At Fendi, a 1970s Pop Legend Takes the Lead

Maria Grazia Chiuri's Fendi collection, shown during Milan Fashion Week, took as its subject Raffaella Carrà, the Italian singer and television presenter, according to The Guardian. The paper described a show of diaphanous dresses and visible bras that celebrated Carrà as an "incredible feminist" of the 1970s, and quoted Chiuri saying she has worn less of a uniform since leaving Paris for her native Rome.

The Guardian's account places the collection in a lineage of Italian popular culture rather than in the usual fashion-week references. Carrà, who died in 2021, was a mainstream television figure for decades, and her presence at a luxury house is a statement about which Italian past the industry now chooses to market.

Milan Fashion Week has produced a run of shows with strong thematic spines this season. The Guardian reported separately that Prada, under Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, gave skirts the star billing and swerved trousers and dresses, a formula the paper traced to Prada's own uniform of a knee-length skirt and a plain sweater.