Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Ferragamo, Bottega, Getty Images
Ten years ago, Bella Hadid and Lauren Hutton closed the Bottega Veneta show together, arms linked. But the designer Tomas Maier wouldn’t hear any rhetoric about age or grown-up fashion. That kind of classification is “something I detest,” he told reporters. Rather, to be a Bottega customer, “you need to like something quiet” and be “a little more cultivated about materials.” Maier’s successors, Daniel Lee and Matthieu Blazy, followed that principle if not the practice with Blazy bending high leathercraft to wit: He once opened a show with khakis and a flannel shirt. You had to look closely to understand they were made of leather, not cotton.
Louise Trotter, Bottega’s new designer, is also attracted to materials and technique but not in a coherent or flattering way. With her work, you see the garment and the craft details before you see the woman. That’s partly because her extreme tailoring engulfs the body. Shoulders are round and wide — not as wide as those of last season but still beefy — and sleeves are as big as drain pipes. Trotter, in her show on Saturday, would sometimes pull in the shoulders for good-looking knits and some tidy men’s coats but then they would swell out again for, say, a women’s double-breasted suit in a melange gray wool with full-cut trousers in a contrasting gray wool. I bet there was enough fabric in that bulky outfit for two suits.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
Trotter also overworks the designs and their details, adding seams or back slits to the (sloppy) hems of pants or a woven black leather collar and epaulets to a cream trench coat — in addition to a wide belt in brown leather and woven, feathery pants. A gray wool skirt with a heavy section folded in front, worn with a cream tank top, just looked weird.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
The main problem here is that Trotter does not appear to have a plan for Bottega Veneta. In the fashion of Phoebe Philo, Blazy at Chanel, or Demna’s first collection for Gucci, those designers create a universe you can imagine entering, even if it doesn’t fit your taste or purse. But where do Trotter’s ideas sit in the world? I sense she hasn’t properly answered that question. More often than not, her clothes and the things she does to them seem like design exercises, giving the results a fake significance. Her show pieces, like flamboyant cocoons of brushed shearing or fiberglass bristles and dresses or tunics made of layers and layers of looped threads, flaunt technique.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Bottega VenetaPhoto: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
But does it matter? Trotter ought to be thinking of ways to problem-solve for women and men, not indulging in craft fixation or pulling the wool.
Because Italy has the industrial might to produce high-quality clothes and leather goods, some brands tend to put an excess of design into their runway shows, like a person overdressing for a big date. I felt that way about Maximilian Davis’s collection for Ferragamo. He opened with a dark peacoat — sailor attire was a theme — but it was a peacoat with a white panel in front and satin bits; an errant collar, too.
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Ferragamo
Many of Davis’s clothes were fresh and appealing, like a lace-up middy blouse in cream satin and a simple, fitted sailor dress in deep red leather or cotton. Still, having seen in the Gucci show the previous day how Demna trained his designs on an audience and worked to make things extremely light and relevant — T-shirts that looked like leather but were not, shearlings that were virtually weightless — I kept asking myself of Ferragamo, Where do these clothes sit in the world of 2026? Because it’s not clear.
From left: Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of FerragamoPhoto: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Ferragamo
From top: Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of FerragamoPhoto: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Ferragamo
Other brands just need a bit of push. Loro Piana makes very tasteful clothes, as well as some of the most luxurious fabrics in the world. Its colors are luscious — perfect for an imaginary train ride across Europe and beyond, the studio’s theme for rich, smokey hues, paisleys, and old-school field jackets. But I wish the designs were sharper and a bit more contemporary, as they were a few years ago. And ditch the silly hats. There’s an opportunity here, and Loro Piana, owned by LVMH, should take it.
From left: Photo: Loro PianaPhoto: Loro Piana
From top: Photo: Loro PianaPhoto: Loro Piana
Adrian Appiolaza put on a great show for Moschino, maybe his best since he became creative director, with a cute blue plaid dress buttoned at the shoulders with flowing silk scarves, a skirt with exaggerated blanket stitching, and a clever T-shirt dress in white cotton covered in iridescent squares and postcard-type photos that formed, overall, a pixilated image.
From left: Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of MoschinoPhoto: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Moschino
From top: Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of MoschinoPhoto: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Moschino
Two other Milan collections deserve praise: Sportmax for its brisk, cut-to-the-chase tailoring, superbly tough leather jackets, and a cool black skirt sliced open at the sides with a long portion in back. It says edge and lightness.
From left: Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of SportmaxPhoto: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Sportmax
From top: Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of SportmaxPhoto: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com/ Courtesy of Sportmax
And Giorgio Armani led off with a new relaxed-fit gray pantsuit with slouchy, full-cut trousers, followed by more fresh-looking tailoring with soft white trousers.
Surprise, surprise: Armani is looking forward.
From left: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
From top: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
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