Milan Fashion Week: Giorgio Armani and Salvatore Ferragamo premiere spring/summer 2021 collections with short films inspired by heritage and Hitchcock

Sep 28 , 2020

Giorgio Armani’s spring/summer 2021 women's and men's collection was inspired by the brand’s heritage and prefaced with a short film looking back on the designer’s career history. Photo: Giorgio Armani/Reuters

Milan Fashion Week

Covid-19 continues to challenge luxury fashion brands at Milan Fashion Week, but Giorgio Armani and Salvatore Ferragamo’s creative director Paul Andrew rose to the occasion by premiering intriguing short films – the latter was even directed by Oscar-nominated director Luca Guadagnino

To show or not to show: each Milan fashion house had to make a difficult decision about how to reach the fashion public this season under the safety constraints imposed to counteract Covid-19.

Italy’s fashion capital – one of the top four runway cities in the world – has worked hard to maintain a near-real fashion week, with 23 live shows; coming after New York, which was mostly virtual, and London, where designers mostly met with small groups of editors. Paris will be the next city to test the waters with live shows.

“We need to start from the position that this cannot be compared with the past. We are starting from now, doing the best with the situation that exists today,’’ said the president of Italy’s fashion council, Carlo Capasa. ‘’It is important to give a voice to the brands. Above all, to do it in safety.’’

Below is our pick of highlights from the previews of mostly womenswear for the next warm weather season.

Armani explores past and present

A model presents a look from the Giorgio Armani spring/summer 2021 women’s and men’s collection during a digital show at Milan Fashion Week. Photo: Giorgio Armani/Handout

Giorgio Armani was the first Milan designer to show his collection behind closed doors, making the decision in February after Italy’s first locally transmitted coronavirus case was detected while Milan Fashion Week was under way. The 86-year-old designer was not about to take chances and open the doors to guests with the pandemic still active seven months later.

“I don’t know when we will recover the formula’’ of live runway shows, Armani told journalists during a presentation. While he said there is no substituting the energy of a runway show, he himself doesn’t mind the respite. “Honestly, if I were 30 years young, I would miss it. Being that many years older, I am fine the way it is,’’ he said.

Giorgio Armani created a virtual event for Milan Fashion Week. Photo: Giorgio Armani/Handout