Milan opens style with Armani's exhibition and Diesel's treasure search

For once, Milan Fashion Week opened Tuesday with a series of events beyond the traditional catwalk shows. On the one hand, there was the inauguration in the Di Brera Pinacoteca of a magnificent exhibition dedicated to the creations of Giorgio Armani extracted from his archives; On the other hand, an unusual immersion in a field covered with giant eggs in diesel. And let's not forget Demna's film on Gucci, with a lot of Hollywood stars.

A year ago, the Pinacoteca Di Brera approached Giorgio Armani with the idea of ​​organizing a retrospective of his work to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his fashionable house. The concept? To show your creations in the prestigious museum. The result is an exhibition of great delicacy, which reflects its silently elegant and fluid fashion, perfectly integrated in this unique environment that celebrates beauty.

Forget the haute couture! To stand next to the masterpieces of the Italian Rinsecimento, from Raphael to Piero Della Francesca, Botticelli, Tiziano, Mantegna and Tiepolo, Giorgio Armani opted for a discreet and respectful approach to the treasures housed by the Milanae institution.

In total, 129 Armani wardrobe silhouettes for women and men, designed for daily use, have been selected from their archives, covering their beginnings in the 1980s until today. Each is surprisingly modern.

The exhibition “Giorgio Armani: Milano, Per Amore”, which extends until January 11, reinvents the trip of visitors, rather like attending a catwalk show, going from the rigorous tailoring to the night clothes in a stimulating dialogue between fashion and art. A little like the exhibition “Louvre Couture” held in Paris earlier this year. But in the case of Giorgio Armani and Pinacoteca Di Brera, the premise feels much more pertinent.

The clothes take shape before our eyes, as in motion by transparent floating mannequins. They swing, increase and seem to turn through the rooms, where they are grouped more frequently on a central island in small groups, not to obstruct the circulation. Like fleeting shadows or discrete visitors, they encourage space with delicacy. Its placement has been chosen with meticulous care according to colors, materials, particular details and exhibition work.

A series of light gray costumes and linen pants or light wool, cut fluid, echoes the pale curtains of veiled women who pray in the great painting of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini “preaching in Santa Marca in Alexandria.” One of the recreated gall chapels, with its quattrocent frescoes, houses a jacket and interruption set of 1989 in black silk velvet, whose necklace extends to the back as a white square decorated with maltense crosses.

In other places, an appearance with a long Prussian blue velvet chal of 1997 turns its back on us, as it absorbs the paintings it faces. The room dedicated to Caravaggio, with the legendary “Dinner in Emaus”, plays with chiaroscuro with black outfits illuminated by the embroidery of diamonds and pearls. Around a curve in the corridor is the unforgettable seducer of Richard Gere for the 1980 “American Gigolo” film, apparently incognito to admire the paintings of Bernardino Luini and Vincenzo Foppa.

A change of rhythm in the diesel. To present its Spring-Vergumer 2026 collection, the label has changed its catwalk show for a playful and galactic presentation. In the big courtyard of its headquarters in Milan, the flagship brand of the Italian group of Renzo Rosso Otb installed 55 giant plastic eggs, each of the stories of the collection used by models of meat and bone. These formed the components of an interactive urban game of natural size, which will begin as soon as the presentation ends.

The parked trucks outside were waiting to carry eggs and mannequins to the four corners of the city, to the most unexpected places (bars, churches, sexy shops and hotels) to launch a gigantic search for the treasure, the search for diesel eggs, for which more than 4,000 participants have been recorded.

Equipped with a dynamic map that guides them to the various looks, they will take the Lombard capital by assault throughout the night, gathering at the end of the route in Piazza Beccaria, in the center of the city, where the brand has established an appointment point with live music, a bar and entertainment. The first five that will arrive will be able to choose a look at the collection, which will be made to measure for them, while other awards are planned for the next twenty winners.

“We have organized some quite spectacular shows in recent seasons; this time we wanted to surprise our audience with something new that really involves the entire city and our fans. It is also a way of making fashion more democratic. The creative director confident Glenn Martens, smiling while hiding between two eggs.

The designer, already stretched by the collection that must also be prepared for Maison Margiela, continues his work in Denim, multiplying his texture explorations. A treatment applied inside the blue denim garment creates dye flame effects abroad. Another denim is woven with a double viscous-sathine thread, which is particularly in the foreground. In other places, laser cut pockets accentuate the deconstruction of the garment.

Some fabrics fader, as in this large t -shirt robe with disappointed slogans. Many attire are deliberately wrinkled and used for a general effect in anguish. The floral motifs appear in socks thrown on the pumps, in skirts and drape tops, or in light gauze dresses that are used at the same time, one on the other.

The wild streak is never far in the diesel collections, highlighted here by panels of imaginary animal skins used as patches, placed at the chest level or on summaries, joining the upper and lower part of a dress, shorts or a shirt. This animal side also appears in the jewels, with sinister salamanders that rise their ears and snake skeletons rolling the neck like necklaces.