No sooner is London wrapped up, than Milan Fashion Week opens, and Fendi kicked off the Italian event in style on Wednesday. Hot on the heels of the house's 25th anniversary for the Baguette bag in New York, creative director Kim Jones unveiled a new collection that embraced the devil-may-care optimism of the 1990s. Coming straight after the melancholic air of London, in mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, the blast of satin and colour delivered by Jones felt like a shot in the arm. Opening with a side-fastening coat in Fendi brown worn over neon green tall boots, that same mocha colour followed as sheer tops, a layered slip dress and even laid back cargo trousers. Shifting through pistachio green and gold, glossy satin swept past as fluid trousers, slip dresses and full skirts. Embracing the 1990s was a square-necked sweater worn over a shirt, and dresses over trousers. In colours of silvery grey, cornflower blue, neon green, gold and soft coral, it felt light, fresh and like an updated blast from the past. Also on opening day was Roberto Cavalli. The show delivered a glossy, slick array of eveningwear glamour. With this the third season under creative director Fausto Puglisi, he understands that women come to Cavalli for the ramped-up sensuality, and he delivered. The show opened with a beautifully fitted ivory brocade dress with a sculpted neckline, shortly followed by a cropped bralette top and pencil skirt under a jacket lined with leopard print. More leopard print arrived as a mini dress with a sculpted top and a flared skater skirt, while patterning appeared as shorts with a long overskirt and an asymmetric strapless dress, with a black bodice showing through from underneath. There were full skirts decorated with images taken from 18th-century paintings, which were also made into tailored jackets and stove pipe trousers, and blasts of chartreuse as overskirts and a cleverly cut body-con dress with puffed sleeves. Amid all the glamour, Puglisi also folded in more sense of his own aesthetic, such as the carefully folded and pieced mini dresses, and most wonderfully, upbeat catsuits in pineapple prints.
