TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 Touchdown Milan. The fashion flight from Paris, AF1212 at 7am, is full of black-clad, red-eyed stragglers arriving late to the autumn/winter shows, which began in earnest the day before. This season's schedule has been turned upside-down. Upstaged by an early Academy Awards ceremony taking place five days later, top designers - who normally gridlock the end of the week - are scrambling to show their collections before the statuette-hungry starlets decide which dresses they will wear. The repercussions are felt most strongly in the front row: with the exception of Sophia Loren at yesterday's Armani show, there are no real divas, only endless Italian television personalities and Rupert Everett.
Check into my hotel just in time to catch the Anna Molinari show. Designer Rossella Tarabini is on a distinctly un-Anna Molinari trip, trading in the florals and frou-frou for gothy looks just a little too reminiscent of Gucci's Stevie Nicks collection two years ago. There is, however, a nod to one of the house's signatures: a leopard-print fur coat. Next up, Emporio Armani: let's just say there are hula-hoop hemmed skirts and leave it at that. Bottega Veneta is doing something different this season. Instead of showroom visits, where buyers and editors check out next season's intrecciato accessories, creative director Tomas Maier is staging a podium presentation with an expanded ready-to-wear range. The fashion flock, like spectators at a hot-ticket art exhibition, shuffle past groups of models in chartreuse-coloured crocodile blousons, hand-embroidered, drop-waist dresses and all manner of exotic footwear (zebra, ostrich, buffalo, python ...).
But the big news of the day, and the symbolic start of my week, is this evening's Prada show. To the tune of Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf, and with murals of Mars by architect Rem Koolhaas in the background, Miuccia Prada's collection picks up - and pushes forward - the silhouettes she started for spring. Imagine the Romanovs fleeing Russia for the red planet and you've got the idea. In addition to romantic, crystal-encrusted chiffon dresses, full brocade skirts, precious fur-trimmed coats and hussar hats, there are futuristic prints and next season's must-have, a crocodile clutch with dangling robot key chains. You've got to wonder what they will make of these on the mainland. According to a report in Women's Wear Daily, Prada plans to open six stores in China by July, and another eight to 10 by the end of 2005. There are even rumblings of a visit by the designer herself for the opening in Hong Kong's Alexandra House in Central next month. Fingers crossed.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Wake up to a call that pink roses - a welcome gift from Tom Ford - are waiting at reception. It's hard to believe tonight's Gucci show will be his last. Since negotiations involving Ford, chief executive officer Domenico de Sole and PPR (the French company that owns Gucci Group, which also comprises Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and others) broke down in October, it has been all this town can talk about: who will succeed him? (Rumour has it they will promote a team from within.) What will he do next? (Take a few months off and decide, he says.) Even the taxi-driver taking me from Pucci (Christian Lacroix does pretty, chiffon gowns, tinted furs and the house's iconic prints in Paul Klee colours) to Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti (pastel cardigans, silk flapper dresses and the ubiquitous tweed jackets) has his theory. 'I hear he will work for Versace,' he says - a report both parties deny.
Take in the D&G show before the big event. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have decorated their headquarters to look like a London thrift shop, complete with dusty rolling racks and dodgy carpet. As always, their message is hard to miss: a T-shirt, worn by first-time model Riley Keough, the 14-year-old daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and granddaughter of the King, spells it out loud and clear - 'J'adore le vintage'. And indeed they do. From the Marchesa Casati and Molly Ringwald to Mae West and Liza Minnelli (circa Cabaret), it's all in the mix.
At Gucci, I sit next to a Korean singer/actor whom I am assured is huge in Asia although I must confess I have never heard of him (Jang Dong Gun?). Nice guy, and I can't help marvelling at his gravity-defying hairdo. In the stands, one gets the impression everyone really wants to like the collection and, to be fair, the goodwill is not unmerited. Since resurrecting Gucci a decade ago, Ford has redefined the way we see fashion through the sheer force of his charisma, all-encompassing vision, saucy ad campaigns and incredible clothes. Fittingly, his finale collection - a greatest hits of sorts - revisited all of our favourites, and its pieces are sure to be snatched up like collectors' items come autumn. There are his signature velvet dinner jackets, worn with intricately beaded, semi-transparent lace trousers; high-drama evening gowns in sequins, with tassels or Swarovski crystals; and, of course, a whole lotta fur (think fox stoles and mink shoes, heads and tails still attached). South African supermodel Georgina Grenville makes a surprise appearance at the end of the show, wearing a white jersey dress not unlike the one she wore for Ford's 1996 Halston collection, before the designer comes out to a standing ovation. With Ultra Nate's 1996 house classic Free ('to do what you want to do') blasting over the sound system, he kisses his partner Richard Buckley (editor of Vogue Hommes) and a crowd descends to congratulate him backstage.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 Nursing a mild hangover from the Gucci after-party. I'm not the only one: at Blumarine - Bianca Jagger meets Biba's London meets the photographs of David Bailey and Francesco Scavullo - you can't see for all the dark sunglasses. This being fashion, of course, conversation is not on the clothes. Apparently, Tom Ford took off for the Oscars following the festivities, and everyone's talking about how feared fashion critic Suzy Menkes let loose on the dance floor last night (that dinner-roll hairdo has a rhythm all its own).