RAF SIMONS

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons offered a nostalgia play for next season, mixing gingham, coming from the feminine world, with masculine menswear.

Milan Fashion Week has closed five off-kilter days of runway shows for next season, marked both by a sense of relief that strict pandemic rules were easing but with growing distress over the war in Ukraine.

Milan Fashion Week continued Thursday under the shadow of the Russian attack on Ukraine and the possible economic repercussions as the West moves toward tighter sanctions.

Jeff Goldblum infused Milan Fashion Week with some levity as he shimmied down the Prada runway in a dark overcoat that cast a dramatic silhouette.

Valentino gave its pared down fashion audience a taste of real Parisian life on Friday.

Donatella Versace pumped energy into Milan Fashion week with a star-filled runway and front row, and collection strong on the fashion house’s codes: bright colors, safety pins and especially silky foulards.

MILAN – Fashion is off the hamster wheel, taking a deep breath that is allowing some freshness to seep into the once relentless cycle. “It is so weird thinking about fashion, and the kind of hamster wheel of fashion, and how we never had a break and always complained about it,’’ Marc Jacobs said during a Milan Fashion Week video chat with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons post-digital show. Milan Fashion Week of mostly womenswear previews for next fall and winter wrapped a nearly all-digital edition on Monday. Only one designer — Daniel Del Core, marking his brand's debut — held a live runway show for a small number of guests. Milan designer Francesca Liberatore had planned an extravagant show in a Milan theater with holographic effects, but decided against it in solidarity with theater creatives who can't occupy that space.

MILAN – Miuccia Prada has adapted to the digital runway and isn’t ready to give up its lessons when the pandemic is over. While a runway show fades with the lights on the last look, the digital presentation requires another step: Picking the details that “create an atmosphere,” Prada said in a streamed conversation after the digital show. The women’s collection continued the body-hugging comfort layer of long johns from menswear, as well as leather gloves fitted with zipped pouches. Moschino’s Jeremy Scott maintained his usual playfulness, casting top models, actresses and a burlesque star that might have been front-row guests in another period to populate his Moschino digital show. Amber Valletta was caught on a shopping safari in a faux golden crocodile suit, replete with lizard tail.

A giant screen streams a Prada fashion live during an interview with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, during the Milan's fashion week in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Milan Fashion Week is unfolding entirely on computer screens and social media platforms this round for the first time ever, as the persistent virus resurgence dashed any hopes of even a handful of physical shows. In its digitally conceived preview, Prada on Sunday introduced the new anti-uniform that speaks to our new intimacy in our ever-tighter circles: luxury long-johns. “It is not often we find in fashion something that's so flexible, with so many facets,” Prada said in a video conversation with international fashion students. Now, more than ever, as people have more time at home to consider how they want to present themselves to the world, fashion is less about trends, and more about individuality.

A model wears a creation as part of the Max Mara 2021 women's spring-summer ready-to-wear collection during the Milan's fashion week in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. The most anticipated event of the week was Prada’s virtual unveiling of the Miuccia Prada-Raf Simons collaboration announced in February. The designers joined the virtual audience for a dialogue after the presentation, responding to questions that had been submitted in advance. In a bid for democracy in luxury fashion, anyone can access the same preview experience as fashion insiders on Prada’s YouTube channel. ____MAX MARA’S RENAISSANCEMax Mara gave Milan Fashion Week its physical bearings, with a runway show around the porticoed courtyard of the Brera Painting Gallery, safe from threatening skies.

FILE -- In this Jan. 17, 2020 file photo, designer Kim Jones accepts applause after the Dior Homme Mens Fall/Winter 2020-2021 fashion collection presented in Paris. Rome fashion house Fendi announced Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020 that Kim Jones is taking over from the late Karl Lagerfeld as creative director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections. Jones will take on the Fendi duties while staying on as artistic director of Dior Homme. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)ROME Rome fashion house Fendi announced Wednesday that Kim Jones is taking over from the late Karl Lagerfeld as creative director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections. Jones will take on the Fendi duties while staying on as artistic director of Dior Homme, another house in the Paris-based luxury goods empire of LVMH chief Bernard Arnault.