Frocky horror show: Milan Fashion Week served up looks to kill

Waist-length plaits, spiked dog collars and more black lace than you’d find at Marilyn Manson gig — Milan Fashion Week brought with it some truly horrific stuff.

Among its gifts is a new character sent to wreak havoc in your wardrobe — not to mention your favoured branch of Zara — the city’s new style leader is one part Wednesday Addams, another part cyber punk who’s set on destruction. In a city that is defined by its molto-sex appeal and high-octane glamour, this twist in proceedings ignited a sharp intake of breath among those who come expecting camel coats and corporate shift dresses.

The darkness descended early with the autumn/winter collection from Alessandro Michele, whose latest vision for Gucci was a freak show, albeit a covetable one, which explored dual identity.

In a showcase unveiled to a sped-up version of Edgar Pettman’s Gabriel’s Message under eye-searing strobe lights, Michele unveiled dog collars with four-inch spikes and latex masks alongside his clectic mash-up of clothes which borrowed from multiple cultural moments and reference points.

Michele’s vision had passive aggression at its core. “Personally, I always try to defend myself against those who want to take away knowledge and culture. I have a fear that beauty is disappearing; the beauty of the knowledge we have conquered in the past,” he said after the show. But his rage was unmistakable. Certainly, if catwalk looks could kill, Michele’s showcase would have, with spikes adorning every other look on the runway.

When it was Prada’s turn to take to the catwalk, rage gave way to fear, with the designer looking to horror as it is presented on screen to inspire next season’s look. Wednesday Addams and Dana Scully were among the characters in Prada’s dark romance, which spanned Dorothy shoes, sheer lace trousers and an exquisite rose motif. For Prada, an intellectual who understands that luxury clothing must bring with it a cultural point of view, it was a comment on the existence of love in a world defined by darkness and fear. “My worries are violence, racism, extremism in Europe. I was thinking about all of that” she said.

For the die-hard Prada fans, it’s a red light to add dressing like a Munster part of the to-do list for next season.

In a season which, broadly, saw designers revert to a more traditional sense of glamour — in among the scary styling there were elegant necklines and a renewed focus on the waist — it was fury that bound them together.

In his first ready-to-wear show for Bottega Veneta, Brit Daniel Lee presented a purposeful and aggressive return to Milanese traditions by ditching the delicacy that previously defined the brand in favour of sculpted biker trousers and angular origami skirts, which were presented with stomping bovver boots on models who marched instead of walked.

Why so angry? Donatella Versace pointed the finger at social media. “Today we live with Instagram, we want to be perfect all the time. I think it’s time to stop for a while and think again,” she said, then relied on grunge synonymous with the Nineties to communicate her message.

To a soundtrack that included Smells Like Teen Spirit, Versace fused metropolitan traditions — tweed overcoats and pencil skirts — with lace- trimmed slip dresses and unravelling slouchy sweaters. The designer’s disaffection with a social media- obsessed society manifested with a reimagination of an Avedon portrait featuring her own face.