The biggest Autumn/Winter 2025 moments from Milan Fashion Week and Pitti Uomo

Milan Fashion Week was a little lighter on the ground this season, with the likes of Fendi and Gucci opting for co-ed shows to be staged during womenswear fashion week in February. That being said there was still plenty on offer. Zegna, Giorgio Armani, Saul Nash, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana kept the fashion pack on their designer-clad toes with big runway shows, while Pal Zileri, Canali and Ralph Lauren Purple Label presented their collections via presentation format. Jordanluca even staged an actual (the designers' own) wedding.

But before all of that there was Pitti Uomo, where Brunello Cucinelli and MM6 Margiela presented their collections. With big trends coming out of the two cities - fur and bold outerwear - it was a mighty start to the Autumn/Winter 2025 show season.

Below are the highlights...

Alessandro Sartori understands what Zegna is about. He joined the house in 1989, took a five year stint at Berluti in 2011, and then rejoined the family-run Italian luxury giant Ermenegildo Zegna Group as artistic director in 2016. His Autumn/Winter 2025 collection is titled “Vellus Aureum,” which references the ultra-lightweight wool fleece which has a world record for its lightness. This was reached in 2023 with a fineness of 9.4 microns, and inspired the wool heavy collection.

Staged in an arena filled with the sound of sheep, and grassy manmade hills, the collection boasts some of Sartori's finest work. Shirts made from ultralight wool could be mistaken for cotton, while Sartori's oversized silhouette was carried across suiting, herringbone coats and billowing trousers. Among the seriousness of craft, however, there was playfulness. “In this collection items are … spontaneously mixed … in the name of Italian style," said Sartori of the collection, and high-waisted trousers were paired with unexpected knits for unusual silhouettes.

Raf Simons and co-creative director with Miuccia Prada presented the latest Prada collection at the Fondazione Prada’s Deposito space. Scaffolding soared into the sky, while the runway was adorned with an eccentric-looking Old World carpet.

The collection was primitive, which was a reference to the rise (in the co-designers' eyes a bad thing) of AI, and the show notes suggested that it was a discourse on "human nature, basic instincts, as a tool for fundamental human creativity." Eclecticism ruled, and coats were adorned with fur and suits were patchworked in leather. Cowboy boots were upturned and overcoats were worn over fur bibs, in a overturning of historic elegance. ‘This is our move towards humanity,’ Prada said backstage.

Canali drew inspiration from its Brianza roots, an area renowned for luxury furniture craftsmanship, and this translated in a collection of fine knits, expertly crafted outerwear and multiple fabrics: bouclé and donegal tweed create three-dimensional effects while freccia patterns recur as quilting on leather blousons. Thick knitwear in hues of pink and grey, are intended for wear as outerwear, while Losanghe taken from inlay floors become jacquards on pullovers and scarves, highlighting the aforementioned furnishing inspiration.

Tailoring, as ever with the Italian brand, was firmly at the centre of things. But Canali gave its suiting a modern twist, and it fell lighter and looser than in previous seasons, subtly redefining elegance as we know it from the label.

Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce staged a show fit for the paps. Titled "Paparazzi", models including Brit boy wonder Kit Butler walked out to camera flashes and down a red carpet, nodding to Dolce and Gabbana's longtime reign on the actual IRL scarlet carpets at award ceremonies and film premieres the world over.

The Autumn/Winter 2025 collection was inspired by Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, a film in which the word ‘paparazzi’ was first coined. Tuxedos were adorned with crystal brooches and sparkling buttons, while the rest of the collection gave Hollywood star energy with big fur coats, slouchy Noughties jeans not amiss to those seen on the likes of Jamie Dornan and Keira Knightley, and plenty of A-lister sunglasses. Sophie Jordan, Menswear Buying Director at Mytheresa said "the show was lighthearted and just fun, watching the front row having a good time is also part of the experience. Highlights for me were the brown velvet three-piece suit and the OTT leopard coat."

Dunhill creative director Simon Holloway is on a one man mission to reinvigorate classic codes of Britishness. While spectators sat on round tables adorned with cucumber sandwiches, models traipsed around the in wide-lapelled overcoats and high-waisted trousers. Meanwhile proper English tailoring, cast in pinstripes, was notably inspired and reminiscent of the 1930s London Cut or English Drape suit, which was waist-cinched, yet louche and loose-shouldered. Meanwhile stoic lounge suits in black velvet and perfectly plain midnight blue, midnight green and all-black barathea reference Holloway's DNA and Dunhill's "131-years of tailoring finesse."

Elsewhere the collection presented the richness of winter clothes for town, and Donegal tweeds artfully clash against velvet for day and subtle combinations of British windowpanes, gun club, tattersall and glen-checks were used on blazers, car coats and driving jackets.

Held at Milan’s Palazzo Serbelloni, the Autumn/Winter 2025 collection fused timeless elegance with a modern fluidity, which was echoed in the Julie Bruyère’s choreography for a set of dancers at the presentation.

Each wore tailoring and pieces from the collection, which moved like water, despite being expertly tailored. This was evoked throughout the collection, with relaxed tailoring silhouettes comprising shawl collared jackets and roomy trousers, worn with vests, soft tailoring, and an interlay of fabrics across all clothing.

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