1. TAKE THE FLAK: There's still uniform(ity) as far as the military look is concerned, although it was less widespread than at the moment. But notable fans of this look included Prada which showed stretch gaberdine jackets with four button down flap front pockets in both black and stone with matching pants, and Max Mara where apricot hued sleeveless belted dresses came with epaulettes and the aforementioned four pockets. They appeared too in the Sport Max collection on a khaki green button through coat to mid thigh and at Krizia on a belted white silk jacket.
2. FEEL THE FRILL OF IT ALL:
Milan was all ruffled up last week at the collections. There was hardly a show presented that didn't turn frivolous and flirty at some stage, not least Gianni Versace's collection where a succession of jersey and stretch crepe dresses in pink, pale grey and lilac came out with ruffles around their knee length hems and around their necklines too. Laurel, obviously frilled to be showing here for the first time, included baby pink ruffle fronted chiffon shirts with trouser suits in the same colour and John Richmond, back on the catwalk after a long absence, proposed ruffle fronted knee length dresses in black chiffon.
3. JUST BELT UP: In Milan, as in London, both dresses and coats tend to stop either on the knee or about three inches above it. And the belted waist is important in both cities too. So at Callaghan, that meant a navy chalkstripe jacket was clinched tight at the waist, as were the orange/green/red vertical striped viscose knit coats at Missoni, where there were also plenty of belted mid thigh cardigans (another popular garment in a lot of collections). Laura Biagiotti suggested lightweight wool in palest pink for her single breasted belted coats, whereas Emporio Armani opted for navy pinstripe wool with matching trousers.
4. ENJOY SOME EASTERN.
PROMISE: The Italians have looked east for inspiration, with Chinese.
styles turning up throughout the Prada collection. Red silk Mao collared jackets banded in cream silk ribbon were just one instance of this style, along with bamboo design stamped satin skirts. Prada's eveningwear included ravishing hand painted velvet devore which was highly reminiscent of 18th century chinoiserie wallpaper in its design. John Richmond looked to India for ideas and came up with raw silk flared pants embroidered with paisley patterns in metallic thread. Similarly, Trussardi included white jersey cap sleeved full length dresses printed with horizontal bands of paisley design and Moschino showed a Moghul style flared frockcoat in cream with gold paisley embroidery before moving further eastwards for a blue peacock feather print satin kimono worn with Chinese satin brocade trousers.
5. SEE THROUGH FASHION: Designers are completely transparent about what they're proposing and so will you be if you dare to wear one of next spring/summer's favourite fabrics - chiffon. Sheer bravado will be needed for the likes of Versace's mid grey chiffon ankle length dress with low neckline and empireline ruching under the bust or Blumarine's red and pink rose print short sleeved chiffon dress strikingly similar to those which can now be seen in Emma. Knits are sheer too for the season ahead. Typically, Jil Sander showed gauzy silk knitted T shirts with square necklines and short sleeves (she also provided a dazzling red chiffon full length dress with long sleeved among her options for evening) while Gucci came up with a chocolate brown spaghetti strapped tunic top in diaphanous knit.
6. FIND IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE: It wasn't just the preponderence of tropical bamboo (Prada), fern (SportMax) and ivy leaf (Versace) prints which suggested fashion was thinking of the great outdoors. Dolce & Gabbana as usual included lots of leopard skin prints in their show; for ruffle fronted shirts with grey pinstripe suits and for mid calf chiffon dresses with matching coats (not to mention for cushions which were all stolen by souvenir snatchers as soon as the show had ended). Krizia's show included a tiger print on grey silk wrapover skirts with matching cropped Tshirts and at Laurel, there were gold velvet devore dresses which imitated animal skins.
7. FLARE OUT: Trouser suits abounded and with only very rare exceptions (a few at Emporio Armani), their pants are flared. Gucci, which can take responsibility for popularising this style once again, had lots of flared trousers of course - in black shot taffeta and silk crepe among other fabrics - but so too did Jil Sander (charcoal grey wool trouser suits), Trussardi (white leather punched into a check pattern for flared pants) and Erreuno (black silk trouser suits). The size of the flare varies from discreet (Missoni with a geometric weave of olive green and aubergine) to enormous (huge flat fronted Oxford bags in cream cotton at Callaghan) but it's universal, so start getting used to the notion.
8. STRETCH AN IDEA TO ITS LIMIT: Italians are masters of new fabric technology and at the moment, the country's designers seem to adore the idea of stretch materials. This means that, along with chiffon (which was even shown in a stretch form at some shows) jersey in various permutations is going to be 1997's most widely used material. Istante was only one of many houses to include black jersey knee length dresses, in this instance with a fine band of vivid colour around the neckline and sleeves. Erreuno included lots of navy jersey dresses with geometric patterns in black and white, Dolce & Gabbana's familiar overblown rose print turned up on stretch jersey skirts and skin - tight dresses and Gucci had jersey draped strapless tops for evening teamed with lurex flares. The stretch knit, such as that used for a flesh coloured, sleeveless and backless full length evening dress at Max Mara, was also commonplace.
9. JUMP SUIT: It was first seen in London and it appeared all over the place in Milan too. The jumpsuit is big news for next spring/summer and the pink jersey wrapoverfront flared example shown by Sport Max was typical. Jil Sander showed navy wool sleeveless jumpsuits with turn ups on the flares, Laurel's selection included a navy and white horizontal banded style with deep plunging neckline and John Richmond brought out a halter neck jumpsuit in oxblood printed with five petal pink flowers. Just be grateful that, with the exception of Trussardi, no one in Milan followed London's lead and decided to promote pedal pushers for next year.
10. FEEL BLUE AND SEE RED: There was, as always, a black at superabundance of white and all the shows, together with lots of brown, camel, stone and flesh (lots of the last of these). But two colour stories look to be particularly strong next season. Fire engine red stood out precisely because it is such a powerful colour, whether seen in a back buttoning tunic and matching flares from Erreuno or used for a wool jersey long coat and matching mid calf skirt from Dolce & Gabbana. Blue, especially in navy and midnight shades, turned up even more often. Max Mara's navy wool zipfronted jacket was the norm, as was Callaghan's navy pinstripe flared trouser suit.
11. BE EASILY SUEDE: The temperature may rise, but lots of animal skin is on offer for spring/summer 1997. The Istante show included a very pretty lilac suede single button waisted jacket (with knee length pink silk knit dress), while Gucci seemed to make chocolate brown suede one of its leitmotifs - for close shouldered coats to the knee, collarless wrapover shirts and dresses with an apron fold at the waist. Jil Sander also used brown suede for a knee length dress darted at the waist and with flared sleeves and Laurel included honey toned suede for a belted safari jacket and matching flared pants.
12. LOVE CLEAN LINEN: Having been the most fashionable fabric of summer 1994, linen dropped out of favour but will be making a modest come back next year according to the Italians. Sport Max showed heavy white linen belted knee length coats, as did Laura Biagiotti. At Emporio Armani, pale blue linen tunics to the knee came teamed with chiffon pants and Jil Sander included a slate blue glazed linen single breasted trouser suit.