New wave workwear topped the agenda at Milan Fashion Week

Womanhood and femininity are not antithetical to power and success.

If last week’s catwalk shows in Milan are to be summarised in one sentence — and talk of coronavirus removed momentarily from the agenda — then certainly, it is this.

“Women carry the weight now” noted Miuccia Prada in the moments after her show on Thursday. Coming from a designer who has forged a whole career — as well as a global fashion brand — on the idea that the female species can be powerful and still buy really nice shoes, this wasn’t so much groundbreaking news but a necessary reminder.

A show of contrasts followed, with Prada exploring what she described as the “clichés and contrasts of femininity” by juxtaposing that which is perceived to be elegant — see crystal trimmings and thigh-exposing shredded skirts (NB: this is a mega trend next season) — with harsh tailoring and oversized ties. Her vision, Chapter 907 from the Prada school of power dressing, came to define a Milan Fashion Week in which Italian workwear was reborn.

Having struggled with its reputation as the fashion capital that matters most to the corporate classes, Milan’s power players at last seem at peace with the idea. Certainly, the city’s most exciting designers seem to have hit a stride, with workwear for the most modern and future-facing of women topping a critical point in the season’s agenda.

Daniel Lee’s latest collection for Bottega Veneta emerges as a prime example. At the designer’s much hyped third show for the house, Yorkshire-born Lee kicked off proceedings with a series of structured tailoring which was as precise as it was blindingly modern. His intention was to occupy the space between classic tailoring and the streetwear that has been the fashion world’s play thing in recent years. Or, put in more easily digestible terms, it was Milan meets the rest of the world.

The result is a collection that offers elegance and comfort simultaneously. More than that, it offers empowerment. A year since the death of her co-designer Karl Lagerfeld, Silvia Venturini Fendi seemed equally inspired to equip her female protagonist for the here and now — or at least to reflect the many guises of modern women. Her latest collection, on a cast of models who spanned ages and body types, saw the opulence of the Fendi of old replaced with a woman who can be beautiful and mean business at the same time. For our workwear wardrobes, Fendi prescribes sheath dresses — unapologetically loaded with sex appeal — and oversized outerwear, worn cinched in with a scaled-up belt.

At Versace, where a sexualised aesthetic is never off the agenda, workwear also emerged as a highlight. In the designer’s first co-ed production, Donatella Versace unveiled sharp-shouldered jackets and animal-print suiting for men and women. Versace’s intention was to enforce the idea of power dressing as a phenomenon that exists outside of gender stereotypes.

Of course, this genderless approach prevailed at Gucci too. Alessandro Michele called on papal artefacts to make a statement about fashion as religion – and also examined the power plays between the fashion show format and its audience. The show doubled as cultural experiment, with guests entering via the backstage area and taking their seat in front of a carousel upon which models and their dressers prepared. For the most part, Michele’s Gucci exists out with the zeitgeist where trends are concerned, but unisex suiting — cut in brocade, identically for men and women — emerged as a defining feature.

Jil Sander, another brand that looks best dancing to its own beat, also found its aesthetic to be in tune with the broader cultural mood. The house’s pin-sharp tailoring, cut to celebrate the individual wearing it instead of drowning her out, has scarcely felt more relevant.

Trends were easier to spot at Tod’s. Now in the care of Walter Chiapponi, the designer charged with finding a new relevance for the leather fashion juggernaut, the Tod’s woman looked free and more in step with the times than she has done in quite some time. Her wardrobe — both achingly expensive and agile — has the means to go to the boardroom and beyond, with tonal dressing (NB: head-to-toe red is a thing for AW20) and leather coats among the options for modern working women.

But this new-look breed of corporate cool occupying Milan is more than a bunch of expensive wardrobe solutions. Certainly, it is as much about clothes that offer ease as it is femininity. From the sharpness of Jil Sander to Fendi’s powder-pink prom dresses and Prada’s awkwardly angular ties, Milan’s new heroine is a beautiful contradiction — because aren’t we all.