Dolls Eye View: Milan Fall 22 Trends

 

There wasn't enough collections of interest in London so the girls headed straight for Milan. They didn't find lots of clothes, but what they found were very special pieces. Instead of doing a lot of clothes, we chose to spend the time recreating what we thought would be keepsake fashion. 

Pretty Young Things

These are very simple, very pretty, early Autumn looks. It consists of an elongated jacket (wool or leather) buttoned over a soft, curvy short skirt. We love the simplicity and ease of this look!

This look for me, is about styling. Me and Natasha love the idea of a long daytime jacket buttoned over a flirty little evening wear skirt. I didn't fashion my jacket after the ones in the photo. Instead I took one I had already made. It is a basic grey wool fitted blazer with frayed edges. I did make a skirt for this. It is a series of a series of grey sheer squares turned on the diagonal, each point stitched together onto a grey lace waistband. The possibilities are limitless. Think about blazers teamed with lace or tulle skirts. You can even take this to another level by making the jacket in evening fabrics: silk, satin, brocade or metallic for the jacket and anything sheer for the skirt.

Livin' Large

As the weather gets colder, silhouettes get longer, looser and wider. Note the volume of the trousers and the fullness of the jackets. Even larger...the swash-buckling coats with scarves tossed over the shoulders. 

You can take any full coat and add a scarf to get this look. Here we took a swing coat to toss over the shoulders of Nadja. But instead of using the same fabric for the scarf, we chose a matching patterned silk to recreate the soft folds of the original Fendi coat. 

Animal Rites

Faux fur is always a logical choice for winter fashion. But you can also think of using fur or animal prints in touches. The girls LOVED Fendi's modern rendition of an early 1920's elongated silhouette topped with rows of shaggy fur trim tacked onto a shawl. And if we had access to a similar animal spotted print, we would have made that sensational Roberto Cavalli jacket over tights. But you don't have to use all of that to get into the spirit of this group. Animal print boots with a little black dress looks just as on point as the rest!

Belle really love the retro look of this dress and shawl. She refused to let me make it in any other color but grey and black, even though I didn't find a sock with the cable knit to mimic the look of the original outfit. Her dress is a simple stretch sheath over which I made a simple shawl. I cut 1/8 inch (5mm) front rows from a piece of shaggy black faux fur (found in a craft store). I lined the outer edge with the trim and then made diagonal rows over the surface of the shawl. I love the finished lok even though I am not so thrilled with the knit from the sock I cut up to make this. It didn't occur to me until I was nearly finished that I could have (and should have) used any other fabric to create the same look. The appeal of this dress is that it has a casual elegance by using a knit. However, it could be equally as gorgeous (or even more so), if you recreate it in a fancier fabric!

Straight Up

We've started noticing a trend towards narrow, long silhouettes, be their skirts and tops or pantsuits. Jackets are cut close to the body. Hemlines are heading south. And pants, though somewhat loose, are  everywhere. 

It is, however, difficult for my girls to leave Italy without something from Giorgio Armani and this trip was not exception. He is still doing his refined tailor jackets, but for next fall, Armani has loosened up and presents a more easy to wear elegant lines. Priya couldn't resist the look of a simple silk sarong top work over sequinned trousers. 

The Dark Side

With all of the serious things happening around us, it is no surprise to see a "heavy" sense of fashion trends that border on Goth. What makes this look work, however, is the layering of textures and treatments--matte corset over a matching tunic topping shiny vinyl; a bomber jacket with hardware on the sleeves worn over a bandeau top and men's trousers.... 

Samantha loves these edgy styles. She chose this Versace ensemble. We thought the dress could be a little more interesting. So instead of a basic dress with swollen shoulders, we went with a kimono wrap dress with dolman sleeves pushed up with opera length gloves. We cut the corset pattern a little wider than usual. We then created columns of tucks from the center out.  Each tiny column of  fabric is pinched on the exterior and stitched. 

In the original photo, it appears the model is wearing vinyl tights. Our vinyl wasn't as stretchable, so we settled for well fitted stovepipe pants. 

Nite Clubbin'

A twilight extension of the above group, we remain in the black but with lots of dark sparkle. Think black sequins, beads and even black shiny vinyl. This can be as small as a bare midriff top and shiny skinny pants or a full fledged warrior outfit exploding with sequins of different sizes and shapes.

As soon as we spotted this dress, the challenge was on. I loved that there was so much going on here. Almost like a collage of different shapes and sizes. I began with a simple A-line dress made from a sheer fabric dotted sparsely with flat sequins. I then added rows of sequins looped from the center front to either side of the dress. From the waist down, I patched in a few rows of rectangular sequins. One sleeve was cut from a piece of mini-sequinned fabric, while the other sleeve was cut from vinyl. I added some seed beads around the hemline and looped bugle beads over one shoulder. For her footwear...we felt there should be nothing less than thigh high shiny vinyl boots! 

One more stop ahead..... The girls finish out fashion month in Paris!  A bientôt!!!

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