Ferragamo is a house with a problem. Although they put on lavish fashion shows helmed by very talented designer Maximilian Davis and his stylist Lotta Volkova with a very convincing dissertation on button placket tailoring for this fall which felt luxurious and contemporary at the same time, the turnover is going down and design, marketing and merchandise seem oddly misaligned. In fact, you can barely find any of the runway looks in the shops. And let’s not forget this is the house with the most iconic flagship in the world with a wonderful boutique in Florence next to the Ponte Vecchio. For his latest show Davis came up with a clever concept of opening or closing space on the body, specifically the neckline and legs depending on how much the buttons were open or closed on the garments. The fabric research was tremendous with rich velvets, dyed leathers, and finest wools as is expected of a luxury house. One could only wish these clothes would get the exposure in stores they deserve to get traction. 

Rihanna made Dior Haute Couture guests wait for an hour to start the show a month ago in Paris while Madonna left it at 38 minutes at Dolce & Gabbana. Face of a new fragrance called The One – let’s not forget that the duo is undergoing the gigantic effort of having brought their beauty business in house with their own factories – Madge, as she is called in New York sat front row next to Anna Wintour. The designers clearly wanted to impress their favorite singer and gave their looks a front and back button row to elevate the design of an all-black show with outstanding velvet or lace column dresses and lots of mannish tailoring which was only broken up with a few holed up denims. As always, Dolce & Gabbana excels when they stick to their DNA festive Sicilian dressing. A day after Gucci one needs to ask the question: who is the target audience for that fragrance?

In a season now defined by the Gucci sexquake, Kering owned Bottega Veneta went all out with displaying great taste, if not the best. Louise Trotter is now the third designer after Daniel Lee to pick up the baton and make wonderful outerwear and tailoring which is perfectly judged but still exciting and in Trotter’s case veering towards maximalism. Her coats are big, her tailoring is single breasted, and she loves shaggy and furry textures for her women. The collision of surfaces seems to be her design ethos judging from this show. With a sumptuous color palette of bright red, deep blue and pink she had a strong differentiating point of view to the sea of black on other runways. How about a white cozy fur with a giant red collar?