Milan Fashion Week SS26: The Last Three Days
Milan is not a city that ends quietly. The last three days of Spring Summer 2026 unfolded like a sequence of cinematic finales, each house testing what it means to close a week where heritage and newness collide. What emerged was not a string of pretty shows but a series of emotional detonations.
Armani: the final bow
Giorgio Armani chose intimacy over grandeur. He staged his last collection at the Pinacoteca di Brera beneath hundreds of glowing paper lanterns while Ludovico Einaudi played live. The palette moved from the neutrals we know him for into deep jewel tones. Textures disrupted the calm with patched leather, tasselled belts and crystal shawls. The silhouettes recalled decades of Armani yet carried a fragile softness that spoke less of archive and more of farewell. It was not nostalgia but an elegy for a career that shaped Milan itself.
Versace: Vitale writes a new script
Dario Vitale’s debut for Versace arrived like an electric fracture. He pulled Gianni’s spirit out of memory but refused to imitate. Denim cut close to the body, revealing bras, cropped vests and layers that teased rather than flaunted. The backless cut out shirt with high waisted pink denim became the manifesto of the show: seduction redefined as something you can actually wear on the street. Vitale invoked Pasolini in the setting but his Versace felt forward not backward, grounded in discipline as much as desire.
Bottega Veneta: the weave becomes liquid
Louise Trotter’s first chapter for Bottega Veneta reimagined the house code of Intrecciato. The weave no longer sat as a signature but moved like liquid across fringed skirts, oversized coats and sharp tailoring softened by flow. The collection felt like an act of liberation. Craft elevated into breath, glamour shed of its stiffness. It was an announcement that Bottega no longer needs to perform loudness to carry power.
Ferragamo: a whisper of the twenties
Maximilian Davis turned to the Roaring Twenties but resisted costume. Drop waist dresses floated in lace and chiffon, shimmering animal motifs prowled across slinky forms, chartreuse accessories punctuated the stage like neon handwriting. Vinyl coats offered a protective sheen, masculinity arrived in broad shouldered jackets, yet the mood remained romantic and almost secret. Ferragamo became a place where sensuality and protection lived in harmony.
Blumarine: the romantic rebel
David Koma took Blumarine into dark romanticism. Organza and chiffon layered with corsetry and metallic accents. The silhouettes carried the energy of clothes that had already lived a night out, a dance floor, a dawn walk home. Sheer fabrics revealed and concealed in imperfect balance. Blumarine did not offer fantasy as escape but fantasy as self possession.
Beyond the stage lights
The last three days of Milan revealed a rare balance. Armani’s final bow folded grief into fashion. Vitale’s Versace pulsed with manifesto. Trotter redefined craft at Bottega. Davis whispered history into Ferragamo. Koma built a world of rebellious romance at Blumarine. Together they drew a portrait of Milan as both memory and rupture.
What lingers is the contrast. Heritage meeting reinvention. Wearability colliding with spectacle. Acid colors shocking muted palettes. Sensuality refined into agency rather than spectacle.
Fashion in Milan closed not with a period but with a question mark. What happens after Armani. What does desire look like when it is no longer a costume but a lived garment. And who will carry the quiet intensity of this week into the seasons ahead.