Yahoo Lifestyle Gucci to Open a Buzzy Milan Fashion Week Next Month
OPENING ACT: The couture season is in full swing in Paris, but Milan has already moved on and is looking ahead to what promises to be a packed fashion week next month.
While the official schedule is still under wraps — a draft might be released this week while the Italian fashion chamber’s press conference is slated for Feb. 5 — Gucci has already secured its prime slot, as WWD has learned that it will be the fashion week’s opener.
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The Florentine house will stage its runway show on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. CET in a still-undisclosed location. As reported, the brand is returning to the coed format for its shows or, as the company prefers to describe it, a “unified” version.
Hence, creative director Sabato De Sarno will present the brand’s men’s and women’s collections together in a single fashion show both in February and September. In between, Gucci will hold its cruise 2026 fashion show in Florence on May 15, which will also be coed.
At the time of the announcement in November, the company said that the move would allow De Sarno to present his “sleek, thoughtful and cohesive storyline” for the brand, “fostering a dialogue between complementary men’s and women’s collections,” and “a continuous conversation between these two worlds. Each collection reflects and responds to the other, maintaining its individuality while contributing to a multifaceted narrative in which femininity and masculinity coexist, enrich and elevate one another.”
Running through March 3, Milan Fashion Week is slated to be a busier affair compared to the men’s shows that unfolded earlier this month. To wit, many brands skipped their men’s shows or moved up their coed ones to mark milestones or for strategic purposes.
These included Fendi, which skipped its traditional, separate men’s show to go coed with a runway event next month, when it will officially kick off its centenary celebrations. Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear collections, is for now leading the overall design effort for men’s and women’s after the exit of British designer Kim Jones, who stepped down after four years as Fendi’s artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women.
Dsquared2, which has embraced the coed format for a few seasons, also exceptionally switched the timing, moving from the city’s men’s schedule to the women’s one to mark its 30th anniversary.
These anniversaries will add to other key events expected in the women’s show schedule, including Lorenzo Serafini’s debut as creative director of Alberta Ferretti, Alberto Caliri’s official return at the Missoni creative helm and David Koma’s first runway show for Blumarine.
The ongoing game of fashion musical chairs will further amplify the buzz around the event, as speculation is mounting about a potential exit of Luke and Lucie Meier from Jil Sander after the fall 2025 show, with Bally’s current creative director Simone Bellotti considered a potential successor, according to sources.
The Swiss brand is planning a coed show in February, just like Diesel, whose creative director Glenn Martens is seen as frontrunner to succeed John Galliano at fellow OTB-owned brand Maison Margiela.
There also is speculation around Versace. As reported, sources say the contract of chief creative officer Donatella Versace is up in February and there are questions whether she — or parent company Capri Holdings — will renew it.
Meanwhile, this week former Gucci president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri was said to be busy raising funds to invest in the Milan-based fashion brand, as reported. But he has plenty of competition in the process, which has Barclays drumming up buyers for both Versace and Jimmy Choo on behalf of Capri. The auction is said to have started off with about 15 would-be buyers and it’s now down to half of that, with next round bids expected to be finalized in early February.
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