| Milan Fashion Week: Fall 2011 From New York and London to Milan: we packed up our suitcases, sharpened our pencils and charged our camera batteries for yet another week of fashion shows, parties, and presentations. Fresh from the runways of Milan, we bring you some of our highlights - and don't forget to visit our dedicated Milan Fashion Week portal for the full coverage so far. Gucci: colourful and luxurious Gucci has a way of stopping traffic, even before they unveil a collection. That's the result of having such a big event in what, at least traffic wise, is too small a location. Without any sizeable footpath, guests of the shows (they host two at Milan fashion week, back to back) compete with cars for road space on these typically Milanese streets and there's a lot of horns, bluster, and a grid lock. Inside the imposing facade of the Sheraton, however, it's a different story. The energy that is outside turns to anticipation as we wait to see what's taken hold of Frida Giannini's imagination this season. The answer, as becomes apparent quite quickly, is the 1970s. For fall 2011, Frida has taken the 70s revival as we've been seeing it, and - tired of it's earthy, sepia tones - painted it with a boldly coloured brush. And it's not just the colours that are indulgent: the collection is no-holds-barred on reptile skin, leather, velvet, and fur. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'Gucci: colourful and luxurious' D&G: continuing the fun Continuing on with the theme that was last offered up in the label's recent men's showing, D&G have brought whimsical prints and bold winter colours to the fall 2011 catwalks of the current women's season of Milan fashion week. Toned down in parts (it that's at all possible) with black and white prints that at a distance looked like Fair Isle but transpired to be typography layered over sheers, the collection realistically features just about every loud colour imaginable. And tutus. Undeniably spirited, these times and commercial reality mean that its success will really depend on its reception at D&G's tills, something we're eaglery anticipating news of. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'D&G: continuing the fun' Lorella Signorino's Atelier stays young Lorella Signorino marked the positioning of her new 'Atelier' label from the get go: in mere moments the atmosphere of her Milan fashion week showing turned from light piano, to a hard beat, to a somewhat exposed Ruby Aldridge pounding down the catwalk. Sexualised and youthful? Certainly. This is, after all, the catwalk debut of a new label from a designer who had previously brought us the label 'Love Sex Money'. Lorella Signorino Atelier was never going to open demurely. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'Lorella Signorino's Atelier stays young' Pierre Ancy's unique check It kicked off with a beat you'd hope to only feel were you in a nightclub, though this was no club catwalk event (been there, hope not to do that again). That was about as far as the comparison between clubs and this Milan fashion week showing went. Some catwalks use their music to set a tone, Pierre Ancy used theirs to give the models a tempo to walk to. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'Pierre Ancy's unique check' The closing of Gucci We've only recently finished at the showing of Gucci's autumn / fall 2011 women's collection at Milan fashion week and don't yet have our photos ready for you. We do, however, have the closing moments of the catwalk online as a video. 
Click to read 'The closing of Gucci' London Fashion Week: Fall 2011 Before Milan we hit London's top venues to bring you coverage of London Fashion Week's star shows. Here are some more favourites, and of course there's full coverage at our London Fashion Week portal. Antonio Berardi's full spectrum Antonio Berardi offered up London fashion week an autumn 2011 collection that had what was perhaps the broadest colour palette I've seen to date. Working with everything from sheen to sheers and from leather to lace, Berardi included a spectrum of colours certain to make anyone stand out (the derriere revealing dress more so than most). Little of that colour worked as well as the collection's opening component: winter whites. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'Antonio Berardi's full spectrum' A peak behind the scenes at Amanda Wakeley For those of you who appreciate what happens off the catwalk just as much as what happens on it, we're happy to bring you another look at the behind-the-scenes action of London fashion week with this peak behind the curtains from Amanda Wakeley's autumn 2011 showing. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'A peak behind the scenes at Amanda Wakeley' Nicole Farhi: high on shine Nicole Farhi's models stepped on to the London fashion week runway with slick ponytails and bold red lips - the lips being the focal point of an otherwise natural beauty look. The hair and makeup was perfectly complimentary to a collection based on clean lines and block colours. But while Farhi's pieces were minimal on the colour front, they weren't lacking in detail. Fabrics were high sheen, completely sheer, sequinned or leathery. Some tuxedo-inspired pieces were particularly wearable in a masculine-as-feminine way; while the overall highlight from Farhi's autumn / fall 2011 collection was the swishing, shimmering vision of Tao Okamoto in a floor length pleated gown. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'Nicole Farhi: high on shine' David Koma: svelte-a-dot I admit it: there's no such word or term as svelte-a-dot, but we're such fans of portmenteaus here at Fashionising.com (even if a good percentage of people insist that the publication's name is in fact Fashion I Sing) that I couldn't resist the opportunity to make yet more words collide. And that lack of resisitance came courtesy of designer David Koma and his autumn / winter 2011 showing at London fashion week. A collection that hasn't so much avoided the alternative theme that runs through most of the week in so much as it has opted to make it fun. 
Picture Gallery Preview Click To View Full Gallery Click to read 'David Koma: svelte-a-dot' Fashion Exposed: register now for Sydney Here's a reminder to everyone in the fashion industry who's based in or visiting Australia: the Fashion Exposed Sydney 2011 fair is on this weekend. Bringing an impossible-to-list range of exhibitors, events, shows, seminars, and stalls to the Sydney Exhibition Centre from March 6-8, it's an industry event worth a visit. 
Keep an eye on our Fashion Exposed coverage, and if you haven't already done so you can click here to register. Featured Editorial | 
