Enrica Guidato, the fashion professor at SRISA, took ten students from the fashion classes for a weekend of fashion-related events in Milan during Fashion Week. Enrica was able to get us invites to two important shows–Uma Wang and Leitmotiv–which is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience because invites are hard to come by, especially if you’re a student or not in the industry. Both of the shows we saw were held in the same venue, Scalone Arengario, which is this gorgeous, old building right on the Piazza Duomo in Milan.
After the first show, Uma Wang, we had some free time to explore Milan. A couple friends and I decided to check out the Lucio Fontana in my contemporary art class so it was really cool to be able to see his work in real life. I’ve also discovered that it’s way more fun to visit art museums and experience these works with other contemporary-art-loving friends.
On Saturday morning, we visited Armani/Silos, which is the museum of Giorgio Armani. It has over four floors of his best creations! To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by the detail and beauty of all of his garments.
The second show we saw was Leitmotiv, which was very different from the first show we saw. It was a lot more colorful, and had an amazing installation piece at the start of the catwalk.
Aside of the museums and fashion shows, we also visited the Vogue’s New Talents where we met and saw the work of up and coming designers. What I loved about these exhibitions was that the designers displayed their moodboards and shared the process of how they got the inspiration for their designs. Although I’m not a fashion designer, I love learning about how other creatives get inspired.
At the end of the weekend, I was so exhausted and had consumed an excessive amount of knowledge about fashion. It was an incredible experience, and Milan is definitely somewhere I would like to visit again someday.
Kylie Hernandez