Live Coverage From Milan Digital Fashion Week
GUCCI:
On the last day of Milan Digital Fashion Week, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele presents his Epilogue collection in a visual narrative feature during a 12-hour livestreaming on several digital platforms worldwide.
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Epilogue is the conclusive chapter in Michele’s narrative, which began with his fall show presented in February in Milan, dedicated to the multitiered ritual of designing, making, staging and viewing a fashion show.
Today, Gucci presents what would have traditionally been called a cruise collection, but that Michele has renamed Epilogue. Watch the video here, and take a look back at Michele’s first show for the brand in 2015.
ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA:
Exalting the spring 2021 collection’s integration of human craftsmanship, industrial knowledge and the surroundings, Sartori chose the company’s headquarters in Trivero as the background of the brand’s first phy-gital event, featuring a runway show livestreamed on Friday, where models walked for more than three kilometers in different locations, spanning from the factory and the archives to the forests of the Oasi Zegna. After the show, Sartori introduced the collection to the public, in a socially distanced walk-through.
ANDREA POMPILIO:
In lieu of a presenting new spring collection, Andrea Pompilio invited director Giuia Achenza to make a short, artsy film about the designer’s different feelings during the lockdown. As he worked through anxiety and incredulity through self-awareness and introspection, Pompilio revealed a more intimate and reflective aspect of his aesthetic and personality. The clothes will be unveiled in September.
VERSACE:
Leave it to Donatella Versace to secure a worldwide exclusive. The woman who brought Jennifer Lopez back onto the runway donning a replica of THAT famous jungle-print dress, had British rapper and songwriter Aj Tracey perform an unreleased track called “Step On.” Filmed in a warehouse during the campaign shoot, the video served as a teaser for the brand’s Flash Collection that will debut later this summer.
DSQUARED2:
Dean and Dan Caten are natural-born entertainers. To unveil their resort 2021 collection, they invited the digital audience behind the scenes of a shooting day chez Dsquared2, which was filled with a good dose of fun and humor. They played like movie directors and explained their inspirations for the season before launching a black-and-white clip to present their formalwear offering and colored images to introduce the sportier part of their collection. As models posed between spotlights and fans, both cinematic sequences were smart and functional in showing the looks, but viewers were left wanting for more of the Caten duo’s interaction and bubbly personality.
ERMANNO SCERVINO:
A view on the Tuscan hills and their lush nature set the tone of the Ermanno Scervino video. No farmer in sight though – the brand’s botanic garden was filled with strong women, some swirling in lightweight airy dresses, others strolling around in sartorial pieces until a final statement gown made its appearance.
TOD’S:
Tod’s creative director Walter Chiapponi decided to focus his video on the artisans and their handiwork at the company’s headquarters in Brancadoro, Italy. It chronicles the process from design through to manufacturing and the final shooting, paying homage to “an Italian love story,” as Chiapponi put it.
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO:
From the early images of the namesake founder of the company to the presentation of the brand’s pre-spring 2021 women’s collection, Salvatore Ferragamo’s video paid tribute to its history, its craftsmanship and Tuscany, highlighting the colors of its beautiful landscape inspiring the label’s silk foulards, the Arno river, the Uffizi and the majestic Brunelleschi dome of the Florence cathedral. The frescoes of Ferragamo’s headquarters in Palazzo Spini Feroni are a sight to behold, as is the rare footage of Ferragamo on a cruising ship – presumably to America where he became known as the “cobbler to the stars” such as Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Flash forward to 2018, another Hollywood A-lister, Julianne Moore, is captured bestowing the company with a Green Carpet Fashion Award in 2018. And in another celebration of Ferragamo’s home region, the models donning the pre-spring collection were filmed at Tuscany’s luxury resort Forte dei Marmi and in a villa at the nearby Ronchi village.
PHILOSOPHY BY LORENZO SERAFINI:
Filmed at luxury resort L’Albereta, the Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini video chronicles the brand’s resort 2021 photo shoot. Dutch model Luna Bijl strikes poses for the photographer, plays tennis with Serafini, and swims in the pool wearing a glamorous tulle dress.
SUNNEI:
Well done Sunnei! The Milanese hip brand embraced the digital transformation of fashion shows with a smart, innovative, fun attitude. Instead of sticking to established formats delivering just another inspirational video, Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina played with technology to develop avatars of male and female models that dancing to the tune of Nineties’ Latin pop hit “Macarena” offered a dynamic presentation of the Canvas project.
UNITED STANDARD:
United Standard screened captivating – and somewhat disturbing – footage of a man running into the woods – to escape something, or in hopes of finding something? It was a compelling commentary on the fear and anxiety designer Giorgio Di Salvo found himself grappling with during lockdown.
M1992:
Paolo Forchetti and Miriam Gili of M1992 depicted six models wearing their spring designs and dealing with various addictions and fears, ranging from obsessive cleaning and the phobia of confined places to narcissism and – what else? – TikTok.
SANTONI:
It seems everyone’s yearning for nature – even sharply dressed men.
For Santoni’s spring video, Fabrizio Albertini trained his camera on elegant fellows strolling around different landscapes of the Marche region where the company is based, including a small lake nestled in a grove. The mood was uplifting, with the colors of the scenery matching the shoes. Santoni’s staple loafers and lace-ups in printed croco are always must-haves, except no man would probably hike on a rocky hill sporting a pair of burgundy monk straps.
PHILIPP PLEIN:
With no shortage of razzmatazz or bombast, Philipp Plein’s video retraces the brand’s early days to its latest creative effort. Plein was the protagonist, wearing the collection himself in a futuristic lab replete with flashing robotic arms and projected grids on the designer as he mused on how to reimagine the lineup in the aftermath of the pandemic.
MOSCHINO:
For a brand accustomed to loud and eccentric presentations, Moschino played it safe with a no-frills video to unveil its men’s pre-collection. A model posed against vivid backdrops and contrasting geometric props sporting different looks rendered in graphic prints and polka-dots motifs. Close-ups on accessories and a rhythmic soundtrack set the tempo of the presentation.
VIVETTA:
“I dream sometimes of a lighter world, where streets are covered with flowers and the cars have wings to fly in the sky.” That’s just one of the thoughts shared by designer Vivetta Ponti in the short clip that evoked the bucolic, nostalgic feel behind her resort 2021 collection. Directed by Luisa Pagani, it shows young girls donning delicate, floral printed frocks with ruffles playfully interacting outdoors as well as languidly posing doors.
ALBERTA FERRETTI:
Alberta Ferretti showed her love not only for Milan, but for all of Italy with a video that showcased the beauty and opulence of its squares and streets.
Images of models strutting down an imaginary catwalk were superimposed on footage of Venice’s San Marco square, Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and Rome’s Fountain of Trevi.
While her tribute to Italy was timely as the country gradually recovers from the pandemic, the video was a tad repetitive and the landmarks upstaged her rich resort lineup.
PRADA:
Miuccia Prada asked Terence Nance, Joanna Piotrowska, Martine Syms, Juergen Teller and Willy Vanderperre to interpret her women’s resort and men’s spring 2021 collections in a video shown on Tuesday during Milan digital fashion week.
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PLAN C:
Plan C’s short movie was a sensorial journey building up to the reveal of its spring 2021 collection.
Luca De Santis trained his camera on creative director Carolina Castiglioni in Engadin, in the Swiss Alps, where she spent the lockdown with her family. The connection between the inspiring landscape and her fetching spring collection was represented by splicing natural elements, and landscapes in the vein of Google Street’s 360-degree visual language, with fabrics in the collection as well as behind-the-scenes clips showing looks on a model.
The relaxing and arty mood of the video was accompanied by a voice-over saying, “I wrote about the home that is not a building, the sonic picture of a window, I wrote about a place where we have always been, a graduated place that changes just like the shape of a cloud.”
MSGM:
MSGM kicked off the first edition of Milan digital fashion week with a moving short movie portraying the spirit of the new generation of Italian boys and girls.
Directed by Luca Finotti and shot in several Milan locations, the film expresses a sense of freedom and joy, along with a message of inclusivity thanks a to a diverse casting. Showing iconic pieces of the MSGM men’s spring 2021 and women’s resort 2021 collections, the short movie is a spontaneous, uncomplicated celebration of freedom, love and friendship.
“I wanted the spirit of this project to be pure and refreshing as a glass of cold water in a hot summer day,” said MSGM creative director Massimo Giorgetti. “I think it’s all about freshness, lightness, love and optimism.”
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