Five niche Italian brands helping Milan Fashion Week get its mojo back
Gucci may be getting the headlines but it is actually a series of small home-grown labels – including Attico and For Restless Sleepers – that are injecting a much-needed dose of excitement into Milan’s fashion scene
Fashion people, especially jaded editors, love to hate Milan. Too commercial, goes the refrain. Not enough young designers at the expense of corporate giants. Too many accessories and few exciting shows.
While it is not the first time that critics have predicted Milan’s demise as a fashion capital, this season the complaints turned into a mini controversy that engulfed the fashion community both in Italy and across the Atlantic.
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An article published in The New York Times, provocatively titled “Does Milan Matter?”, ruffled the feathers of the city’s glitterati, who were quick to defend their hometown. From Stefano Gabbana, who on Instagram exhorted his fellow Italian designers to boycott the publication and ban it from its shows (something that Dolce & Gabbana has been doing for years) to Italy’s most prominent newspapers, La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, the local fashion community was very vocal in its rebuke.
While there is some truth to the issues raised by the American publication, you cannot deny that in recent seasons Milan has gone through a renaissance of sorts. The city’s fashion week is no longer synonymous with big labels and a dearth of creative talent.
Many attribute this new-found vitality to the incredible success of Gucci, the label du jour. The mega brand has undeniably played a pivotal role in putting Milan back on the fashion map, but it is actually a series of small home-grown labels that have injected a much-needed dose of excitement into the city’s fashion scene.