tiger-stripe patterns seemed more appealing.

Like many designers this season, Armani had necklets of gilded metal with an antique feel; and there was also a draped chiffon dress that was something between a sari and a Grecian robe.

While the show was quite different to his more familiar summer-in-the-city collections, it was unmistakably Armani. He is a designer who is always reaching out and never buries his head in the sand.

Roberto Cavalli

“I feel happy with summer. I like the light, the sun and the colours – it is the easiest time for me,” said Roberto Cavalli, front-of-stage by his catwalk made of wood planking, like a path to the beach except with shiny gilded sides.

“The Light of Summer” was the show’s title, and Cavalli started with a display of swimming-pool blue, sunshine yellow and juicy oranges on wildly patterned dresses. Oh no! Please not those 1970s again!

But Cavalli’s illumination was much more subtle than a game of tones. There was light seeping through a white lace dress, and emanating from a white fur bag. Black dresses filtered light through transparent fabrics. And brightness bounced off crocodile skin.

Sparkles glimmered from dark denim, or a white shirt set off blue-jean fabric. The white materials were often crunchy and three dimensional in their different takes on lace.

Maybe it is Cavalli’s passion for nature photography that has fed into a sense of subtlety and shadow play. Just for once, the collection would have looked just as good photographed in black and white.Jil Sander

Following Jil Sander, a founding mother of fashion androgyny, would be hard enough. Coming after Raf Simons, the powerful replacement for Jil in her on/off years, might be even harder.

Designer Rodolfo Paglialunga, now the label’s creative director, started his debut collection in Milan with the concept of “all change”. Simons famously painted Jil’s minimalist show space black and filled it with vases of flowers. Rodolfo played with other areas in the building, giving the audience a through-the-window view of Milan’s famous Sforza Castello.

But opening up the brand to the outside world did not translate into changes on the runway. The show was respectful to Jil Sander’s concept of the masculine morphing into the feminine. Paglialunga brought in all sorts of pieces like tailored shirts, perhaps worn with a sleeveless sweater.

The show was not flooded with trouser suits, because that era has gone. But there were more baggy, sexless shorts than most men (let alone women!) would sign up for.

The tailoring was streamlined and the skirts well cut, some with the graphic patterning that Jil herself tried after one of her three departures and comebacks. There was a vague hint of sporty uniforms in navy and oxblood.

If I were a buyer, I would probably rejoice that Jil Sander, the brand, is back on track with a sleek and comprehensible collection. As a fashion editor, I feel that Rodolfo, who cited his inspiration as Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a 1930s Swiss photographer of androgynous beauty, has now paid his dues to Jil. Next season it will be time to move on.

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