Milan Fashion Week has always been equal parts spectacle and substance, but this season the tension between performance and product was impossible to ignore. It began with Sunnei’s theatrical swan song – a mock Christie’s auction in which the brand’s founders “sold” themselves before announcing their departure – a parting shot that reframed fashion as both commodity and provocation. From there, the week oscillated between maximalist exuberance and minimalist restraint: heritage houses leaned on their codes while newcomers and successors sought to redefine them. In a city synonymous with luxury, the runway became a stage where tradition met irony, craft clashed with camp, and the future of Italian fashion flickered in high definition.

Sunnei

Sunnei turned heads not with clothes this time, but with a performance-piece of a show: a mock auction in collaboration with Christie’s that acted as both farewell and manifesto. Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo, founders of the brand, used two oversized wooden crates – one said to contain “Sunnei” itself, the other “sold as a pair” – as lots, then revealed themselves in one crate, bringing down the house with theatrical flourish. The spectacle was followed by their announcement that after ten years they are stepping away from the label, citing a need for new forms and creative experimentation. The gesture felt symbolic and acerbic, a critique of fashion’s finance-driven values and a final performance in a decade of boundary-pushing shows. Sunnei’s exit reverberated not just as an end, but as a question: what becomes of creative identity when the show becomes more than just the clothes?

Etro

Marco De Vincenzo leaned into Etro’s textile DNA this season, serving a maximalist, bohemian fantasia where layered paisleys and crochet details met unexpectedly modern tailoring. The collection balanced billowing skirts and ruffled silhouettes with sharply cut blazers and satin finishes, so the show read as both a party and a study in craft. Accessories – oversized scarves and artisanal bags – reinforced the house’s heritage while grounding the looks for the street. It was Etro at its most exuberant: archival prints translated for now, loud but expertly composed.

BOSS

BOSS presented a surprisingly theatrical take on corporate dressing, where crisp suiting and metropolitan minimalism were punctured by softer silk interludes and carefully staged moments. The collection felt like architecture in motion: rigid shoulders and precise trousers offset by fluid blouses and relaxed tailoring that suggested a more humane office wardrobe. Casting and staging, from mirrored runways to star power in the front row,  amplified the collection’s confidence and contemporary relevance. The overall mood was quiet authority: clothes for someone who commands a room without shouting.

Missoni

Missoni stayed true to the house’s knitwear credo while nudging toward utility and day-to-day elegance: signature zigzags and stripe weaves arrived in lighter gauges and sharper silhouettes. The show included references to beach and leisure culture, even placing a towel at seats, that reframed Missoni’s sun-soaked DNA as urban, not merely resort. The collection threaded nostalgia with a modern polish, making the knits feel office-ready as well as effortlessly weekend-perfect. It was a reminder that Missoni’s colours and textures continue to translate into wearability without losing their lineage.

Max Mara

Max Mara delivered the house’s perennial lesson in practical luxury: sculpted coats, impeccably cut separates and tonal neutrals that looked engineered to last a lifetime in your wardrobe. The show juxtaposed structural tailoring with diaphanous touches, a softness that stopped the collection from feeling austere and made it emotionally accessible. This season’s theme remained classicism reinterpreted: modern shapes, meticulous finishing and an insistence on tailoring as the season’s quiet hero. For anyone who values investment dressing, Max Mara’s offering was quietly persuasive.

La Double J

La Double J brought unabashed joy: saturated prints, clashing florals and sequined maximalism that read like a sunlit party in textile form. J.J. Martin’s collection doubled down on the house’s playful codes, wide trousers, vibrant dresses and joyful layering, and turned them into sharply composed runway moments. It wasn’t minimal, and it didn’t try to be; instead, it reminded the calendar that exuberance can be intelligent and well executed. The show felt like a sartorial exclamation point in a season of quieter narratives.

Jimmy Choo

Sandra Choi’s Jimmy Choo offering continued to place shoes at the center of the story, marrying sculptural heels with a softer ready-to-wear direction that played with lace, pastels and glossy finishes. Footwear anchors, from tapered stilettos to inventive platform silhouettes, dictated the tempo, and the clothing answered with streamlined dresses and eveningwear that put the shoes on a pedestal. The result was modern glamour: confident, wearable party looks that felt distinctly Jimmy Choo. It was a timely reminder that the house’s skill for evening allure remains unmatched.

Jil Sander

Simone Bellotti’s debut outing at Jil Sander was a study in refined minimalism, clean panels, high-button tailoring and an austere palette that nevertheless found room for small, subversive details. Reviewers praised the collection for restoring the house’s disciplined purity while introducing playful touches like cutouts and cinched proportions that kept the looks contemporary. There was an evident focus on craftsmanship and proportion rather than spectacle, and the result felt like a confident reassertion of Jil Sander’s essential codes. In short: minimalism with a wink.

Tod’s

Tod’s offered a quietly elegant ode to Italian savoir-faire, supple leathers, immaculate loafers and slow-grown silhouettes that marry utility and ease. Matteo Tamburini’s collection emphasized the brand’s artisanal roots: shoes and bags were integrated as central components rather than afterthoughts, and wardrobe staples arrived in polished, wearable forms. The palette of camel, tobacco and soft neutrals reinforced the house’s signature sensibility of effortless refinement. It was Tod’s at its most wearable and cohesive, a collection for movement, travel and daily grace.

Ferragamo

Maximilian Davis looked to a modernized Roaring Twenties for Ferragamo, translating 1920s references, fringe, dropped waists and artful ribbon heels, into a contemporary lexicon of movement and femme energy. The show paired vintage-tinged glamour with crisp tailoring and inventive accessories (notably playful heel and clutch moments), giving the collection an easy theatricality that didn’t tip into pastiche. Reporters singled out the accessories as immediate standouts, Ferragamo’s historic strength, while praising the mood of buoyant, ballet-inflected elegance. The house succeeded at making nostalgia feel forward-looking.

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana staged a high-camp, pajama-to-evening fantasia, daytime sleepwear reworked as seductive outerwear, lavish faux-fur treatments and trademark Sicilian romance dialled up for the front row spectacle. The show made headlines for its theatricality (and an unexpected front-row cameo that blurred fiction and fashion), but within the drama the collection remained obsessively crafted: sequins, lace and couture-grade embellishment underpinned the playful premise. It was classic D&G, sensual, celebratory and unapologetically theatrical, and it landed like a midnight opera.

Brunello Cucinelli

Brunello Cucinelli stayed within the house’s quiet-luxury lane: breathable cashmeres, tonal layering and an emphasis on humanist elegance rather than flash. The presentation at Casa Cucinelli read as a pastoral meditation, soft tweeds, light knits and textures that favored craft and tactility, with pieces that were at once wearable and carefully considered. Reportage described the collection as contemplative and rooted in the brand’s artisanal philosophy, a gentle counterpoint to some of the week’s more theatrical moments. It was a reminder that refined dress can also be a moral position: comfortable, impeccably made and quietly assured.

Alberta Ferretti

Alberta Ferretti offered a softer, romantic counterpoint to Milan’s louder statements: fluid gowns, delicate chiffons, and draped silhouettes that moved like water down the runway. The collection leaned on muted pastels and earth-toned neutrals, balancing understated sensuality with day-to-night versatility. Ferretti’s strength lay in ease, clothes that felt timeless and feminine without slipping into cliché. In a week defined by spectacle, her quiet luxury read as refreshingly grounded.

Moschino

Moschino leaned into its reputation for irony and play: a mischievous collection where bold graphics, exaggerated proportions, and witty nods to pop culture collided. Jeremy Scott’s successor continued the house tradition of satire through fashion, delivering looks that toyed with wearability while doubling as visual punchlines. The collection reminded Milan that humor has a place in luxury, especially when rendered with this much technical polish. It was camp, clever, and quintessentially Moschino.

By the end of the week, Milan felt less like a succession of shows than a conversation, between past and present, austerity and spectacle, certainty and risk. Sunnei’s farewell asked whether the fashion system can still reward creativity; Etro, Ferragamo, Max Mara and others answered by reaffirming the potency of craft and refinement; Moschino and La Double J shouted back with humor and joy. What emerged was not a single “Milan look” but a city flexing its plurality: couture-level embellishment and whisper-soft tailoring, satire and sincerity, all jostling for relevance. If this season proved anything, it’s that Milan remains the beating heart of fashion’s contradictions, a place where elegance and audacity will always walk the same runway.

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