Chain mail and silky skirts contrast at Milan fashion week

OHMYGOSSIP — Tight-fitting dresses hung with chains at Versace and rippling skirts worn over loose trousers at Emporio Armani turned heads at Milan fashion week, as designers offered up a host of contrasting styles.

Chain mail worked its way into black T-shirts with biker logos and evening dresses in the spring-summer 2014 collection by Italian fashion house Versace, alongside flippy skirts over high platform sandals.

Emporio Armani’s silky party dresses and voluminous trousers cut just above the ankle used fabrics that were “soft, with a certain light transparency”, Italian designer Giorgio Armani told after the show, which was themed on water lilies.

Franca Sozzani, editor of the Italian edition of fashion magazine Vogue, said there was no such thing as trends any more.

“What is good in fashion is the freedom,” Sozzani told, otherwise, “we’d be slaves of the trends.”

Contrasting visions of flora and fauna have been a recurring theme of the collections shown so far in Milan this week, where Italian fashion house Blugirl offered demure shift dresses emblazoned with large flowers and Italian brand JustCavalli dressed models in a mixture of floral and animal prints.

“For me, every girl is a butterfly that should fly,” designer Roberto Cavalli told before the JustCavalli show, which included patterned bras exposed under plunging necklines.

Asked about the collection, Cavalli said: “I think that I put all my fantasy, all my love of the natural, because for me nature is colours.”

Blugirl designer Anna Molinari said the best-selling accessory in her range was a canvas bag embroidered with three-dimensional flowers, adding that the brand’s strongest markets are in Asia, Russia and France.

Flower prints at Versace created a grungy effect, appearing on black T-shirts worn with skintight shorts.

Designer Donatella Versace sported one of the black biker T-shirts for her customary appearance at the end of the show, after models strutted down the runway to the track “Versace” by U.S. rappers Migos featuring Drake.

Versace Chief Executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris told before the show that the company plans to have chosen a short list of potential buyers for a minority stake by mid-October.

Milan-based trade body Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana estimates that around 15,000 people come to the city for fashion week, which finishes on Sept. 23 after hosting 74 official shows.

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Milan Fashion Week (Italian: Settimana della moda) is a clothing trade show held semi-annually in Milan, Italy spring / summer event held in February – March of each year and autumn / winter event held in September – October of each year.

Milan Fashion Week, established in 1958 is part of the Big 4 fashion weeks internationally, the others being Paris Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. The schedule begins with New York, followed by London, and then Milan, and ending the events in Paris.

Milan Fashion Week is owned by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (The National Chamber for Italian Fashion), a non-profit association which disciplines, co-ordinates and promotes the development of Italian Fashion and is responsible for hosting the fashion events and shows of Milan. The Camera Sindacale della Moda Italiana, was set up on 11 June 1958. This was the forerunner of the body which subsequently became the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. Proprietors of the most important haute couture establishments in Italy, including some private establishments, which, in those days, played a crucial role in the promotion of this sector, were present at the Memorandum of Association: Maria Antonelli, Roberto Cappucci, Princess Caracciolo Ginnetti, Alberto Fagiani, Giovanni Cesare Guidi, Germana Marucelli, Emilio Federico Schuberth, Simonetta Colonna Di Cesarò, Jole Veneziani, Francesco Borrello, Giovanni Battista Giorgini and the lawyer Pietro Parisio.

The events dedicated to women’s fashion are the most important (Womenswear / Milan SS Women Ready to Wear, and Milano Moda Donna being the major fashion shows). The summer events dedicated to men include Menswear and Milano Moda Uomo.

In 2013, (fall winter season) Milan Fashion Week started January 20 with Paola Frani, and was followed by shows from major fashion houses such as Roberto Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Prada and more.