The venue set the tone for the show: a sprawling concrete-slab industrial basement, uplit in a rainbow of nightclub par can hues. It was the perfect place for a rave. Not what you'd think the Missonis normally get up to on a Sunday night, but this was something of a new direction for the brand, as they sent out a parade of Nineties grunge ravers with slicked back hair and fluoro colours.
The neon green lurex was what did it. Shimmering racer-back mini dresses, or midi-length bodycon ones with a low scoop back and folds of silk beneath. And there were those knitted polo neck halters that everyone had for a while to wear with cropped with wide-legged track pants. The pants were there too, in fact: drawstring slouchy trousers with a flicker of Missoni zig zag running through them. But even 90s ravers need a break, and so Angela Missoni crafted a series of slouchy off-duty pieces in pale pearlescent winter hues: heavy knitted coats that had the appearance of dressing gowns, slouching off shoulders to reveal sporty knitted tops beneath. Missoni has been getting more and more experimental with fabrications in the last few seasons, and in the mix this season was silk, mink and calfskin the silk was used most effectively, in languid sashes and under-slips in sherbet orange. Where last season Missoni made us all sit up and take notice with its forays into new fabrics and experimentation with minimalism, this season it re-packaged that, dumped the girliness, gave it a glowering new expression and a party to go to. Can we come too?See what the stars have been wearing front row at Milan Fashion Week here...
