With Burberry taking a successful corner at London Fashion Week and establishing itself as an accessories and fashion house with a heavy dose of the British working class as the guiding thread, the Prada show with its super clean lines and sober spirit was the first highlight in Milan. Followed by a techno party packing in more than one thousand guests, it’s clear that the Raf Simons influence is all over the brand now. Less is more here. The Milan schedule is jam-packed with shows nearly every hour and new talents like Jezabelle Cormio are starting to shine. While Gucci would normally be a highlight on the schedule, the in-between designer situation has put the current design team in a lame duck position.

Tod’s

Walter Chiapponi is slowly but surely becoming a stealth player in the luxury world. Cleverly leaving out men’s from his line up, he showed what a talented women’s designer he is. Perfectly judged plays on length like short on short and long and long, fantastic knitwear with leather trimmings and a good balance between the structure of men’s wear in his new three button suiting and shiny draped dresses on demure heels proved a winning formula. This is luxury that whispers.

Gucci

Alessandro Michele’s more is more spirit has left the Gucci building and his trusted design lieutenants led by his former right hand Davide Renne showed that they know how to make a proper collection. There were elements of Michele’s sexy domintatrix escalator show in the same building with a Madonna soundtrack, Tom Ford cut outs and velvets and some great looks like an oversized men’s jacket with maxi jeans which all stayed in the house’s canon but wiped the slate clean for Sabato de Sarno to have his much-awaited debut in September and give the house a new fashion spin.

Cormio

This is a jewel of a new brand which has the quirky Milan charm in its DNA and is a modern feminist brand. Focusing on skinny knits they came in the shape of dresses, leggings and super cropped sweaters which fit perfectly into the wider women’s football theme of the show. As Italy is obsessed with calcio, Cormio imagined a world where the female athletes are the nation’s obsession and not the men. She repurposed old footballs and made them into clever handbags worn by some models.

Trussardi

Bringing a Berlin vibe to Milan and establishing ready to wear codes for Trussardi is the ultimate job description for Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işik at Trussardi. Their clothes are comments on moral issues spanning race, gender and religion. They literally look for the fabric of Milan and apart from strong black leather in coats and skirts they continue to work with the arch Milanese piumino which comes in cool five pocket jeans. With a design director whom Işik met while studying at the FH Bielefeld, this is a strong German fashion stamp in Milan.