Milan fashion week was inaugurated with a special tribute to Beppe Modenese, honorary president of the CNMI-Italian Chamber of Fashion who passed away last November, with a video directed by Beniamino Barrese. Some brands hold their runway show behind closed doors. There were two important debuts, that of Kim Jones with his first prêt-à-porter collection for Fendi and that of Fausto Puglisi as creative director of Roberto Cavalli. Alongside the best-known brands, many talented designers were on the Milano Fashion shows and Presentations calendar.

Modem focuses on 12 of these creative brands.

MÜNN See Video
Launched in 2013 in Seoul by Korean designer Hyun-min Han. The brand is inspired by the formalwear of the 60s, mixing sartorial and casual clothing with futuristic references. Münn promotes ethical fashion by using ecological fabrics to reduce the environmental impact. In 2016 he won the Woolmark Prize Asia, an award dedicated to emerging talents for their creativity in merino wool.

SUNNEI See Video
Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo are the creative duo behind the made in Italy brand Sunnei. After the launch in January of a video game for smartphones in which the 3D characters can be customized with a different outfit from Sunnei’s FW 21 Canvas collection, the brand presented during the women’s fashion week in February a video that narrates a sequence of scenes, a fashion show after another, to end in a smartphone screen. Between geometric shapes, relaxed lines, and fabric experiments.

ACT N°1 See Video
Label founded by the designers Luca Lin and Galib Gassanoff in 2016 and debuted for the first time at the Milan fashion week in September 2018. The brand finds its identity in the different cultural backgrounds of the two designers, Azerbaijan and China. Last February, during Milan women’s fashion week, the duo presented the FW 21 collection with a video produced by Tommaso Ottomano, which as always highlights the contamination of genres and the craftsmanship of the garments. Between ruffles, transparencies and exuberant elegance.

SHUTING QIU See Video
Founded in 2017 by Chinese designer Shuting Qiu, who presented her Fall Winter 21 collection with a fashion film entitled Water Ripples, directed by Chinese filmmaker Fanqing and shot in the designer’s hometown of Hangzhou. Shuting Qiu showed an eccentric collection made with 70% recycled materials, and inspired by the works of the Swiss artist Miriam Cahn and the Italian artist Viola Lanari, mixing fluo and soft colors, including stripes, prints floral, jacquard, and faux fur applications.

CHB See Video
After the launch of a capsule collection on Instagram last October, Christian Boaro presented his first Manifesto collection during the women’s fashion week. Christian started his fashion career working at Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Ferré, Versace, Msgm, and Ports1961, and then devote himself to his a gender-neutral brand. A sartorial elegance defined the designer’s collection, which is a triumph of the minimal.

DEL CORE See Video
German designer Daniel Del Core, the founder of his homonymous brand, has a background in fashion and visual arts studies, and worked as a vip designer at Gucci, alongside Alessandro Michele. Del Core debuted his first collection, with a physical show at Cittadella degli Archivi del Comune di Milano, with a selected audience. The brand features ready-to-wear garments and couture dresses.

DES PHEMMES See Video
After studying at the Marangoni Institute in Milan and an experience at Giambattista Valli in Paris, the Sicilian-born designer Salvo Rizza founded his brand Des Phemmes in 2019. The brand, that was a finalist for Who is On Next 2020, the talent scouting of Vogue Italia and AltaRoma, pays homage to made in Italy craftsmanship and a timeless aesthetic. Des Phemmes’s collections are characterized by couture details and research of materials.

NERVI See Collection
Italian designer Valentina Nervi, who worked as head of style for several brands, founded the brand Nervi with her husband. She made her debut at Milan fashion week with the first haute couture collection, presenting sketches of her FW 21 creations with an animated video. The brand is inspired by the divas of the 70s and 80s but with a glamorous and contemporary style, together with an attention to detail, fine fabrics and tailoring.

BACON See Video
Founded in 2011 in Milan by Andrea Pilato Barrara, Bacon reinterprets the down jacket in a contemporary design, taking inspiration from underground cultures and the grunge in the Nineties. Its vision focuses on digitization and sustainability. Since 2020, the young brand, thanks to the creative technology of TwinOne, has been creating "digital twins", which are completely virtual but realistic versions of the products of its collections, thus reducing part of the energy waste of the production process.

SARA WONG See Video
Sara Wong is the creative director of her eponymous brand founded in 2011 in Milan. The Chinese designer debuted with Maxrieny at last September's Milan fashion week. On February edition, the Chinese designer launched the FW 21 collection with a new name and a new image. The silhouettes are inspired by the traditional outfits of Mongolian women. Between wide shoulders, rigid structures, deconstructed garments, and bright colors, for a pure femininity.

GONÇALO PEIXOTO See Video
Portuguese designer at the head of his homonymous OPorto based brand created in 2015. Gonçalo Peixoto presented his FW 21 collection in Milan with a short movie, thanks to the support of Portugal fashion, the fashion week in Porto, an international project that aims to enhance made in Portugal. His collection features a series of garments with bright colors, transparencies, and glitter for a hymn to the lost freedom in the time of coronavirus.

ANNAKIKI See Video
For Annakiki Fall-Winter collection, Chinese designer and founder Anna Yang takes inspiration from the American film "Source Code,” where the protagonist lives, and lives again, the last 8 minutes of another person’s life in a parallel space. And just with the feeling of the exploration and thinking of quantum dynamics and unknown parallel spaces, the designer creates an innovative collection with a futuristic touch.

texts by Anna Rita Russo@modemonline