Valentino, Fendi, Moschino and more: The best looks from Milan Fashion Week's autumn / winter 2021 shows

Free to show however and wherever they wish, designers are finding new inspiration amid the pandemic

With the pandemic having shaken up every aspect of life, the once rigid schedule of runway-only fashion weeks has been upended, with the almost exclusively digital presentations at Milan Fashion Week barely raising an eyebrow.

As part of ongoing adaptations, showings have been mixed up even further. Most notably, the big names of Gucci and Bottega Veneta were conspicuously absent, while Versace will show during Paris Fashion Week, but not as part of it.

Tom Ford, meanwhile, who actually closed New York Fashion Week, only delivered the images from his show during Milan thanks to various Covid-19 related hiccups. Confused yet?

A farm print dress by Moschino for autumn / winter 2021. Courtesy Moschino

However, scheduling chaos aside, the switch to digital has given designers an unexpected new freedom as, released from the runway-only format, they are now able to do whatever they wish.

Case in point: Jeremy Scott at Moschino delivered his autumn / winter 2021 collection against a series of five different backdrops, which shifted from cityscape to jungle to a theatre. Over at Prada, meanwhile, the duo of Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada reworked the same set they had used for their men's show a few weeks ago.

Valentino opened a famous Milanese theatre especially for its audience-free show, while Dolce & Gabbana embraced the future by having robots both open and close its runway display. Marni found a new home-made vibe for its show, with coats made out of what could well have been sleeping bags, as Giorgio Armani doubled down on his comfort-is-paramount philosophy. At Fendi, new women's designer Kim Jones delivered his first fully fledged collection, while Max Mara showed us that it is the king of tone-on-tone styling.

Scroll through the gallery above to see the most standout moments of the week.

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