Best moment #1: The big, big, BIG, gravity-defying, icing-like hair on the models at Moschino’s fall/winter 2020 runway almost stole the show.

Best moment #2: Jeremy Scott’s spirit, far from dampened from the injury on his arm. In fact, the designer even dressed it to theme, with a hot pink sling.

Best moment #3: New designer = new showspace. Tod’s runway presentation was running later than usual, because the current location is much further than its old venue at Padiglione di Arte Contemporanea.

Best moment #4: Fall/winter 2020 is Creative Director Walter Chiapponi’s debut collection for Tod’s

Best moment #1: The big, big, BIG, gravity-defying, icing-like hair on the models at Moschino’s fall/winter 2020 runway almost stole the show.

Best moment #2: Jeremy Scott’s spirit, far from dampened from the injury on his arm. In fact, the designer even dressed it to theme, with a hot pink sling.

Best moment #3: New designer = new showspace. Tod’s runway presentation was running later than usual, because the current location is much further than its old venue at Padiglione di Arte Contemporanea.

Best moment #4: Fall/winter 2020 is Creative Director Walter Chiapponi’s debut collection for Tod’s

Best moment #5: Singaporean It girl Mae Tan hits Milan Fashion Week for the first time. She was spotted at the Sportmax show, among others.

Fashion | Collections

Milan Fashion Week fall/winter 2020: Our first impressions, and the best moments of the Moschino, Tod’s, Sportmax runways

#MFW

Text: Jolene Khor

MOSCHINO: ANIME ANTOINETTE

First impression: Few designers begin telling the story of their runway collections from the invite they send to guests. We've received a faux-porcelain mask in a wooden crate from Gucci; a pastel rubber bracelet from Versace; a box of moss from Dries Van Noten. They're usually indicative of the theme of the show, and Moschino's cake card is no different. Knowing Jeremy Scott, we guessed (correctly!) Marie Antoinette references, thrown in with his signature outlandish ‘80s take. Everything was blown out of proportion, there's nothing light to his dessert. The French Revolution skirts while inflated, are hiked up to the heavens (hehe), the boots are laced up in satin all the way to mid-thigh, and the hair... well, the hair deserves to be a wonder of the world.

First impression sketch of the Moschino fall/winter 2020 collection

Favourite looks: This is Scott we're talking about, so he shines brightest when he lets his creativity run with him. The opening look's Canadian tuxedo sparks joy. So does Bella Hadid's "T-shirt dress" if you can even call it that at this point, layered with a signature Moschino leather jacket cropped to the armpits. Then there are the confections without boundaries, lauded for their diabetic sartorial imagination fusing Antoinette's silhouettes with Harajuku visions. Look 20 is the summery fruit tart to look 33, 40, and 52's sugar high. By the time Scott hits us with looks 53, 58, and 63, we're on the floor, blissfully smiling from the crash, arms flailed high applauding in the air.

Favourite accessories: The Moschino women are dressed for a revolution, but she wants peace: her true intentions worn on her ears lobes. The anime girls gracing the bags have their charm too.

TOD'S: WINTER IS COMING

First impression: If it weren't for the reminder, we'd have forgotten that Tod's hasn't been led by a creative director since 2016. That's to say the in-house team has been doing more than a fine job holding fort. But that's what it was... holding fort. A house without a head is like a steed without its master — it charges ahead best it can, though it never really reaches a destination. The newly-minted Walter Chiapponi (previously from Bottega Veneta, Gucci, and Valentino), certainly drives forward the Tod's story in his debut collection for the Italian house, with many ways to go. His journey takes us to a darker, moodier Tod's than we've seen, less joie de vivre, more skewed in the realism of what's outside the window of an optimist.

First impression sketch of the Tod's fall/winter 2020 collection

Favourite looks: If fashion embraces its own "I woke up like this" movement, its objects will be the separates hanging off the shoulders of the Tod's fall/winter 2020 models. Hanging, because the fits here are mostly oversized to the point of slouchy. Artfully slouchy, natch. Take the crisp workman shirt and mini pinafore from look 13, cut to scrunch; the decidedly distressed patina in the leather of look 30; and the casual, almost reluctant knot in look 36's ensemble. They suggest that dressing doesn't have to be effortful — a welcome message. The way we see it, the new Tod's lady is simultaneously hardly trying, yet palpably yearning for more. Good thing Chiapponi is poised to deliver.

Favourite accessories: Many would attest that a Tod's collection is only as strong as its accessories. For fall/winter 2020, the hobo bag emerges as a strong shape of the season, interpreted in patchwork leather and the label's signature matelassé. However, our eyes lingered on the gold quilted top handle crafted in lush velvet.

SPORTMAX: SHE MEANS BUSINESS

First impression: There's no flirting, no foreplay in Sportmax's fall/winter 2020 collection. This season, the tailoring is stern, the silhouettes are classic with a hint of femininity where it suits. The palette is mostly cornered to navy and grayscale; occasionally, oxblood makes an appearance or five in various tones and textures. Those, along with cream cape outfits, deserve more time in the spotlight.

First impression sketch of the Sportmax fall/winter 2020 collection

Favourite looks: Look 13 for the cream layering; look 15 for the jacket's built-in utilitarian belt; look 32 for the mix of matte and patent leather; and look 44's athletic take on a black maxi.