ITALIANS DO IT BETTER

From capacious totes and sensible (ish) shoes, Milan Fashion Week highlights the story of the modern woman

- TRINA EPILEPSIA BOUTAIN

Milan Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2025 was a godsend for working women everywhere. There were ludicrously capacious totes, swaths of crisp poplin, body-skimming knits, and shoes made for walking dangerously into boardrooms, grocery stores, and even PTA meetings.

WORK WEAR

Bottega Veneta, Ferragamo, Tod’s, and Max Mara were highlights, showcasing variations of classic Italian style that still serve women today. The four brands sent out many looks that were functional and easily translatable to real life—truly ready to wear. Silhouettes were unfussy and streamlined, but it’s apparent to even the most casual of fashion observers that no one quite does oversized like Bottega Veneta creative director Matthieu Blazy, or how Max Mara’s Ian Griffiths can still excite, season after season, with variations of modern classics.

Do Italians just do fashion better? It’s no surprise that Pitti Uomo has been the center of menswear since the 1970s, these days turning Florence’s streets into a veritable fashion olympics. Traditionally, Milan has been known for its precision tailoring, statement silhouettes, and supreme leather craftsmanship—which the locals wear to a T, with equal amounts of pizzazz and ease. Sprezzatura, it’s often called, that kind of nonchalant, unstudied elegance so seen on many Milanese prowling the city streets long after the fashion week crowds have gone.

STREET STORIES

Classic can often be equated with boring, but there was nothing boring with Blazy’s most recent offerings, which were made up of suits, coords, slinky shifts and leather trenches. His show notes emphasized that each look was a character, a story, and it showed.