Now that the style set has packed up its things and headed to Paris to close out fashion month, let's sit down and discuss everything we just saw at Milan Fashion Week for the spring/summer 2024 season. Buckle up—the Italian houses gave us so much to talk about. This is a fashion week that's historically much more predictable than its counterparts in NYC and Paris, but with a new class of creative directors at the helm of many established houses and an influx of new labels on the scene, Milan is proving to have a strong It factor up its sleeve.
This season introduced us to the new era of Gucci with the debut collection from Creative Director Sabato De Sarno, and while the opinions are split on old versus new Gucci, it marks a refreshing new chapter in Milanese fashion along with the exciting rebrands that Maximilian Davis and Matthieu Blazy are doing at Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta respectively. The first looks at 2024 are already exciting us, and below, you'll find the eight most important trends to know about now.
In the Hot Seat
The temperatures were climbing in Milan this week, and we don't mean in your weather app. Hot pants were a trend that absolutely lit up the runways of top houses, including Prada, Tom Ford, Gucci, Max Mara, Bally, and many others. While designers brought forward several ideas on how to wear the teeny-tiny shorts, ranging from velvet suiting to patent leather and logo embossed, they remained united on one front: Inseams shouldn't exceed more than a single inch.
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Power Color
Fiery red may be the dominating color of 2023, but we already have the intel on its 2024 successor. Deep shades of burgundy and oxblood popped up throughout Milan Fashion Week, especially in glossy patent-leather iterations that look utterly luxurious. Burgundy is a color that represents power and ambition, and we expect nothing less when wearing the hue next spring.
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Opposites Attract
Fashion loves a good paradox: soft and hard, glitzy and ordinary, frivolous and practical. The Milan runways featured polar-opposite pairings that proved sometimes two things can be so wrong that they're right. Just take Prada's stylists, for instance, who paired fringe skirts with workwear jackets, or Gucci's, who married crystal-embellished bras with tailored skirts and zip-up sweatshirts with patent-leather skirts and pumps. The motto of the week? It's weird, but it works.
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Tissue Wrapping
We've been talking about sheer clothing for several seasons now, but the looks this week marked a notable shift in the way we're all going to be wearing them. Instead of totally sheer looks, designers in Milan piled on layers of organza and tulle atop dresses, shirts, and blazers that tap into the fabric's delicate vibe while still being quite wearable. Prada's sheer dresses were, without a doubt, one of the week's highlights, with trails of sheer fabric floating angelically behind its models. It's safe to say they're already a contender for spring's It dresses.
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Meet in the Middle
Skirts are rising steadily in popularity, and micro minis and long maxis are currently trending. According to the spring runways, though, hemlines are getting much more democratic, as mid-length pencil skirts were noticeably everywhere in Milan in sleek patent-leather and croc-embossed iterations.
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Fringe Ideas
Some trends were all about overall silhouettes, colors, and hemlines this week while others came in the form of more subtle details. Fringe was one such detail that caught our attention—not just because it hasn't been at the top of our shopping lists in quite some time but also because of the decisive way designers used it. They doled out fringe conservatively through a belted overlay at Prada, a fringed tassel at Ferragamo, and a crystal fringe skirt hem at Gucci, and the effect was extremely chic and elevated.
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Top-Drawer Dominance
The Milan shows want you to refocus your attention on the contents of your top drawer, namely your sock drawer. At Jil Sander, MSGM, and Moschino, tall knee-high socks featured prominently in looks with shorts and skirts to let the hosiery have its full moment. Socks and heels shouldn't make sense, but here, they just do.
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Return of the Skinny Scarf
We're not out of the Y2K woods just yet. In fact, the decade's influence isn't waning—it's just shifting gears to items that are new to the 2020s. One such item is the skinny scarf, and if its return sounds scary, one glance at the spring '24 looks featuring it will show how chic the modern iterations can be. Featured with slinky slip dresses, these coordinating scarves give a retro feel to eveningwear.
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