Who Won the Day? Ferragamo Honors Pina Bausch’s Timeless Influence With an Ethereal Silk Burgundy Trench and Gloves

Some recurring themes such as the beauty of ballet dancers’ performances and movements continue to influence designers season after seasons. The late choreographer Pina Bausch takes the lead as the principle of those inspirations, she even collaborated with Miuccia Prada on a handbag back in 1994. Ferragamo designer Maximillian Davis, whose spring collection was also ballet-themed, looked at Bausch’s legacy as a guide. An ethereal silk burgundy trench coat over a floor sweeping slit dress paired with leather red gloves captured the simple yet elegant style of the late German choreographer while making it the winning look of the day.

Amid rumors of Capri’s Versace sale, Donatella delivered one of her stronger shows in recent seasons. The beloved designer pulled iconic elements from the house’s ’90s archived collections, including studded collar details, off-set shoulders silhouettes and metallic head-turning fringe dresses. “The dresses were terrific, from skater styles with crystal-embroidered skirts to chainmail gowns that may very well turn up on Oscar night,” wrote WWD’s Miles Socha. A chainmail column dress with metal and crystal mesh patchwork insets and accessorized with a spiked metal cap was the winner of the day, and a real red carpet best-dressed contender.

Prada is not only a big highlight of Milan Fashion Week, but it is also known for challenging fashion’s status quo by intellectualizing what women should be wearing as part of a bigger cultural conversation. The result, very often than not, is a whole set of challenging new ideas and unpredictable trends, and for fall 2025, it was no different.

“To work in this difficult moment is really tough,” Muiccia Prada said backstage. “That’s the mood that’s around. We are in a very black moment,” she added, when referring to a couple of eye-catching black mini dresses.

“Theirs aren’t your typical LBDs, cut from a very dark herringbone fabric in roomy, sack shapes, the edges left raw, and big, covered buttons or little fabric bows placed here and there winking back to more optimistic times in the mid-20th century,” wrote Miles Socha in his insightful show review. There is nothing more influential than reinventing a fashion classic like a little black dress with a 2025 spin and the rest… will follow suit.

It doesn’t happen every day that an iconic Italian brand, in this case Fendi, turns 100 years old. To celebrate its centennial anniversary, designer Silvia Fendi celebrated the houses’ Fendi-ness, “where irony and humor mingle with sobriety and sensuality,” the designer reminisced backstage. The heritage was most clearly displayed with an array of ultra-chic fur coats and dresses, not to mention an endless selection of bags, belts and multitude of trinkets. A red polka dot over green and black striped patterned mink fur dress with sculptural rounded sleeves and matching bag won the chicest prize, a look reminiscent of “one of the most acclaimed collections of the late Karl Lagerfeld, who masterminded Fendi’s women’s and fur collections for more than 50 years,” said WWD’s Miles Socha in his show review. Not bad for an iconic reference!

Kicking off the fashion week here in Milan, the Gucci show titled “Continuum,” designed by the studio team while waiting to announce its designer, centered around past decades of its history from the ’60s to ’90s. “Aesthetics that ranged from the minimalism of the Tom Ford era “to the more recent ultra-maximal,” a reference to de Sarno’s predecessor, said WWD’s Miles Socha on his review. A clear example was the opening look, a mid-length fur coat over a lavender lace bra top and pencil skirt that encapsulated ’80s excess while staying very relevant to today’s Gen Z love for street style trends. This interim woman feels feminine with a hint of subversion, and there is nothing more Gucci than that.