At Milan Fashion Week, Wearing Is Caring

There’s a book called “White Walls, Designer Dresses.” In it, the architect Mark Wigley wrote that buildings are basically giant outfits, and living in them is wearing “a new kind of garment” that influences our actions, our perceptions, and even our self-worth. Virginia Woolf already scrawled that in 1925—she called it “frock consciousness,” the idea that when you live in a dress, your mood shifts with the fabric. Wigley takes it a step further. He thinks fashion houses and real houses have the same job. They make things that protect you from exposure, tie you to a specific origin, and define your borders. Plus, both types of houses don’t just influence your behavior. They can also change the behavior of others.

We talk a lot about how our clothes make us feel. But so far at Milan Fashion Week, we’re being asked by designers how our clothes make others feel. Is dressing up a sign of respect for the people around us? Can challenging someone’s taste be the first step to changing someone’s mind? And if you put a little more care into your look with a clutter of brooches, a standout pair of socks, or a glimmer of beading, will that signal to the world that they deserve a little more care, too?

Those questions might sound earnest, even naive. But despite fashion’s deep crush on all things aloof, there is nothing cooler than caring—especially in Milan, where sewing the perfect pant seam is a type of catechism. Succession chatter for Bally, Fendi, Gucci, and Jil Sander resembles Conclave, the movie where Ralph Fiennes tries to pick the next Pope. There’s even a patron saint of wool here, with his own statue on top of the Duomo cathedral.

The New Knits

Maybe that patron saint blessed the MaxMara collection, which traded fashion’s favorite “effortless” color palette—cashmere tones off a Sad Beige Baby mood board—for deep olive and rich maroon. They’ve given a trusty ribbed turtleneck some extra attention by turning it into a peplum top; when I posted the look on my Instagram, my DMs tripled. Everyone wants this sweater, even though it’s the opposite of “effortless.” The tailoring and fabric put in the work. The wearer wants to be seen.

Then, wool got louder at Brunello Cuccinelli, the Italian designer and default Succession costume supplier whose buttery wool now comes in embossed croc finishing and silver-spangled crochet. Indie brand Armarium put gilded shells over its navy knits, which felt like a new kind of frutti di mare. At Diesel, the cable knit sweaters were woven with baby pink latex.

This is not a range of slouchy cashmere that wants everyone to know it has better things to do than dress up. It’s not a maximalist intarsia pile, either. This is highly tailored knitwear made by super-skilled designers that want to make you look better—and like you care about looking better. The caring is part of the point.

Max Mara Ready to Wear Fall Winter 2025

The Sharpie Skirts

What do you call a pencil skirt that’s so embellished it stops being a wardrobe staple and starts being an excuse to shout, “OMG”? Let’s call it a Sharpie skirt, which keeps the tight silhouette but turns it into a mark of style you cannot take back. The boldest ones were at Gucci: eraser-pink patent leather, beaded aqua, and a super-shiny coating that looked like an iridescent linoleum tile. Jil Sander came out swinging, too, with baby bows dotting a satin black version. A thicket of white metallic fringe hung off another, making the sound of thwacking grass every time the model walked. You don’t have to think too hard about how to style these pieces, just take a solid top, a quiet shoe, and you’re good. But that’s because the skirts have already done the emotional labor of creating a small strip of excitement in the middle of a totally normal day.

Jil Sander Fall 2025

The Killer Jackets

A cyborg was about to zap some stylists when Ice Spice saved the day. The rapper arrived fashionably late to the MM6 Maison Margiela runway. That’s a nice way of saying she rolled in after the show had started, which is a pretty glamorous thing to do if you’re famous enough (she is) and gracious enough (she was) to get away with it.

The collection was made for corporate killers and robot assassins, thanks mostly to a range of strongly built blazers with angles so sharp, they could be in a Ginsu Knife infomercial. Models stalked the runways instead of strolling them, glaring at the audience through laser-glare sunglasses by the Seoul-based brand Gentle Monster. The message was clear: These clothes want to literally slay. What stopped them was an apologetic grin from a 25-year-old pop star and her very human “oopsie!” moment, which is exactly the type of vibe you need to make a severe blazer or jacket your own.

Some of the best contenders were Diesel’s tweeds and Emporio Armani’s versions in navy. (Mr. Armani also made a nipped-waist black jacket with matador-style embroidery along the bodice. Because if you want to dress like you can spot red flags a mile away, you might as well look like the dude who waves them.) David Koma’s first outing for Blumarine brought a cap-sleeve black blazer with tiny flowers and a curved Bridgerton bodice, and Marni made theirs in a shade of yellow that we might call “radioactive butter.”

Perhaps the apex of effort-full jackets came at the Loro Piana presentation, where the Italian brand showed a giant aquarium tank full of silk getting mixed with wool. As the fibers blew through the air, you had to marvel at how O.G. designer Franco Loro Piana wanted—or basically needed?—the most immaculate material you could pull on your body, then became a mad scientist in pursuit of its perfection.

Piana’s blazers aren’t the easy, swing ‘em on types that hang like thin sweatshirts when you pull them over a t-shirt and jeans while pretending you have better things to do than inspire people. None of Milan’s best coats are. Instead, these toppers build your body a little taller. That’s because they don’t just want you to try—they command it.

Diesel Fall 2025

The Committed Celebrities

On this week’s Marni runway, Tracee Ellis Ross wore a satin dress embroidered with a Lichtenstein “Bang!” graphic across the torso. (Her presence and the dress itself made a lot of noise.) The notoriously private Sharon Stone stepped into the spotlight for Antonio Marras, with slicked-back hair and sunglasses reminding everyone that she doesn’t need $10,000 a day; she only gets out of bed for designers that she believes in. Carla Bruni held a giant needle aloft—in heels!—for 45 minutes as guests like Keira Knightley filed into the Tod’s show. The needle was a symbol of the label’s deep expertise; the arm strength Bruni needed to hold it up was a symbol of her Pilates training. And at Versace, K-pop cutie Hynjinn showed off the label’s logo dyed directly onto his buzz cut. Why wear your heart on your sleeve when you can do it on top of your head?