Diverse designers headline Milan Fashion Week Day 5
By Colleen Barry, The Associated Press on February 25, 2023.
MILAN (AP) – Designers with diverse backgrounds figured prominently in shows on the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week, during a season when diversity in Italian fashion has become an every more pressing topic. Maximilian Davis, 27, showed his second season as creative director at Ferragamo. Likewise for Filipino-American designer Rhuigi Villasenor at Bally. And Tokyo James, founded a decade ago by British-Nigerian designer Iniye Tokyo James, presented his fourth Milan runway show. Some highlights from mostly womenswear collections for next fall and winter on the fourth day Saturday of Milan Fashion Week. SALVATORE FERRAGAMO SET SIGHTS ON YOUTH Ferragamo has some sex kitten looks for next fall and winter as creative direction of Maximilian Davis, showing his second collection for the Florentine fashion house, took a dive into the archives when 1950s divas like Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren were setting the mood. “With Ferragamo there is so much in the heritage, that I felt we really need to work to present it to the younger generation that we want to bring into the brand,” Davis said backstage. That included an invisible heel on a stiletto, and the Ferragamo red that he employed in smaller ways, like peekaboo slits. Davis envisages dressing both mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, with his clean lines and spare, direct point of view. To that end there were slightly off-centered suit jackets with culottes worn fetchingly, and modestly, with dark tights. Culottes also paired with knitwear in see-me red. Sons might gravitate toward technical bombers and tank tops in bright shades, or motorcycle jackets and trousers with flashes of red that can be zipped open or closed. Davis struck both an elegant and sexy tone with wrap dresses, elegant when combined with draping and sexy when hugging the body in liquidy metallic shades and short hemlines. Front-row celebrities included Uma Thurman and Hunter Schafer. 12-11
