Milan Changes Its Wardrobe

At Ermanno Scervino, femininity becomes a journey. Pirates, galleons, Yellow Submarine, tropical shores, and electric guitars create an imaginary voyage where materials appear weathered by salt, wind, and sunlight. White becomes chalk and sea foam; blue moves from denim to ultramarine and aquamarine; earthy tones recall sand, straw, hemp, and shell.

The pirate jacket is worn with a duchesse miniskirt, jeans, or leather shorts. Beneath sheer trenches and organza storm capes emerges a mermaid-like figure in transparent knitwear, sculptural corsets, and lace petticoats. Masculine and feminine become complementary languages rather than opposites.

Gucci, under Demna, shifted from the nightlife energy of his previous shows towards the daylight, everyday world of the Store Show. Tailoring, prep, and Ivy League references shaped the menswear, while the women’s collection moved through strong shoulders, office dressing, and Eighties and Nineties influences. Pleated tartan skirts, voluminous jackets, and chain jewellery were followed by asymmetrical evening gowns — draped, fitted, sparkling, or rigorously black and white. The reworked horsebit and bamboo motifs appeared across belts, trousers, pockets, and outerwear, giving familiar Gucci codes a new attitude. But perhaps the most significant aspect was the sense that this was a collection genuinely designed for everyone: different personalities, wardrobes, and moments could find their place within it. From polished tailoring to relaxed separates and from daytime dressing to evening glamour, Gucci presented fashion as something to inhabit rather than simply admire — inclusive in spirit, versatile in expression, and open to individual interpretation.

At Luisa Spagnoli, romance returns to the garden. Inspired by the geometry of the Italian garden, the collection balances nature with human design. Pareo skirts wrap around the hips, while couture-inspired dresses look towards Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. Flowers bloom across prints and draped minidresses. White, pink, turquoise, orange, and sky blue meet beige, brown, ochre, and rust, with flashes of sunny yellow. The effect is luminous, graceful, and distinctly feminine.

HUI Milano offers another perspective on transformation. The Fan Code takes the Chinese circular fan as its starting point, using it to explore memory, cultural transmission, and contemporary identity. The collection looks to the Miao women of Guizhou, whose weaving, embroidery, dyeing, and sewing preserve cultural knowledge while allowing it to evolve. Printed silk, translucent materials, and structured fabrics create a language of contrasts — transparency and coverage, softness and construction, movement and rigour.

This dialogue between heritage and transformation continues with Sirivannavari and Soul of an Empire. Inspired by Jaipur’s architecture, art, and craftsmanship, the collection looks at what survives when a civilisation changes: memory, knowledge, artisanal practice, and cultural identity. India becomes the starting point for a contemporary wardrobe rather than a historical reconstruction.

The palette combines soft pastels and Indian-inspired spice tones with metallics, while embroidery, mirror work, and artisanal details bring the richness of Jaipur into the collection. Sharp tailoring is contrasted with fluid draping, while the Thai chong kraben is reinterpreted through the volume of the Indian dhoti trousers. The result is a balance between structure and movement, tradition and independence.

Santoni presents The Art of Encounter, a collection built around the meeting of different worlds: the Maison’s heritage and a new, more personal expression of femininity. The connection with the Marche becomes tangible in the Papavero family, where the region’s poppy is transformed into sculptural flowers, crafted petal by petal in Nappa leather and suede. The Odette mule plays with softly padded knots, while the elegant Sibille pump is joined by the more relaxed Weekender loafer and Off-Duty sneaker. Craftsmanship also meets personal expression through One Live, Santoni’s signature personalisation concept, which allows shoes to be reinterpreted through interchangeable tassels. Across the collection, tradition never feels static: it becomes something that can be touched, transformed, and made personal.

And then there is Antonio Riva, whose The Velvet Night, offers an illuminating counterpoint to this broader conversation. Inspired by the Roaring Twenties and classic cinema, Riva works with long, fluid silhouettes, fringes, and a palette of burgundy, black, powder pink, and gold. Velvet, Mikado, and embroidery create an intimate sense of luxury. Most importantly, the collection recalls the social transformation of the 1920s, when women began claiming greater freedom and independence. Romance here becomes a language of emancipation.

And perhaps this is the real story Milan told this season.

Romanticism has not disappeared; it has evolved. Across the Spring/Summer 2027 collections, it emerges through softness, colour, floral motifs, delicate fabrics and sensual details, but is increasingly balanced by sharper tailoring, structured silhouettes, leather, transparency and sporty influences. The result is a femininity that feels more confident, versatile, and independent, without losing its sense of elegance and allure.

The woman of Summer 2027 does not have to choose between being romantic and being independent, because she can be both.

And if Milan looked like Dubai outside the shows, inside its Fashion Week it looked like something perhaps more significant: a fashion system changing its idea of what a woman can be.