Milan Fashion Week opens with light collections from Fiorucci and Fendi

Spring/Summer 2025 promises to be a sultry and sensual season, as evidenced by the Fiorucci and Fendi brands. Fiorucci opened Milan Fashion Week with a delicate collection sprinkled with touches of humour. Fiorucci, who showed immediately afterwards, adopted the same spirit of highly feminine lingerie. Fendi celebrated its centenary with a Kim Jones collection that was a huge success.

On Tuesday, Fiorucci held its first ever fashion show. It was held outside the official calendar, at the Milan Triennale, in the presence of architect Stefano Boeri, president of this design museum, which from November will dedicate a major retrospective to the brand's founder, Elio Fiorucci. Purchased in October 2022 by Swiss businesswoman Dona Bertarelli, through her family office, the brand is in the process of relaunching itself, repositioning itself in the accessible luxury segment with products made in Italy.

To celebrate the occasion, the iconic Italian brand has presented its new line with the help of creative director Francesca Murri, who has given Fiorucci a more feminine and sophisticated touch, playing with the brand's codes, as can be seen in this look in which the house's classic denim minishorts are worn under a transparent tunic embroidered with flowers and a heart on each breast.

Symbolically, the designer chose the theme of awakening to anchor the brand in the present and under its new face after years of floating. The catwalk was accessed through a blue tunnel filled with cushions. An old clock radio blared the news. Awoken from their slumber, their dreams now far away, the disheveled models presented themselves in improvised outfits, chosen at random from their wardrobes.

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Men and women invariably dress in each other's clothes. She wears a suit. He combines an undershirt with Bermuda shorts, sometimes with lace shorts that peek out, with sequinned ballet flats and sheer knee-high stockings. All in white, or in pastel shades ranging from baby pink and blue to lilac, they all seem to have woken up from their dreams, in flip-flops and imitation satin pajama pants, or in dresses that look like nightgowns, with the black garbage bag in hand to throw it away… In fact, a new model of Fiorucci bag that should please fashion victims.

Blouses, T-shirts, long skirts and dresses with thin straps are made from Tyvek. Tyvek is an archival fabric that looks like soft, crumpled paper and is often used for laboratory overalls. One of the dresses is decorated with openwork cherubs, a clear reference to Fiorucci’s angels. Other outfits bear large turquoise numbers: 1967, the year the house was founded.

Without quoting Elio Fiorucci directly, Francesca Murri prefers to make his ironic style her own through new, off-the-beaten-track creations, such as these two-tone cardigans that can be completely unbuttoned at the front and back, allowing them to be re-arranged ad infinitum, or a top and skirt made from a long lock of blonde hair, or a plastic-bag-shaped T-shirt dress made of shiny silk that perfectly recreates the illusion of a plasticised material that says “Fiorucci cash&carry”. And let’s not forget these hand-knitted slippers, which are usually put under the sheets on cold nights.

Boudoir spirit at Fendi

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At Fendi, we find the same sensual femininity and boudoir touch in powdery skin tones, accentuated by evanescent ensembles with fluid, caressing movements. With this anniversary collection, designed for next summer and aptly titled “Dal 1925” (from 1925, the year the Roman fashion house was founded), creative director Kim Jones seems particularly inspired, managing to recreate through some forty looks the invisible thread between the very chic 1920s and the whispered luxury of today.

She delicately combines the simplest pieces with the most precious creations, creating a unique and soberly sophisticated wardrobe. The narration is underlined by the voices of Anna and Silvia Fendi, daughter and granddaughter respectively of Adele Fendi, the founder of the Roman fashion house.

“He liked to get as close to beauty as possible,” Anna recalls, as if the show were repeating itself, as the models, looking natural and disheveled, walked through an immense white space, accompanied on the piano by the delicate notes of the German neoclassical composer Max Richter. The collection was a mix of day and evening wear, divided between everyday basics such as tank tops, T-shirts, suit jackets, pencil skirts, trench coats and knitwear, and richly decorated silk and organza pieces that could be layered or mixed in with the ensemble.

The designer plays with layering, layering sheer tulle tunics hand-embroidered with Art Deco motifs or small flowers and leaves in pearls, sequins and silver, over sensible lingerie, or a black apron skirt over a white silk dress with a fine print. He also combines long coats or jackets with knitted micro-sets (shorts with a jumper or cardigan). This casual and natural look is enhanced by the choice of comfortable lace-up shoes for walking.

Kim Jones loves to pay attention to detail, especially in her designs. Like this shirt dress, which transforms from behind into a classic shirt worn over a dress, or this tank top worn inside out with the straps falling over the legs, which becomes a skirt. Elsewhere, a shirt is gathered at the back and fastened with a belt, like a jacket, while a textured velvet coat with kimono sleeves, tied at the waist with a ribbon belt, looks like a bathrobe.