Milan Fashion Week kicked off Wednesday, and it was the kind of day you can really only have in Milan, starting with a Fendi show attended by seemingly every supermodel and movie star, and ending with a dance performance for the launch of Pharrell Williams’ Moncler Genius collaboration that turned into 5,000-person late night party. (Actually, that wasn’t the only such festivity: 7,000 intrepid fashion fans showed up — in the rain — for Diesel’s outdoor runway show and DJ set.)
The Front Row:
The Fendi guest list read like the bridge of RuPaul’s “Supermodel (You Better Work)” come to life. OG supes Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, and Amber Valletta sat front row, alongside a pack of Hollywood stars: Demi Moore, Naomi Watts, Gwendoline Christie, Christina Ricci, Cara Delevingne, and Suki Waterhouse. They’re all personal friends of Fendi’s artistic director of womenswear Kim Jones. Casual! It made for a lot of cute friend moments, like a Naomi and Kate reunion, and Demi and (the other) Naomi in matching sunglasses.
Speaking of twinning, the Japanese identical twin musicians Amiaya wore Fendi monogram-print suiting in contrasting tones, while influencers Caro Daur and Chriselle Lim both turned up in the opening look from Fendi’s Autumn-Winter 2023 collection, a leather pencil skirt paired with an off-the-shoulder cardigan
Over at Piazza del Quadrilatero, Willlow and Jaden Smith, SAINt JHN, and Ashley Graham were among the crowd that packed the colonnaded square outside of the Portrait Milano hotel for the Pharrell Williams x Moncler event.
The Performance:
Alberta Ferretti had a string quartet. Fendi had bags blown up to cinematic proportions lining the runway: the Baguette, the Peekaboo, the Origami, the First, and the new shopper-meets-tote Flip style. But for sheer scale, it was hard to top the ensemble performance at Pharrell Williams x Moncler, which featured Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe’s Black Angels Collective performing synchronised choreography in moss-green puffer vests, tiered pants, ski goggles, and elbow-length gloves from Williams’ Genius collection, accompanied by a choir and musicians.
The Remix:
2025 is Fendi’s 100th anniversary, and in preparation Jones has been taking cues from the Roman house’s rich archives in recent seasons. For Autumn-Winter 2023 he looked to Karl Lagerfeld’s Autumn-Winter 1996 collection, and this time around he played with Lagerfeld’s off-kilter colour palette from Spring-Summer 1999. Jones also drew inspiration from the utterly original style of Roman women he sees on his walk to work. The resulting mashup included an acid yellow coated linen A-line midi dress and two printed silk slip dresses that combined snake and leopard patterns.
And Alberta Ferretti referenced her own past work, adapting her signature goddess draping with braided chains and cut-out details to give her soft femininity a new sensuality.
