MILAN (AP) — Gucci creative director Demna moved beyond the strict archetypes of his debut collection and fixed his gaze on the fashion house’s luxe heritage for his all-important second collection, previewed Friday during Milan Fashion Week.
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Demna → move → Week
The runway was transformed into a luxury Gucci boutique, where Cardi B, wrapped in white faux fur, and Donatella Versace, wearing a stole from Demna’s first Gucci collection, sat on cushioned sofas.
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B → transform → sofas
Brand ambassador Jannik Sinner took a seat beside Vogue’s Anna Wintour.
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Sinner → take → Wintour
Models broadcast nonchalance as they strolled through the boutique, casting their eyes over jewelry cases, shelves of handbags and racks of ready-to-wear.
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they → broadcast → handbags
At a moment when the luxury business is struggling, the setting made the commercial imperative unusually explicit: These were clothes intended not merely to project an image, but to move from rack to wardrobe.
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These → struggle → wardrobe
And the runway offered flexible propositions for eager consumers.
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runway → offer → consumers
“Gucci is about luxury that wants to be seen,” Demna wrote in show notes.
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Demna → want → notes
A bold silhouette made the first pitch, before the details became apparent.
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details → make → pitch
Men’s suits had exaggeratedly broad shoulders, while pagoda shoulders shaped women’s jackets and dresses.
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shoulders → have → jackets
Collars were turned up, adding to the attitude.
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Collars → turn → attitude
The styling remained Italian: cropped pants and elongated loafers with no socks for him, a cinched trench coat over a blouse and skirt for her.
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styling → remain → her
Instead of asking customers to embody one of his sharply drawn Italian “famiglia” archetypes, the collection proposes borrowing elements without becoming captive to them.
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collection → ask → them
Layering made those identities harder to pin down.
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identities → make → ?
Low-slung trousers held precariously in place by three belts suggested the swagger of a maranza, or troublemaking urban youth.
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trousers → hold → maranza
But a bourgeois tartan skirt of an impeccably groomed Milanese woman was destabilized by a leather bomber worn over a plaid shirt and finished with an oversized necklace.
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skirt → groom → necklace
The collection’s strongest looks had undoubted commercial appeal: A double-breasted navy peacoat paired with high-heeled equestrian boots — with spurs for a Demna flourish — and a rugby shirt with Gucci stripes for him layered under an Oxford shirt and Gucci logo jacket.
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looks → have → shirt
Moschino puts fashion back on the street.
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Moschino → put → street
At Moschino, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo brought the cult credibility they built at Sunnei to their debut as creative directors, taking up founder Franco Moschino’s legacy of intellectual wit.
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they → bring → wit
Their debut show was set on the top floor of a parking garage overlooking the 2026 Olympic ice hockey venue just as the setting sun created a pinkish sky in the background.
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sun → set → background
The runway was flanked by hundreds of people in their own clothes walking in the opposite direction throughout the show, creating a stream of personal styles that situated the collection among everyday wardrobes.
The house’s irony remained, but it felt less dependent on quirk and gimmick than in recent iterations.
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it → flank → iterations
Grass fringe punctured the preciousness of luxury, while cartoonish graphics functioned more as art than as characters or caricatures.
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graphics → puncture → characters
Still, humor came through the clothes themselves: exaggerated side bustles brought Marie Antoinette proportions to skirts worn like denim, while padding turned the enhanced backside to suggest a female ideal.
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padding → come → ideal
It was still recognizably Moschino, but the joke didn’t overwhelm the clothes.
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joke → overwhelm → clothes
Fans who look to Moschino for novelty bags shaped like milk cartons or cooking pots may be disappointed by the pared-down aesthetic.
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who → look → aesthetic
The bag of the season was a very practical, large bucket bag and the only nod to novelty was a bag shaped like a cat that perched on a model’s shoulder.
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that → shape → shoulder
The designers said they are forging a modern version of the fashion house that isn’t stuck in previous decades.
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that → say → decades
“We want Moschino to become a cultural loudspeaker again,” Rizzo said.
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Rizzo → want → ?
“We have the same urgency in terms of creativity and breaking walls, but it’s 2026.”
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it → have → walls
The Aporia
