Milan Fashion Week will feature an array of new labels, established houses with new faces and lines new to the city. Here are a few to look for.
ARTHUR ARBESSER AT ICEBERG
Instagram played a pivotal role in the process that brought Arthur Arbesser to be chosen by Gilmar chief executive officer and artistic director Paolo Gerani as the new creative director of Iceberg’s women’s line.
“I put a ‘like’ on his Instagram account when he was named among the finalists of the LVMH Prize and he replied with a comment,” Gerani said. “I was already following him, I was intrigued by his sensibility in the use of bold colors, which he combines with a very graphic approach and clean lines.”
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Arbesser joined the Gilmar team at the end of June, succeeding former creative director Alexis Martial, who is now co-creative director at Carven.
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“Since the beginning, I had a lot of freedom to express myself and my style,” said Arbesser, who additionally designs a namesake line that’s also showing at Milan Fashion Week. “What I really like about Gilmar is the combination of tradition and innovation — the company is still controlled by the family who founded it and, over the decades, they kept investing in the best technology.”
The Austrian designer, who started his career at Giorgio Armani, said he appreciated the technical skills of the company that “will allow us to experiment so much.”
According to Arbesser, vivid tones and irony are the elements that will characterize his first Iceberg collection, which is inspired by the colorful works of artist Enrico Baj. In keeping with the brand’s heritage, there will be a strong focus on knitwear, from thicker options to innovative sheer styles in nylon, cut in oversize silhouettes. Leather will also appear in the lineup alongside flared pants and a range of special denim pieces.
“The collection looks playful, but this element is never too exaggerated,” Arbesser said. “The goal was to remain sophisticated.”
As Gerani explained, the brand is positioned in the advanced contemporary segment of the market, with the biggest part of the knitwear offer retailing between 350 euros, or $396 at current exchange, and 400 euros, or $452 at current exchange.
“Big changes [in the consumer market] are happening right now and customers are paying a lot of attention to prices,” Gerani said. “So we are really focused on selling products that combine reasonable prices and great quality.”
Iceberg will show its spring collection with a runway show on Sept. 26 at former industrial venue Frigoriferi Milanesi. That same night, the new collection will be shown for a few hours at the brand’s new boutique in Milan’s Golden Triangle.
Damir Doma will show his women’s collection for the first time on a Milanese runway. The show will be held on Sept. 27 at Garage Sanremo, a covered parking facility in the heart of the city.
“We tried to find a modern location that can reflect my style and is connected to the types of spaces I used in Paris in the past,” said the Croatian designer.
Doma started showing in Paris in 2009; his last collection there was in February. He moved to Milan because he thinks the brand will get better visibility, plus it’s easier to collaborate with the manufacturers that produce his collections, which are located in Brescia and Turin, Italy.
For his debut at Milan Fashion Week, Doma revealed he designed a collection infused with a sense of mystery.
“It’s very light, there are lots of transparencies, it’s pure and simple,” Doma said. “It’s not simple in terms of constructions, which are actually quite complicated to make, but it looks simple, there is a certain sense of relaxed ease.”
To create interesting proportions, he matched fluid pants with oversize silhouettes and flowing skirts with tops, which wrap around the body. Creating a balance in the collection, very feminine pieces are matched with tailored designs, including coats, which can also be worn as dresses.
“The biggest challenge was creating a textured feel using summer fabrics,” said Doma, who treated cotton with burnout effects, as well as fil coupe and jacquard finishing.
Highlighting the sense of purity, the palette revolves around white and black shades with hints of blue.
To complete the lineup, the designer also created flat sandals and a new bag — a flat style that expands as it is filled.
Retail prices range from 265 euros, or about $300 at current exchange, for light jersey dresses and skirts, to 1,102 euros, or about $1,252 at current exchange, for coats.
“This is a collection for a modern woman who dresses for herself, feels good and free in her clothes,” said Doma, adding that he is trying to keep his personal style even if he is now working in a very different context from Paris. “Since I moved to Milan, I saw a renewed attention to the brand coming from the press. I’m trying not to be influenced too much by the fashion environment in Milan. My work is purist, but is also characterized by ethnic references, which is something not so common here. I always try to have international people on my team because it is so important for the aesthetic of the brand.”
DAIZY SHELY
Daizy Shely is gearing up to bring a splash of bold colors and eccentric pieces to the minimalist Giorgio Armani theater on Sept. 26. Shely is the latest young designer to be offered the opportunity to show at Armani’s space on Via Bergognone.
The Israeli designer moved to Milan in 2005 to study at the Istituto Marangoni fashion school. She started creating looks for editorials in 2007 and launched her namesake women’s brand two-and-a-half years ago.
Shely’s collections are characterized by a bold, whimsical style, focused on the use of vivid tones, very feminine silhouettes as well as eye-catching decors, including feathers.
“In each collection I try to put something about myself and my feelings at that moment,” she said. “I target a woman who doesn’t like to follow trends, but one who wants to dress like she feels. These are not clothes for everybody — you must have a certain kind of personality.”
Case in point: an oversize puffy coat in marabou feathers that she will show on the catwalk is not simple to wear, but reflects the mission of the brand to offer unique clothes.
For spring, Shely was inspired by aerial pictures of crowded beaches, lakes or multicolored flower fields to create tonal effects reproduced on a series of pieces, including A-line dresses decorated with iridescent sequins with an Eighties feel. This also gives a playful twist to cropped jackets, micro shorts and pencil skirts crafted from glittery fabrics.
The designer balanced the hyper-feminine attitude with more masculine elements. For example, multilayered long dresses are made from men’s shirt fabrics, while a sturdy poplin shirt is worn with a maxiskirt in sheer organza.
WINONAH
Social media celebrity Winonah de Jong, who built a name in fashion through her blog — styledbywinonah.com — and as a beauty contributor for Glamour Holland, will get her chance on the other side of the runway when she launches her first women’s collection at Milan Fashion Week.
Born in Suriname in 1981, at age 15 she moved to Amsterdam where she studied textiles before getting a certificate to become flight attendant. (She never worked for the airlines, though.) But thanks to her passion for fashion, the support of her husband, AC Milan soccer player Nigel de Jong and their relocation to Milan, she started working on her own ready-to-wear line.
Produced by independent Italian manufacturer Maison M, the line features a mix of practical and chic daywear with more sensual and hyper-feminine evening options.
“The idea is to dress a woman who is self-confident, loves fashion…and is conscious of her beauty,” said de Jong, who is a real beauty herself.
Daywear includes pieces that “can be easily packed right now to leave for a weekend or a vacation,” she said. These include more resortlike options, such as an ample jumpsuit and cute short pants in striped linen, flowing caftans with coordinated high-waisted briefs, as well as more urban zippered vests in soft kangaroo leather, long-sleeved bodysuits and fitted pencil skirts with deep slits.
For evening, de Jong designed silk dresses with slits, cut-out details and rich multicolored embroideries creating graphic patterns.
Positioned in the luxury segment, the line wholesales at prices ranging from 250 euros, or $282 at current exchange, for bodysuits and linen shorts, and up to 1,000 euros, or $1,131 at current exchange, for evening pieces.