Milan Fashion Week: Real Women, Real Clothes

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Big-name designers demonstrated a new understanding with a focus on real clothes for real women at Milan Fashion Week for the upcoming Season.

The beautiful Celine Spring Summer 2010 collection was cited by many as a key influence for the Autumn Winter 2010/11 Milan fashion trends. With its stunning new classic but very sophisticated cut and fit and a strong focus on clean day-wear it quickly turned out to be the favourite of many from the last season shows. And it is certainly one of ours.

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 3

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 2

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 1

Milan's fashion designers have moved slightly away from the stunning red-carpet looks and instead focussed more on the saleability and wearability of their designs. There was a new wave of wearable daywear and key separates as we have seen on the first day in the fabulous Prada show. " It is normal clothes - classics," Muiccia Prada said backstage before the show.

She thoroughly revisited Prada's strenghts from the double-face cashmere to flattering fifties and sixties dresses and skirts. Detailed coats and jackets with the collar as the highlight also stood out. It was a very fresh and sexy approach as it celebrated the very curvaceous woman amongst us and we all love to see that don't we??!!

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 39

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 25

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 10

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Alberta Ferretti's collection on the other hand was all about the separate pieces and with the concept of wearing the pieces separately and in lots of different ways.

Alberta Ferretti Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 27

Alberta Ferretti Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 14

Versace surprisingly also moved away from the Glitz and Glamour look focussing on more day-to-day items. She was obviously inspired by the good old biker style making it suitable and appealing to her audience by translating it into tight fitting pants and trousers with matching biker jackets and stunning asymmetric long sleeved zip dresses. It was a clever step from her moving away from the evening wear and putting more focus on the daily wear.

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 6

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 34

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 5

And then of course there was Jil Sander's collection that represented a pared-down approach in a very clean and clear way. It was all about practical dressing for grown women "who know what they want and aren't afraid to go for it," as Raf Simons, creative director, explained. This has led him to designs that were inspired by a mix of Anna Wintour and Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in Tomb Rider which resulted in classic and beautifully tailored tweed suits and black sheer shorts, bodysuits and tailored catsuits.

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 31

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 4

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Info and images taken from here.

The 21st Century Fashion Show

Burberry Autumn Winter 2010/11, Look 5

Yesterday at precisely 4.25pm the Burberry Autumn Winter 2010/11 show kicked off in London on the grounds of the Chelsea College of Art and Design. Prestigious guests were invited and it seemed like half of Hollywood took a break to see the show with Kate Hudson, Uma Thurman and the Olsen Twins only being a few of the big names. But more importantly it was live-streamed simultaneously to a global audience and in 3D to invited guests only in Paris, LA, New York, Tokyo and Dubai.

The collection was beautifully designed paying homage to their heritage roots that lie in military and focussing on their so fabulous outerwear. Creative director Christopher Bailey moved away from their famous trench coat and re-discovered the versatility of the aviator jacket which was then designed in many beautiful ways. Giant over sized collars, zips and buckles, sheep skin, tight skinny leather pants and a colour palette of creme, mustard and khaki where outstanding elements of the new collection.

Burberry Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 8

Burberry Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 10

Burberry Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 52

Now broadcasting a show live digitally is not a new strategy to reach all your customers, however Burberry might have just invented the new way of retail and fashion shows in the 21st century as the online audience was able to click on the admired piece of clothing and pre-order it instantaneously on the Burberry Website. So what is new, and in my opinion very clever move from the marketing and communication team at Burberry, was the immediate pre-selling of the clothes on the runway. This is not all the pre-selling is limited to three days only and will end on Friday at 4pm. It allows Burberry's consumers to buy into the new collection while the excitement from the incredible show is still around. The time limit also offers a feeling of exclusivity. This was once again a brilliant strategy by Burberry and certainly puts them ahead of their competitors as Burberry combine the online and the offline worlds very cleverly and use it to their advantage.

It just leaves us wondering how the 21st century show will evolve and how the competitors will react to this move? Well, we are excited about these current developments and cannot wait to see what is coming next? Maybe some of the other designers at Milan and Paris Fashion Week have already another ace up their sleeves waiting to be released...???

Info taken from here, here and here.

Photos taken from here.