The week in brief
Milan Fashion Week closed out on Monday, September 28, 2026, after six days of Spring/Summer 2027 shows that ran from Tuesday, September 22, and ended just as Paris Fashion Week began. The edition arrived at a moment when Italian fashion is negotiating big transitions — new creative leadership at several houses, a shifting luxury market and an audience increasingly watching from phone screens as well as front rows. The response from the runways was not caution but confidence: bold proportions, retro glamour, underwear worn as outerwear, and craft made visible rather than hidden. Taken together, the week's collections argued that next summer will be about clothes that announce themselves.
The calendar was packed with the week's usual anchors — Prada, Fendi, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Max Mara, Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani among them — alongside the spectacle of Vogue World: Milano on the opening evening at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. As ever, Milan balanced heritage houses with designers pushing silhouette and proportion into new territory, and this season the balance tipped toward statement dressing.
Prada opens with a skirt-only thesis
The most discussed move of the week came first. Prada, under Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, opened the schedule on Tuesday, September 22, at the Fondazione Prada's Deposito space — a slot shift that positioned the house as the tone-setter for the entire season. The designers built the collection around a single garment, the skirt, and then pushed it in every possible direction.
There were sheer, pleated skirts, severe wrap skirts slit almost to the hip, and pencil skirts covered in glass-crystal flowers. Some wrap styles even fastened with Velcro studded with crystals — a deliberately irreverent fastening that nonetheless felt unmistakably Prada. Not a single trouser appeared in the collection. The styling leaned into contrast: humble jumpers, cotton shirts, bralettes and ladylike bags met Simons' chunky leather coats and a touch of rave energy. Outside the venue, Milan's best-dressed guests queued for espresso at Bar Luce, as they always do.
Industry coverage singled out the show as the week's defining statement, with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons receiving a standing ovation at the finale. The message was clear: if this collection shapes the market, next summer is a skirt summer.
Underwear-as-outerwear goes mainstream
If Prada provided the season's tailoring, its most provocative idea was shared across the week: lingerie, worn openly, as daywear. Prada pushed the concept to the forefront for SS27, with bras worn as tops and skirts sitting low on the hips — but rather than the body-conscious styling usually associated with exposed lingerie, the house played with deliberately oversized proportions. Low-slung skirts, loose sleeveless knits and oversized jackets created an undone feel, pairing bras with everything from pleated skirts to evening pieces.
Fendi pushed the theme further still. Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her second collection for the Roman house with sheer slips and backless dresses taking centre stage, in what coverage described as a bid for the week's most provocative show. The collection paired underwear-as-outerwear with knee-length skirts, tailored jackets and sleeveless knits stripped back from their usual office context, while bright green leather, pale blue and baby pink organza and statement accessories added colour to otherwise pared-back silhouettes.
The effect across both houses was to normalise a silhouette that only a few seasons ago would have read as purely after-dark. For shoppers in the US, UK, Australia and beyond, the takeaway is practical: sheer layers, slips and bra tops are not retreating — they are being dressed down with tailoring and oversized knits.
Retro glamour: Gucci and Moschino
While Prada and Fendi explored undressing, Gucci and Moschino went the other way: more polish, more drama, more references to the past. Gucci introduced bombers, severe shoulders and amplified hardware, channelling an Eighties glamour that felt deliberate rather than nostalgic. The collection played with statement dressing through exaggerated silhouettes and playful approaches to colour and proportion.
Moschino, meanwhile, made preppy pieces cleaner but stranger — a characteristically subversive take on wardrobe classics. Its exaggerated silhouettes were among the week's most playful, treating familiar garments as raw material for something theatrical. Between Gucci's shoulder lines and Moschino's distortions, Milan made a strong case for retro glamour with a modern edge.
The week also had a sentimental anchor. Giorgio Armani's women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection was presented on Sunday, September 27, closing the main schedule with the house's signature quiet refinement — a counterweight to the season's maximalist impulses. Emporio Armani presented its Summer 2027 collection on Thursday, September 24, in a non-runway format, opting for presentation over spectacle.
Craft you can see
One of the most consistent threads across the collections was craft made visible — artisanal technique as part of the finished image rather than something hidden in construction. Bottega Veneta's lace, crochet, fringe and intrecciato work demonstrated that artisanal value does not require visual heaviness, keeping handwork light and precise. Fendi's embellished surfaces and Marni's exposed construction made process part of the picture, while Dolce & Gabbana combined crochet, trousseau linen, tweed and leopard pattern in a similar spirit.
Jil Sander altered familiar wardrobe shapes through proportion alone, and Missoni, Etro, Max Mara and Alberta Ferretti each contributed to a week where materiality felt like the main event. The lesson for the high street and the luxury customer alike is that texture is doing the talking: lace, crochet, fringe and embellished surfaces are the details to watch as these ideas filter into stores over the coming months.
Accessories get loud again
After several seasons of quiet, almost invisible accessories, Milan brought them back with personality. Bright bags, geometric earrings, tassels, mismatched jewellery and sculptural pieces appeared throughout the week. Prada used saturated greens and textured surfaces; Fendi refreshed its Baguette with colour and decoration; Marni and Bottega Veneta made jewellery large enough to affect the entire silhouette.
This is good news for anyone refreshing a wardrobe on a budget. Accessories are the fastest way the season's ideas reach everyday dressing, and the week offered plenty of direction: colour on bags, scale on jewellery, and tassels and texture where plain used to rule.
Front rows and fashion as spectacle
Beyond the runways, the week reinforced fashion's status as popular spectacle. Vogue World: Milano took over the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the opening evening, and the front rows drew their usual constellation of celebrity attention. Model Meadow Walker attended in vintage Prada — a bra top with a matching cropped jacket and crinkled skirt, accessorised with a statement green necklace — while Jennifer Lopez, Cardi B, Heidi Klum and Pamela Anderson were all pictured at shows during the week.
The vintage moment was telling: wearing archive Prada to a Prada show is both a style flex and a sustainability statement, and it reflects a broader industry shift in which resale and rewear are becoming part of fashion week's own visual language.
What it means for next summer
Stepping back, the week resolved into a few clear directives for Spring/Summer 2027. First, the skirt is back as a wardrobe anchor — not just as an option, but as the garment everything else orbits. Second, underwear-as-outerwear has moved from provocation to proposition, softened by tailoring and oversized proportions. Third, craft is visible and tactile, with lace, crochet, fringe and embellishment carrying collections. Fourth, accessories have recovered their personality, led by colour and scale. And fifth, retro glamour — Eighties shoulders, Seventies ease, preppy classics made strange — continues to shape how designers think about the past.
Whether shoppers buy the skirt thesis wholesale or borrow it in pieces, Milan's message for next summer was unmistakable: dress with intent, and let the clothes do the talking.
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