Milan recently greeted the last day of Fashion Week 2021, which saw the resumption of physical shows, with a total of 65 shows, 42 of which were in-person and 23 digital.

A return to a semi-normality that in some cases has highlighted how the pandemic, against which we are still fighting and will have to reckon with for quite a while yet, is still modifying the way collections are presented.

We decided to make a sort of recap of the most interesting things seen this week, both from the point of view strictly related to the collections and from that of the contexts within which they were presented.

Let’s start with Prada, which skilfully mixed digital and real with a simultaneous presentation between Milan and Shanghai. The layout of the Prada Foundation Depot, where the Milan show took place, was minimal and essential, as was that of Bun 1 in Shanghai, the location of the Chinese fashion show.
The spaces – the same in both locations – were delimited by parallelepipeds, all different from each other, which functioned as seats for the small invited audience and between which the models paraded in simulcast in the two cities. 
The same looks paraded at the same time in both Milan and Shanghai while the patrons could observe through the screens installed in the two locations what was happening on the other side of the world. 
A unique new format, an experience that further emphasized how the power of technology can transcend boundaries and re-unite the community around a true celebration of fashion. 
Prada was the only fashion house that felt the need to “remember”, through the images arriving from Shanghai and Milan, how stingy the last two years have been of physical contact – as well as the FW21 “Feels Like Prada” campaign. 

Fendi and Versace repeat, although starting from different concepts at least on paper, the work done by Balenciaga and Gucci. In the case of the two maisons of the Kering group, it was a hacking of Balenciaga by Alessandro Michele in which the logos of the two maisons crossed and intertwined, a sort of “sabotage of the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie and the codes of male tailoring”. 
For Fendi and Versace, on the other hand, there is talk of a “simple” collaboration in which Donatella and Kim Jones swapped roles to be inspired by each other’s vision.
Kim Jones joined forces with Venturini Fendi to design Versace’s womenswear and menswear lines, respectively, while Versace reinterpreted Fendi through its unique aesthetic by drawing from the maison’s archives.
“It’s a first in the history of fashion”, said Donatella Versace, “a true creative dialogue that stems from respect and friendship”. 
“VERSACE BY FENDI” is a clear inspiration to the 90s and their aesthetics while playing with the concept of duality, “FENDI BY VERSACE” on the other hand saw Donatella push herself towards a more punk and rebellious approach. 

Sunnei, with its SS22, wanted to communicate a very precise message: “The show corresponds to the tangible apotheosis of a new dimension of the brand that guests can explore firsthand through an intangible but at the same time revealing experience in a live presentation“. The project, curated by the agency 2050+ of Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli as far as the complex work of light design is concerned, focused much on the experience and on the sensations that it aroused in the onlookers – with those intermittent plays of light – compared to the collection itself, which expressed the idea of the two founders and designers: neo-minimalism, a lot of color, a mostly genderless approach and a lot of research on materials. 

Marni, under the creative guidance of Francesco Risso, presented the colorful SS22 collection through a theatrical performance – with music by Dev Haynes, the singer Zsela, the poet and storyteller Mykki Blanko and the scenic movements of Michele Rizzo, a choir, the actors, the conductor – in which the audience and the actors are an integral part of the show, a collective rite. A staging of the act of dressing which is part of the private and daily life of each of us, through which we relate to the world and which tells us who we are. 
Here we are. / Where are we. / What are we. / Are we ear. / Where are we? What are we? / Are we ear? / Here, where we are, what we wear is what we are. / Where we are, one we are, because of what we wear. / Here we listen in unison. / Here we are in unison, but each one is one. / Here we are, where we are because of what we wear and who we are”.

Our retrospective on Milano Fashion Week 2021 closes with the MM6 Maison Margiela show staged “by surprise” (announced only at the last useful moment) in Via Privata Giuseppe Abamonti, 1 in front of the bar “Le Belle Aurore”. The show took place in absolute silence broken only by the voices of passers-by. 
A triumph of black and white, of red and green, of surrealism and art, the Antwerp collective constantly amazes and this time brings, together with the few guests at the show, inside their vision that reflects the conceptual minimalism typical of northern Europe.