S1 E8
THURSDAY NEWSLETTER FROM ANDREA BATILLA
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
MILANO FASHION WEEK FALL WINTER 25/26
In a famous parable from the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus is led by God into the desert for forty days. Throughout this time, he is tempted by Satan but must resist. He succeeds, emerging strengthened in faith and spirit.
Fashion exists today precisely in that space: a desert where sales continue to decline, tempted by easy remedies offered by cheap devils and scarcely aided by angels who are evidently distracted elsewhere.
In this desert of ideas, where actions are actually reactions—immediate and thoughtless—there are a few isolated cases that seem to draw substance from some deep underground reservoir, accessible only to their roots. They can be counted on one hand, but they exist and their names are Simone Bellotti, Glenn Martens, Galib Gassanoff and Adrian Appiolaza. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the designers leading Bally, Diesel, Institution, and Moschino share much in common, most notably the need to dig, dissect, recover, and rebuild through reason rather than instinct.
From the outside, their common traits are not immediately evident. Many are talking about a slowdown in creativity, invoking the Counter-Reformation—the Catholic Church's reaction to the Protestant Reformation that began with the Council of Trent in 1545.
In reality, as we will see, the situation is far more complex. While the world is experiencing waves of conformist orthodoxy, cinema, art and fashion are reflecting on social divides, the responsibilities of those who have long held power and wealth and how independent thought can survive in this context. Succession is not a TV series about the rich but against them and this year, the Oscar for Best Picture went to Anora, a film that cost only six million dollars and is decidedly independent.
Let's take a look at what happened in Milan.
BALLY (Opens in a new window)
Simone Bellotti, the most intellectual of them all, started from a classic antithesis in Swiss-German culture: the contrast between work performance, driven by goal achievement and theatrical performance, which is the free expression of creativity. German, a highly precise language, has two separate words for these concepts: Leistung and Aufführung.
This alone would be enough to understand how fundamental reason is to Bellotti's work, but it is better to observe the garments on the runway to trace an obsessive, almost manic desire to dismantle the rigid nineteenth-century bourgeois aesthetic from within, soaking it in a lethal poison.
Bally is currently an extraordinary research lab that would be too simplistic to compare to Martin Margiela or Rei Kawakubo. Simone has learned the lessons of the intellectual fashion guardians but applies a revised version, suited to today. His goal is not, as it was for Japanese designers and Margiela, to tear down barriers, shatter the age-old boundaries of good taste, and dance on the rubble. Instead, his mission is to dissect the Western female and male wardrobe to rediscover its essence and bring them closer together.
Bellotti's work is a parable of forgiveness, overcoming conflict, and acknowledging that even from a heavy history like Europe's, something new and rewarding can emerge.
DIESEL (Opens in a new window)
Speaking of heavy histories, Glenn Martens at Diesel started from none other than Coco Chanel, the ultimate arbiter of good taste but also a deeply complex figure who remains the pivotal force in rethinking Western fashion.
On a graffiti-exploding set, Martens reflected on the classical codes of elegance—an elegance that over the decades has become a useless cage, so internalized that we no longer question its meaning.
Coming from the same school as Martin Margiela, the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Diesel's creative director reinterpreted male and female fashion not through pattern-making techniques, like Bellotti, but through sophisticated textile processes rooted in denim culture. The collection traced an ideal path from the salons of the 16th arrondissement to early-2000s Los Angeles, without passing negative judgment on European fashion culture but rather observing it with interest, almost with love.
Martens' aesthetic rawness, which has also led him to become creative director at Maison Margiela, is not destructive but reconstructive. In the desert, he too has found a way to reconcile with a heavy past—something Matthieu Blazy will need to do with his first Chanel collection in September.
INSTITUTION BY GALIB GASSANOV (Opens in a new window)
Galib Gassanoff, co-founder of ACT N.1 with Luca Lim, left the brand about a year ago. Born in Georgia, like Demna, he recently launched his personal project, Institution—a name that combines "instinct" and "institution." If this reminds you of the themes in the previous collections we discussed, it's because, as mentioned earlier, many designers are exploring this concept.
Once again, textile and pattern-making techniques are used to reaccustom the eye to a classicism that has been stripped away by quiet luxury supporters, timeless elegance advocates, and those who see fashion objects as investment pieces. Gassanoff wants to create timeless items not for resale on Vestiaire Collective but to challenge and change what men and women put in their wardrobes. It is a way of offering a simple pair of black trousers and a top that, from afar, looks ordinary but up close is made of shoelaces. Tradition remains, but its codes are pushed to the limit.
MOSCHINO (Opens in a new window)
One day, someone will study how much Martin Margiela owes to Franco Moschino. In the meantime, Adrian Appiolaza has imagined an impossible dialogue between Franco's joyful irreverence and the cold intellectualism of Martin and Rei. Again, the same names keep coming up. Let's accept it.
There were significant intrusions of languages that, at first glance, have nothing to do with Moschino but have actually always existed in parallel. Franco was a dadaist situationist who continuously mocked the superficiality of 1980s bourgeois society by throwing its obsessions back in its face. Japanese and Belgian designers did the same but intellectualized the message in darker times.
With this collection, Appiolaza demonstrated his natural talent as an archivist and historical expert while also taking a step forward, bringing his work closer to what he did at Loewe.
Even within a more fragile structure compared to LVMH, Adrian is striving to make Moschino's multifaceted vision interesting again—a caustic observer of contemporary life. There is still much work to be done, but Appiolaza is finally bringing the brand back to where it belongs, repairing the broken bones left by Jeremy Scott's long and cumbersome tenure.
Perhaps the heart of Milan Fashion Week was the Fendi show, where Silvia Venturini Fendi, once again at the helm of the brand, demonstrated how one can find the perfect synthesis between bourgeois wardrobe and innovation, as well as between heritage and modernity. A nearly impossible task, which only a woman like her—incredibly powerful, thoughtful, and intelligent—could successfully execute. The Fendi show was not just a runway event but a guidebook that every other heritage brand should stop and study.
What could be more difficult than objectively analyzing a brand from the outside while having been part of it since birth? Probably nothing. Yet, every piece in the collection had something grand, something magnificent, without a trace of self-indulgence or nostalgia. A perfect balance that rekindled emotions after years of emotional silence.
That said, dear friends at Fendi, Silvia cannot be a placeholder. She must not be. The brand is hers, not by birthright, but because she has earned it through long, painful, and profound work—work we want to continue seeing for a long time to come.
GIORGIO ARMANI (Opens in a new window)
Perhaps the biggest surprise of Milan Fashion Week was the sudden attention Giorgio Armani received from both the press and social media.
I attended both the Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani shows, and something strange happened there. We are completely unaccustomed to seeing clothes on the runway that people could easily love—not just aesthetically, but in terms of their comprehensibility. Despite being wrapped in a thick layer of nostalgia for the 80s and 90s, the garments had a disorienting effect because they were exactly what they seemed. Armani’s vision has shaped the world’s understanding of bourgeois dressing, popularizing the male uniform and luxury sportswear for women. His work has always centered on representing entrepreneurial bourgeoisie and social success, avoiding exaggeration and embracing everyday practicality.
Today, Armani’s language is no longer in sync with the times, but its spirit and intent are so strong that they have become relevant again, even for younger generations. This is because dressing has become unnecessarily complicated, to the point where hordes of influencers and content creators are needed to explain how to match one garment with another. At Armani, everything feels simple again. And while I doubt the outfits we saw on the runway will flood the streets worldwide, the message they carried was nothing short of revolutionary.
Then there are those who failed to navigate the narrow space that fashion is currently exploring, remaining trapped in a self-referential or outdated landscape.
MARNI (Opens in a new window)
When it comes to self-referential landscapes, Francesco Risso at Marni could write an encyclopedia. His approach has always been deeply personal, often leading to extraordinary results. However, recently, instinct has far outweighed rational thought, and as we've seen, these are times for synthesis, not detours. This show felt more like an unchecked display of narcissism than a serious effort to evolve a brand that was born and rooted in Milan’s enlightened bourgeoisie.
Risso’s attempt to transport Marni to a fantastical, playful, and artistic elsewhere faced significant resistance from the brand itself, which, like all respectable fashion houses, has a life and consciousness of its own. There were moments when the operation succeeded, but overall, it felt like a new skin over the same substance.
PRADA (Opens in a new window)
Prada has long been the temple of dialogue between bourgeois dressing and the avant-garde. Or at least, it was. As I’ve said many times before, Miuccia Prada did not find in Raf Simons an ally who enhanced her eccentric spirit but rather a serial emotion-freezer. Separately, they had strength; together, they have dulled each other.
This collection was particularly divisive. It aimed to reflect on contemporary femininity and the hypersexualization of female bodies, but in reality, it was a series of disproportionate garments.
Even when Prada’s starting points are clear and compelling, the execution often falters—a skill Miuccia excelled in when Fabio Zambernardi was by her side. There’s nothing wrong with designing emotionally sterile collections, but it’s hard to believe that this approach can genuinely redefine female dressing.
What happens on Prada’s runway stays on Prada’s runway. The garments rarely become pieces that populate the streets of the world. And when they do, as I observed multiple times during this fashion week, they appear in a watered-down, revised form.
Even though the Prada Group is experiencing one of the most successful periods in its history, the question of relevance might be worth pondering.
GUCCI (Opens in a new window)
There’s not much to say about Gucci, except that this was an interstitial collection—a team effort while waiting for the new creative director. Whoever it is will have a massive task ahead. The brand’s identity is fragmented, its direction unclear, and its heritage almost feels like a curse.
As I’ve previously written, Gucci is an open brand. It has undergone such radical transformations that it has become elastic, adaptable, and welcoming to even the most populist perspectives without losing meaning. Restricting it to a single vision would make no sense—just as it would make no sense to use a pot solely for boiling water. Perhaps Gucci should be thought of as a platform rather than a brand, a place where things happen, a giant multimedia producer, a media company more concerned with its content slate than its individual hosts.
Gucci, like Vuitton, is no longer a brand in the classical sense but a collection of sub-brands with vastly different meanings. This makes it harder to manage but, in the long run, much more profitable. Freeing itself from the concept of identity is a wonderful achievement—one the Indians call nirvana, which we often perceive as losing ourselves, when in reality, it is the exact opposite. In that state, Gucci could once again find itself, if someone has the experience, intelligence, and strength to lead it there.
And finally, there are those like Bottega Veneta, who did not show a collection but managed to say far more than those who did.
With a new creative director, Louise Trotter, whose work we will see starting in September, and a sharp CEO, Leo Rongone, the house of intrecciato hosted a performance by Patti Smith—an artist who needs no introduction. What everyone expected to be a concert turned out to be a performance/reading that would have delighted the Beat Generation poets, accompanied by poetic video projections. The texts, written by Smith, were inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose death anniversary was being commemorated, and Carlo Mollino.
The emotional impact was so powerful that when Patti sang Because The Night a cappella—a song she wrote in 1978 for her late husband, on what would have been their wedding anniversary—we all found ourselves in tears.
It was a complex emotion that enveloped us. Before us stood a powerful figure capable of conveying her fragility through art. A perfect balance between sentiment and reason, between new and old—the ultimate synthesis of what we saw in these shows and what we longed to see.
