Prada's Eras Tour explores the past to offer infinite options during Milan Fashion Week

MILAN — Milan designers on Thursday challenged the notion that a collection should dictate how one dresses, offering instead individual looks that can elevate, transform or simply complement a wardrobe.

Prada led the charge with a collection that served as a review of its past, offering updated elements for the Prada woman to create her own power. A much newer Milan player, Maccapani, is making the mixing of the old and new the hallmark of the brand, now in its third season.

Some highlights from the third day of Milan Fashion Week of mostly womenswear previews for Spring-Summer 2025.

Prada's Eras Tour

Call it the Prada Eras Tour. The Spring-Summer 2025 womenswear collection featured a review of Prada eras past, reinterpreted with a surreal, sometimes sci-fi eye.

“It was finding ways of being Prada today,” Miuccia Prada said backstage.

Prada, with her co-creative director Raf Simons, said the collection aims at finding humanity in an era when information overload is driven by algorithms. Instead of exploring themes on the runway, the designers created individual looks, playing up to the strengths of each character they created.

“We thought of each individual as a superhero, with their own power, their own story,’’ Simons said. In this scenario, clothes “can transform your own perception of yourself.’’

Prada’s human proposition becomes one of “infinite options,” unaided by Artificial Intelligence, to create your own power.

Skirts were suspended with rings from belts that fastened around the waist, giving 1990s Prada vibes. A-line treated leather skirts had a post-modern futuristic turn with circle cutouts. A leather sheath clanked with hardware. High-waist trousers featured a trompe-l’oeil belt, knitwear had two-dimensional collars. Ribbed leggings substituted trousers, belted or layered, under a transparent tulle skirt.

The designers’ superhero element was most literal in bug-eyed sunglasses and topless hats with tinted viewing panels.

Emporio Armani's past perfect

Emporio Armani played with masculine codes for its new womenswear collection, revamping the necktie along the way.

A photograph projected behind the runway from a 2000 Guggenheim retrospective of designer Giorgio Armani's first 25 years featured a woman dressed in a men's suit and tie — underlining the tie's enduring symbolism. Once a sign of gender equality, it "becomes a playful trend,” according to show notes.

A sequined tie was worn playfully as a bandeau top under a jacket for evening. Ties elegantly anchored daytime business suits, a belted tunic, or a dark evening suit jacket with sheer trousers.

Masculinity and femininity were balanced in soft jackets and flowing trousers, blousons and loose outerwear. A woven bootie was the footwear of choice. The color palette evolved from muted neutrals into bright hues, along with beads and sequins.

Titled Future Perfect, the collection was both a look back and a projection forward.

As he has recently, the 90-year-old Armani took his final bow with Leo Dell’Orco, head of design for menswear, and Silvana Armani, head of design for womenswear. He was also joined by two other long-time collaborators, Nicola Lamorgese, the head of design for Emporio Armani menswear, and Marco Brunello, head of design for womenswear.

Max Mara Origami

The new Max Mara collection takes shape through origami folds, which creative director Ian Griffiths made into a leitmotif.

The "humble dart," as he called it, became a design feature, creating asymmetrical, draping dresses, or volumes on skirts, or a revival of a 1980s jacket tied at the side. The result was a clean wardrobe that belies the intricacy of the hand craftsmanship.

The Max Mara woman "likes to shock with the degree of precision in her look, how thought-through she is," Griffiths said. "It is our job at Max Mara to make that easy to achieve."

The collection in the brand’s trademark monochromes had an underlying sensuality, with bra tops, slits and cutouts offering a chance to reveal, while long jackets and hemlines afforded ample cover as desired. A crisp white shirt with folded cuffs was as integral to the looks as permanently crinkled fabrics, a leg-baring jacket-body suit combination as key as the trademark outerwear.

Joey King, whose latest film “Uglies” is streaming on Netflix, took front row wearing a gray cotton dress with a side cut-out.

Moschino's blank canvas

Moschino creative director Adrian Appiolaza opened his latest collection with a blank canvas — a series of white gowns, twisted, tied and draped from crisp cotton, elaborated with ruffles, stitching and cutouts for folkloric flair.

The series was inspired by an image Appiolaza found in the archives of the late Franco Moschino draping a white sheet.

“It gave me this idea of freshness,” the designer said backstage. “Franco Moschino is always inspiring to me.”

In his third collection for the brand known for its irony, Appiolaza continued his exploration of trompe l’oeil, graphic prints and exaggerated proportions. The closing looks seemed to be caught between a little black dress, known in Italian as a tubino, and floral numbers, one worn on front, the other on back, posing the eternal dilemma: “Tubino or not to Tubino,” as written on the closing look.

Maccapani mixes old and new

Margherita Maccapani Missoni gave her new fashion baby her own, less-famous birth name, Maccapani, applying her fashion philosophy of mixing the old and new.

The Maccapani brand creates about 45 pieces a season, mostly out of versatile jersey — not just the familiar cotton version, but also jacquard and lurex. The brand aims to respond to the “needs of functionality and versatility that streetwear or athleisure respond to, but always feminine and elegant and put together,'' Maccapani Missoni said.

Her latest collection was shown in a Milan villa, with models engaged in leisure activities, putting together a puzzle, listening to music or drawing. One sang from the balcony. Missoni's mother Angela, former creative director of the Missoni fashion house, wandered through.

Maccapni is launching a storefront on E-bay with curated vintage items alongside her own collection, part of her brand concept to offer pieces — old and new — that can be integrated into a wardrobe, without dictating a style. The first drop will be on Sept. 27.