MILAN FASHION WEEK SS26

Our reportage from Milan Fashion Week this season

The city shapes the season. Milan SS26 is full of contradictions: from Attico’s hedonistic edge and Gucci’s renewed sensual minimalism to MM6’s deconstructed cool, KNWLS’s raw energy, Diesel’s subversive youth codes, Jil Sander’s sculptural purity, and Blumarine’s romantic rebellion – Milan this season felt electric, alive, and unpredictable.

The Attico “Lei è così”

The Attico SS26 show was all tension and texture, a quiet brush of femininity up against sharp, commanding lines. Silks slid over structured shoulders, knits clung and softened, and each silhouette seemed to whisper that a woman can be tender and unshakable in the same breath. There’s a thrill in that duality, the way softness and strength coexist. Still, the runway carried the concept in outline only, the edges soft, the idea unfinished. The models, long-limbed and sun-bleached, all carried the same polished ideal, and the multiplicity of women the collection promised flattened into repetition. The confidence on display was magnetic, seductive even, but it sometimes edged toward self-display, more about spectacle than the messy, compelling reality of being a woman fully realized. Yet in flashes, the Attico woman appeared: fluid and exacting, soft and sharp all at once, a presence that leaves the room charged with a dangerous intimacy, impossible to look away from, even when the perfection threatens to tip into something untouchable.

Gucci “La Famiglia”

Gucci’s new era didn’t open with a runway. Demna’s first collection surfaced as a film and a lookbook; fragmented, deliberate, more portrait than performance. Gucci lingered in the spaces between motion, letting the clothes and gestures speak first. The clothes leaned into heritage only to bend it. The tailoring stood broad and severe, then collapsed just enough to unsettle. Horsebits dragged heavy on leather loafers, bamboo handles reappeared as relics, slip dresses carried the echo of Ford’s allure. What sharpened the debut were the names—Miss Aperitivo, Sciura, Narcisista, Bastardo, Drama Queen. Italian archetypes made into characters, each carrying Gucci’s codes with their own posture. In place of a runway, they became the movement: a family album of types, glamorous and ironic, distinctly Italian in tone. Demna’s Gucci doesn’t soothe with nostalgia—it unsettles, interrupts, provokes. La Famiglia is just the first cut, and it leaves us waiting to see how far he’ll go.

KNWLS “Synergy”

KNWLS arrived in Milan like a jolt of London energy—raw, restless, and unapologetically urban. Designed by Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault, the collection fused their signature sculptural silhouettes with a subtle yet potent collaboration with Nike. Instead of plastering logos, it seeped into the collection through acid-wash rompers, TENCELTM draped dresses, and technical jackets, seamlessly integrating activewear into high fashion. This infusion of sportswear into Milan’s traditionally polished runway felt like a deliberate disruption, challenging the status quo and redefining luxury. KNWLS’s debut in Milan was more than a showcase; it was a statement that London’s gritty edge belongs on every global stage.

MM6 “Heightened Normality”

MM6 unfolded from a moodboard of found photographs. ’60s Napoli, trans bodies caught in snapshots, a record of community when it was fragile but real. The collection carried that duality: pieces rooted in the grit of the everyday yet edged with something more dreamlike. Slouched denim, softened coats, utilitarian cuts met with unexpected gestures—pops of red, teal, yellow—like sparks of imagination in a muted landscape. Those bites of color felt like reminders, not just of beauty, but of possibility: hope breaking through the realism of the world we stand in now. It was both grounded and unbound, a meditation on belonging that flickered between memory and what could still be.

Diesel “The Egg Hunt”

Diesel SS26 turned Milan into a playground, a citywide secret hiding in plain sight. Glenn Martens’ transparent eggs weren’t just a gimmick; they were a manifesto: fashion shouldn’t be locked behind velvet ropes. Models perched in bars, churches, clubs, alleys, lurking for those bold enough to discover them, catching glimpses of the collection in fragments, like a treasure hunt for style. The clothes themselves were alive: denim twisted, acid-washed, stitched and distressed in ways that made each piece feel second skin, soft in some places, sharp in others. Jackets pressed and sculpted, pants slouching with ease, layering that invited movement, invited touch. Every rip, every seam, every technique screamed rebellion and craftsmanship at once. The eggs, the city, the garments—they worked together to break exclusivity, turning fashion into a shared pulse; playful, urgent, and thrilling.

Jil Sander

Jil Sander returned to its quiet, almost ascetic roots, a study in simplicity that both honors and underwhelms. Garments hugged and draped the body with subtle precision, a soft glorification of form. A jacket nipped at the waist, trousers skimming hips and thighs, shirts caressing over shoulders. There’s elegance here, but it’s slow, deliberate; as new creative director Simone Bellotti mused, “I think this is a brand that needs to be studied, and you need to take time. You need to learn about this elegance.” The tailoring is immaculate, the craftsmanship undeniable, yet the restraint leaves you craving a spark beyond the calm surface. It’s almost meditative—fashion as reflection, inviting you to feel the body, the cloth, the space in between, even when the show whispers rather than shouts.

Blumarine

Blumarine fluttered between lightness and shadow, a collection caught in the fragile tension of wings. The butterfly—soft, romantic—was set against the dragonfly, harder, sharper, more menacing. On the runway, the two danced into one another, prints morphing until they dissolved into leopard spots, a blur of sweetness and danger. Eveningwear reigned, but not in the usual heavy tones. This was dark romanticism refracted through summer’s heat: gauzy slips cut close to the body, flirty silhouettes trimmed with fray, heavy chains and chunky jewelry anchoring all that airiness in something more carnal. It was Blumarine at its most intoxicating, a vision of beauty always a breath away from destruction, reminding us that desire is never just soft, it flickers between the delicate and the feral.

Milan Fashion Week SS26

Credits:

Words: Shannon Enriquez / @shhaaannoon

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