Fendi and Rambaldi heat up Milan’s winter season

Skirts get shorter, bodies are stripped, and curves are revealed… From Fendi to Marco Rambaldi to Diesel, designers seem to enjoy undressing women, judging by the ready-to-wear collections presented on Wednesday during the first day of Milan Fashion Week. Could this be an effect of global warming? What is certain is that the Fall/Winter 2022-23 season looks hotter than ever.

Fendi’s models may have donned long, glamorous cashmere gloves and wrapped themselves in cozy fur jackets while sporting fun, colorful furry handbags, but they looked fresh out from their boudoir. Wearing impalpable outfits in delicate shades of powdered pink or sage green, their hair was still damp and pinned back with girly barrettes. Strapless jumpsuits, tops, pants, and skirts with ruffled edges were cut in a sheer chiffon fabric, sometimes printed with the O'Lock monogram or geometric patterns taken from the brand’s 1986 Spring/Summer collection.

Creative director Kim Jones clashed these prints with "the diaphanous light of Fall/Winter 2000," another collection by Karl Lagerfeld from which he also drew inspiration to build a contradicting wardrobe. Lingerie sets gave way to a series of corseted and more structured tweed pieces, clinging to the body while reshaping it.

Short lengths persist throughout his collection. Mini strapless dresses, blouse-hugging corset tops, tiny Prince of Wales shorts, pants, and cropped jackets were sometimes paired with chiffon tops, as were certain leather and denim pieces, and enhanced with an asymmetrical sarong-like belt to better accentuate the thighs. For the evening, the Fendi muse walks out wearing only a sheer black jumpsuit under her fur coat and nothing else.

The mood was later changed drastically by Marco Rambaldi, where male and female bodies of all forms wearing seductive ultra-tight and openwork knitwear, printed transparent tulle jumpsuits, and butt-grazing skirts were freely exposed.

A sensual theme was especially exacerbated throughout the collection in which the designer chose Italian porn stars of the 80s and 90s as muses, such as Cicciolina and Moana Pozzi, since “they revolutionized the position of women in society,” as he explained backstage.

With their high socks and knit stockings, little heart inlays scattered everywhere, and skimpy sherbet-colored outfits (in water mint, candy pink, lilac, etc.), these ladies seemed to play the part of a mischievous childish woman. One of them even lifted her skirt up to reveal a butt tattoo.

Slip dresses were worn equally by male and female models, as well as shiny lurex and hot pink satin sets opened at the back by a large heart bordered with crystals. The boundaries between the two sexes were certainly blurred to the point of confusion. In addition, Marco Rambaldi’s signature crochet was ever-present in cardigans, miniskirts, openwork dresses, and even in a heart-shaped thong.

Fendi and Rambaldi heat up Milan’s winter season

See also