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Fashion commentators are calling Milan’s Fashion Week a flashback to various decades. Giorgio Armani took fashion lovers back to the 1940s, and threw in biker jackets and jewels. Prada channeled the wholesome farm girl look of the same decade with wool skirts and waders.  (Yes, waders.  One blogger described the spring Prada line as what would happen if “a character from Gosford Park ran off with a fisherman.”)  Moschino returned to the full skirts of the 1950s and Gucci revisited the 1980s.  The early section of the Sportmax show was inspired by the same 1940s elegance as Armani, but highlighted nudes and neutrals.  The second half of the show featured boxy shoulder pads and tight tailored lines, as if to show Max Mara’s 1980s credentials.  (Sportmax is Max Mara’s everyday line.)

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This season’s Fashion Weeks have expressed the fashion community’s responses to the festering, miserable economy.  In New York, many designers worked from a selective palette of very basic tones: black, white, tan, and gray.  Perhaps for New York’s designers, the frightening collapse of Wall Street required a fresh start with honest, somewhat somber ideas about the basics of fashion.  In the UK, pretty punk and naughty schoolgirl ruled the week.  (Why do I feel like I’m in The Breakfast Club?)  The Brits’ trendy leading ladies let go of their fears and poked gentle fun at the mopey atmosphere across the pond.  The eyes of the fashion world turned on Milan last week.  How did Italian Designers respond to these dark days?

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