Prada opened Milan Fashion Week with its Spring-Summer 2027 Collection, followed that evening by Anna Wintour’s Vogue World show at the Galleria, where the myth of the Milanese fashion house was born. Two women inextricably linked to cinema, two trailblazers who have made aesthetics a way of life — and a business — and who have shaped consumers’ desires and tastes. At least until handbags began costing as much as a down payment on a house.

That is the problem everyone can see, but according to luxury magnates, there is no going back, even if that means denying one of the basic rules of capitalist liberalism: that price is tied to demand. It is a bubble in which the fashion world is struggling, having lost 60 million luxury consumers since 2020, many of whom will be extremely difficult to win back. Milan Fashion Week begins here, somewhere between fear and hope.

Prada opened the season among the major fashion houses with a show devoted to skirts, a particularly timely choice after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s gaffe: He said he would like to see all women wearing hemlines below the knee. But when reporters tried to coax a comment from Miuccia Prada before the show, she merely shrugged. For her, it has never been a question of centimeters.

In the end, her best response to the glorification of the submissive woman came on the runway, in a collection that was magnificent, fresh and, above all, free. Because there is more to it than skirts: There is an aesthetic, an idea, even a subversive charge.

“It’s an extremely flexible object, almost a kind of organism capable of accommodating different theories, ideas and interpretations. Above all, it allows you to express many nuances of identity: from sensuality to femininity, to something more instinctive,” Miuccia Prada explained backstage.

After all, someone like Prada, who lived through and embraced feminism in the 70s, knows the symbolic power of a skirt and of raising its hem. And so came these 73 declarations of independence and strength: minis, knee-length skirts, pleated skirts, skirts with embroidered bands, tear-away skirts worn over little dresses, balloon shapes. Paired with a bra, a shirt, a pullover or a blouson.

“We see a lot of reality in this collection, and we love reality,” said Co-Creative Director Raf Simons.

Today belongs to Brunello Cucinelli, who is holding on to his positive outlook even in a difficult moment. Along with Hermès and the Prada Group, the brand remains an exception to the luxury slowdown. The designer and entrepreneur from Solomeo stays true to himself with a collection featuring all his signature codes: natural colors, the glow of embroidery, and a play between rough and weightless materials.

Crochet is one of the innovations for next summer, with raffia paired with organza, sailor stripes accented with gold, and workwear silhouettes meeting crochet textures. Volumes are played with, while shirts borrow their breadth from bombers. The house’s signature colors include off-white, rope and ivory, along with khaki and cardamom, clay and leather. Touches of red, blue and sky blue complete the palette.

And at the end of the first day of Milan shows, everyone — figuratively speaking — headed to Anna Wintour’s house for an all-inclusive event, where a front-row seat cost €25,000.

That was before the price-cutting auction prompted by the lack of interest in what appeared to no one — not even the designers — to be much of a bargain.

When it comes to prices and their relationship to the real value of things, the luxury sector simply refuses to understand.

— © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.