Italian labels bring heritage and glamour to SS27 collections

Elle.com’s runway coverage finds Italian fashion houses looking both backwards and forwards for spring/summer 2027. Across five collections, designers revisited regional identity, historical dress, retail culture and practical dressing, while placing craft and accessories at the centre of their proposals.

Dolce & Gabbana gave its show a distinctly Sicilian character, using exuberance as a guiding principle rather than a restraint. Detailed beadwork and lace connected the collection to traditional making, while the styling treated inherited references as material for individual reinvention.

Antique lace bloomers, silk blouses finished with pussy bows and a knitted skirt covered in large flowers and edged with fringe supplied much of the drama. Denim received similarly lavish treatment. One low-waisted, wide-leg pair combined torn knees with orange beading that recalled coral. Another used an emerald-studded belt fastening and a cluster of oversized brooches. A very wide pleated style, shaped with a barrel leg and front pockets, carried floral appliqué.

The accessories continued the show’s refusal of understatement. Beaded high heels appeared alongside red ankle wellingtons, gold Mary Janes, flat sandals for summer and practical leather boots reaching the knee. Together, the looks made a case for ornament as pleasure, while keeping the house’s attention on workmanship and its relationship with the past.

Ferragamo turns to the working woman

At Ferragamo, Maximilian Davis drew on the clothing associated with women entering professional life, using the 1940s as a starting point while reshaping its formal codes for today. Close-fitting tailoring came in deep, earthy shades. Trench coats expanded towards the hem, and skirts were secured with pairs of belts, giving the silhouettes a controlled, constructed quality.

The collection balanced that discipline with more provocative materials and softer movement. Transparent rubber dresses, python-patterned ties and leather shirts introduced a fetishistic note, while utility details reinforced the emphasis on function and structure. Davis’s draping appeared in sheer, flowering fabrics, looped silk and sequinned evening gowns.

A transparent red dress, cut asymmetrically and gathered by a belt at the waist, provided a vivid expression of Ferragamo’s signature red. The overall result was restrained but richly finished: a polished interpretation of working-woman dress that relied on precision rather than spectacle.

Gucci stages fashion as shopping

Demna presented Gucci’s SS27 collection in a setting designed to suggest a store, offering an early indication of how he imagines the label’s retail environment. Product cases divided the front row, shoes were displayed along the walls and mirrors allowed models to inspect themselves as they moved through the space. The arrangement made the show feel closer to a shopping experience than a conventional runway presentation.

Menswear opened the collection with Harrington jackets, single-colour tailoring and tweed blazers built around broad shoulders. Womenswear then moved Gucci away from the more grungy, rave-influenced direction associated with the previous autumn/winter season and towards a more polished Italian glamour.

The first outfits drew on formal country dressing and equestrian codes: neat jackets were worn over tweed, while white jodhpurs disappeared into riding boots. Later, highly sensual evening dresses suggested a future on red carpets. British references also surfaced through Scottish tartan kilts, bomber jackets and deliberately excessive costume jewellery, while high, backcombed hair and strong eye makeup evoked the New Romantics of the 1980s.

The casting broadened the show’s sense of character. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley appeared in a huge faux-fur coat, alongside Princess Olympia of Greece, Sabine Getty and Poppy Delevingne. Eighty-two-year-old Naty Abascal led the lineup in a trench coat with its collar raised and a monogrammed duffle bag. Her presence, and that of the older women styled as affluent Milanese figures, challenged the runway’s usual concentration on youth.

Bags accompanied every model, from structured totes to softer shapes and updated versions of Gucci’s horse-bit designs. The decision underlined their commercial importance while helping the clothes appear lived-in rather than purely theatrical.

Lightness at Sportmax and Italian ease at Tod’s

Sportmax responded to the extreme heat experienced during the summer in which the collection was developed. Its answer was a wardrobe built around airiness: white chiffon, generous trousers and oversized tailoring formed the core of the proposition. Soft leather added an unexpected weight, especially in a sharply cut brown jacket and collared outerwear.

Transparent or skin-toned shoes and jewellery extended the barely-there approach. Bags supplied the strongest flashes of colour, using bright citrus shades against a palette based on the changing tones of water, from grey through jewel-like hues. The collection still allowed room for intricate ideas, including a print adapted from an old Venetian lace tablecloth and suit lapels created through trompe-l’oeil.

Tod’s placed Italian identity and everyday beauty at the heart of Matteo Tamburini’s collection. Natural colours formed the base, interrupted by saffron, red, orange and sky blue. Layering drove the styling: shirts covered sweaters of different proportions, loose beige and brown trench coats moved around the body, and stacked tank tops created additional volume.

The Bermuda short emerged as the defining alternative to the skirt for next summer. Pressed shorts brought a masculine edge, particularly when combined with a neatly styled biker jacket. Tod’s also extended the dotted sole pattern of its Gommino loafer beyond footwear, applying it as perforation and decoration across leather jackets, bags and shoes.