Fendi’s touching Karl Lagerfeld tribute amid the tears at Milan Fashion Week

The death of Chanel and Fendi creative director Karl Lagerfeld was all anyone could talk about during Milan Fashion Week.

While this cast a sobering pall over the event, it felt subdued for other reasons. Two top Italian brands, Gucci and Prada, were recently accused of racism for using blackface in some of their products, leading to a public outcry and to measures by their CEOs to improve diversity in their design studios and management ranks.

Amid the gloom, these were the highlights of the week in Italy’s fashion capital:

Tears at Gucci

Whether or not you’re a fan of flamboyant Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s catwalk shenanigans, he knows how to put on a show. Season after season, he stays true to his eclectic styling that deftly mixes influences as varied as punk, Victoriana, street culture and Hollywood glamour.

At the autumn/winter 2019 show, some of the models’ make-up featured Pierrot-style tears coming from their eyes. Were they tears of regret after the designer’s blackface faux pas and an attempt to amend for recent sins? Hard to tell, but those tears, studded masks and gold ear cuffs that looked like prosthetics were among styling tricks that provided plenty of Instagram fodder for avid fans of the social-media-savvy brand.

Great expectations at Bottega Veneta 

Italian leather-goods house Bottega Veneta, which like Gucci is owned by the Kering Group, has always represented an Italian ideal of bon chic bon genre. Its flawlessly executed garments and accessories, designed for 17 years by German Tomas Maier, never fail to deliver finesse, while often erring on the safe side.

Last year, after declining sales, Maier parted ways with the brand, which wasted no time in hiring Daniel Lee, a 33-year-old Céline alumnus, to take his place. Those who expected that Lee would cater to fans of Phoebe Philo’s Céline were perhaps slightly disappointed, for Lee didn’t rehash the work of his former boss. What he did, though, was bold and quite daring, given the history of Bottega Veneta.

With an eye to a younger audience, he offered oversized knitwear, biker-inspired separates, utilitarian, yet polished-looking padded jackets and skirts, and new takes on Bottega Veneta’s signature intrecciato, or woven, pattern for bags and shoes – the label’s cash cows.

François-Henri Pinault, the owner of Kering, was beaming after the show, while photographers mobbed his wife, Salma Hayek, and their daughter Valentina. He’s doubtless hoping to make Bottega Veneta’s revamp another success story, like the recent renaissance of Gucci. Given that Gucci has to thank the Chinese market for its turnaround, it’s likely that Bottega Veneta will also focus its energy on fashion-hungry millennials in China and Asia.

Fendi’s love letter to Karl Lagerfeld 

Emotions ran high at Fendi, where Lagerfeld had reigned supreme for 54 years and had become a de facto member of the Rome-based Italian family that founded the brand.

Fendi has always made fun a core tenet of its look (the double F logo, created by Lagerfeld in 1965, stands for “fun fur”) but Lagerfeld’s death inevitably hung heavily over the presentation of its clothes and accessories.

Karl Lagerfeld was fashion’s undisputed master

Models such as Bella Hadid and Mica Arganaraz fought back tears on the catwalk, which featured a backdrop displaying one of Lagerfeld’s letter sign-offs: “Love, Karl”, in his handwriting. A tearful Silvia Venturini Fendi, who has known Lagerfeld since she was a child, took her bow without her mentor at her side for the first time in decades.

At the end of the show, the brand played a moving clip of Lagerfeld sketching the outfit he wore when he started his career at the Roman house in the 1960s. Showing him sketching with his fingerless black-leather-gloved hands was a fitting way to bid farewell to such an important figure in Fendi’s history.

Miuccia and Donatella, queens of Milan

Unlike Fendi, Prada has never been a proponent of fun. The instigator of “ugly chic”, Miuccia Prada is known for her cerebral approach and highfalutin’ explorations of beauty. While her outlook can sometimes feel out of touch, you can always rely on Prada for carefully studied pieces and cult items that also translate at retail.

Come autumn, pieces such as the flower-appliquéd dresses and skirts on show in Milan will be on countless magazine covers, while accessories such as lug-soled boots, ladylike bags and backpacker-style backpacks will keep customers happy.

Due to Milan’s traffic, and the very out-of-the-way location of the Marni show, we sadly missed Versace, but from what we saw during the live stream on the way there, and a visit to the showroom the day after the event, Donatella is doubling down on the glamazon aesthetic – this time epitomised by an appearance of ’90s supermodel Stephanie Seymour – that has made the label’s fortunes.

It’s too early to tell if the powers that be at Michael Kors, which last year bought the Italian brand, will keep the status quo at the newly buzzy Italian brand.