Celebrity-packed front rows, a surprise drop-in from Madonna and an ‘anything goes’ attitude: Milan Fashion Week highlights

The strapline to the recent Spring-Summer 2025 shows at Milan Fashion Week should read: “expect the unexpected.”

The strapline to the recent Spring-Summer 2025 shows at Milan Fashion Week should read: “expect the unexpected.” The runways staged across the Italian city were a stark contrast to Milan’s usual doubling down on house codes and familiar signatures. Just six months ago, designers were offering up collections filled with practical everyday clothes. This week, many of those same labels largely went off script in pursuit of fresh perspective. The result was a season that was hard to take a temperature of. Brands that could usually be relied upon to deliver a strong point of view, gambled on a throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach — while others who have drifted into predictable ground in recent seasons had the audience sitting up in their seats. Even Miuccia Prada, whose collections usually act as a yardstick of a trend and arbiter of an important message, said that she was “very very nervous” about presenting this collection. FYI if Mrs Prada says she’s nervous, it sends shockwaves and as a result, the entire week of shows felt somewhat unhinged. But, the general consensus? Experimental Italian elegance is in — but an iron is most definitely out. Let’s start with the comeback of creases. At Prada, where collars were threaded with wire and styled wonky. At Ferragamo, too, trench coats were covered in puckered lines; while Max Mara’s tailored shirt dresses were permanently wrinkled. Most captivating of all, however, was Bottega Veneta — where its normally precision-pressed ensembles looked as though they had been left in the washing machine too long when wet. Against the odds, it all worked, presenting as a choice rather than a rush to get out of the house. Stepping away from their usual flawless finishes, the stimulus was different for each designer. At Prada, Miuccia Prada spoke of “unpredictability as a measure of human creativity” while Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths said it related to chaos theory, which he had studied ahead of the show.  “The creasing is the opposite of impeccable smoothness — for everything you expect there’s the opposite.”