Milan Fashion Week 2012

So in all the fuss about E not actually equalling mc² after all, or whatevs, it is just about possible that you have missed the real shock news of the week, ie The 50s Are Back. Actually, the shock isn't that the 50s are back. Decades come flying out of Milan fashion week like a machine churning out lottery numbers, and the 50s turn up fairly regularly. What is surprising is that the 50s look as seen in Milan this week is not a cutesy parade of bubblegummy prom frocks and perky ponytails, but something a bit darker, less literal and more interesting




A typical Milan fashion week is dominated by the emergence of some dopey "direction" – pink, say, or sci-fi, or micro-minis. This time was different. It seemed like I wrote the word "subtext" in my notebook more often than I wrote the word "trend". Instead of bludgeoning us over the head with the dreaded Must-Haves – or, awful phrase, Hero Pieces – designers went out of their way to point out complications and contradictions. After the Prada show, surrounded by editors and buyers clamouring to congratulate her on a beautiful 1950s themed show, Miuccia Prada flatly denied that the look had anything whatsoever to do with the 50s. Raf Simons's show for Jil Sander was accompanied by an explanatory note that began: "Beauty is an idea which possesses features widely attributed to attractiveness and perfection. In its most profound sense, beauty may raise an extraordinary experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one's own existence."



Mmm, no – me neither, really. Possibly, what Simons has in mind is something to do with the idea that striving for an aesthetic ideal can be an outward expression of, rather than a substitute for, making an effort to be a good person. Miuccia Prada started this conversation, several seasons ago, with successive collections that worried away at the theme of what it is that women want; why it is that we are drawn to the trappings of female glamour; the almost primal lust for gold and lace. She is on a quest to work out what it is that women desire from fashion, to figure out whether it is an escape from "real" life or if the connection is more complicated. This season, she called it investigating "the taboo of sweetness".


Anna Wintour told La Repubblica newspaper that it was while in her front row seat at Prada this week that she began to ruminate on the contrast between the fashion world, where the Made in Italy label still stands for class and quality, and the way in which the country's politics have been tainted by the Berlusconi era. I think she meant this simply as a compliment, but Prada shows do have a tendency to get you thinking. This week's Marni show, which designer Consuelo Castiglioni said was about "a mix between childhood tenderness and the tension of a grownup woman", seemed to carry on where Prada's last collection (theme: finding the innocence inside glamorous things) left off.




But why the 50s? Perhaps because it speaks in some way to the "taboo of sweetness" idea. (Despite Miuccia being so adamant on the it's-not-50s front, one top fashion critic pointed out that "the menswear show was Elvis, and womenswear was Marilyn".) Perhaps because it is still the decade in which the most enduring cliches of womanhood are to be found. Perhaps because it is a time when teenagers and their mothers wore the same skirt lengths, before womankind was segregated into decades.


Anyway, that's not the most important question. The real issue, clearly, is: what are we going to wear? You'd think it would be all about an hourglass dress, but, this being nothing if not a confusing season, it sort of isn't. If wasp-waisted, full-skirted, looking-hot-at-the-vegetable-market-while-demurely-ignoring-wolf-whistles dresses are your thing then Dolce & Gabbana is happy to oblige; and we can all look forward to allotment chic hitting the high street, as those splashy aubergine prints make their way down the fashion food chain.

The fashion-forward 50s look championed at Prada and Jil Sander is boxier than the classic New Look silhouette. It is less homely, and more architectural too. (At Jil Sander, Raf Simons said he had been looking at mid-century modern design. These were couture shapes, but done with a Jil Sander purity that gave a sharp twist, like a slice of lemon added to a glass of water; at Prada, Miuccia said she had been looking closer to home, at her own wardrobe.) The pencil skirt that has been a fashion hit already this winter is here to stay, but from next summer it has less Mad Men wiggle – instead, a simple sheath shape. It is probably worn with a squarish sweater rather than a tucked-in blouse.

The statement jumper, much in evidence at London fashion week (less so in Milan, where it was 27C by 10am) is also a keeper from this season to next. At Jil Sander, Picasso sketches ("an icon of modernism", you see) were worn with slim cigarette pants: that was one of my favourite looks of the whole season. Bottega Veneta didn't explicitly follow a 50s outline, but after Jil Sander and Prada it was, to me, the best show of the week – immaculate, fabulously grown-up, and a riot of gorgeous rich colours. The sweater-and-skirt combination as a luxe look turned up here, too.

One more thing. We're going to be wearing pastels. No, really, we are. There was aquamarine at MaxMara, sky blue at Fendi, pink at Prada. Mint at Versace, baby blue at Jil Sander. This is smart fashion, but you would never guess that from the colour palette. Which is rather clever