Summary Milan Fashion Week got off to an energetic start on Wednesday.
MILAN (AP) - Milan Fashion Week got off to an energetic start Wednesday, and not only on the runways where the clothes were seductive and sexy while flirting with romantic notions of femininity.
The Milan Fashion Chamber, working with local officials, has launched a series of initiatives to vitalize fashion week, including an opening-night concert at La Scala, a pair of fashion exhibits and more attention to promoting young designers.
"Hopefully, international guests will appreciate the new energy permeating Milan Fashion Week," the city s top fashion official, Cristina Tajani, told reporters at a Conde Nast event to award five Italians with scholarships in fashion, film, art and journalism at Italian institutions.
Giorgio Armani, the designer whose tailored styles helped put Milan on the international fashion map, says Italian fashion needs to stick to its roots.
"Italian fashion is the best in the world, that s it," Armani was quoted this week by the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore as saying. "We should all be working to bring back the energy and the excitement that created the Made in Italy phenomenon in the early 1980s."
Milan Fashion Week is trying to shake off a sense of malaise, deriving from competition from other fashion capitals that leverage on their inherent appeal, Italy s ongoing economic that has dampened domestic market and a general weakening of the fashion system.
Designers shied away from pants for next summer s looks for women, offering a range of wearable dresses and skirts for any occasion and for anyone who is at least young at heart.
Yes, there were sheer fabrics and cropped tops, but they were accompanied by more modest flowing dresses and flouncy skirts. Creative emphasis was on the romantic rather than the raunchy, with colorful embellishments distracting from the risque cuts.
