Everything you need to know about Milan fashion week

Instead of walking down a catwalk models - wearing a typically eclectic collection that ranged from on-the-prairie dresses to nun’s habits and leather harnesses - stood still and appeared to watch the audience as the stage turned like a merry-go-round.

Creative director Alessandro Michele said of the thought process behind the spectacle, ‘Fashion is a shared ritual. It’s a complex mechanism and something sacred. It’s a religion.’

LET THEM EAT CAKE

The real cake that Moschino sent to front rowers as an invitation to the AW20 show was a taste of things to come - quite literally. For his collection inspired by Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, the brand’s creative director Jeremy Scott sent out serving after serving of dresses that looked like real cake, complete with saccharine shades of ‘icing’, white piping and tiers. Guests whooped when Joan Smalls walked out in a triumphantly realistic four-tier number decorated with ‘iced’ roses and cherubs - but perhaps they were just hungry.

GIVE IT SOME WELLY

Prada’s were lilac, Versace’s were worn with miniskirts, while Hugo Boss’s styles were high gloss black and navy. Long rubber wellies were an unlikely hit on the Milanese catwalks, but will you be wearing them come September?

If there is a brand that can convert wellies to sales, it’s fashion’s new favourite cult label Bottega Veneta, which sent out bright, unisex rubber shoes with sculptural soles, styled with floor-grazing trench coats and fringed trousers. Watch this space, and pray for rain.

VIRAL FASHION

Handbags! Sunglasses! Hand sanitiser! As Italy’s police were rolled out to patrol areas linked to coronavirus cases, Giorgio Armani made the decision to cancel its show hours before it was due to start on Sunday over safety for audience members.

Instead it presented its autumn/winter 2020 collection to an empty (albeit virus-free) auditorium, and prompted fashion editors to only air kiss for the remaining fashion shows.

COLLABORATION STATIONS

Prada called a secretive press conference at midday on Sunday to announce that revered Belgian designer Raf Simons will become co-creative director of the brand alongside Miuccia Prada.

With one of the most impressive CVs in the fashion industry, thanks to positions at Calvin Klein, Dior and Jil Sander, Simons will be the first person outside the Prada family to hold a senior position at the 107-year-old Italian house.

TECH TALK

The most covetable accessory of the shows wasn’t a handbag, but a gold case for your smart watch, thanks to Fendi and its new line of tech accessories designed in collaboration with the London brand Chaos. Pieces ranged from gold ear pod cases to earrings that double up as screen pens.

DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE

If Jennifer Lopez provided the most glamorous moment of September’s spring/summer 2020 shows when she closed the Versace show wearing a deep V neck dress, this season the crown goes to Kendall Jenner, who rounded off the Versace catwalk - where else? - wearing a glitter ball bandeau dress of minuscule proportions.