Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2023: top print trends

Milanese designers delivered several strong print and pattern trends for SS23. Stripes of every kind were shown, and as seen in New York, the bolder the better. The second strong trend was a rather kitsch take on conversation prints. It could be said that Milan Fashion Week is synonymous with animal prints. This time around, several designers featured zebra prints and even depictions of actual zebras, as part of their designs.

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For look 15 of her SS23 collection, Daniela Gregis showed a voluminous black and white striped voile dress cinched with a crochet belt.

At Ports 1961, Karl Templer used classic menswear as an inspiration. Included in a section of outfits in graphic prints, look 26 consisted of a silk shirt and pants in a medley of stripes, rendered in both navy and white and black and white. At Vivetta, the designer showed an eye-catching pants suit in a bold blue and white stripe.

Among several styles rendered in bold stripes at Anteprima, was look 27, a tank dress with a side split over shorts, all rendered in variegated navy, white, black, silver and beige stripes

Kitsch conversations

Fausto Puglisi’s third collection for Roberto Cavalli was an ‘ode to old Hollywood’ and included some maximalist prints made popular in the period between the two world wars. Look 28 included a tunic and stockings both in a palm tree pattern under an evening coat that mixed the palm trees with a leopard print.

Among the ‘rockstar’ styles at Philipp Plein was a series of looks rendered in a hearts and roses print reminiscent of ‘fifties tattoos. For look 51, Plein showed a skater style dress in red, pink and green on a white background.

Marco Rambaldi’s collection included several bold conversation prints. Look 13 included a halter top, split side mini skirt and hose, all rendered in a multi-colored ‘beach’ print.

At Moschino, Jeremy Scott quite literally played on the word ‘inflation,’ peppering his collection with swimming pool inflatables. Look 55 on America Gonzalez included a dress in a loud cartoon print and clashing large bow trimmed at the neck and hem with inflatables.

Zebra crossings

At Versace, look 21 was composed of a long, fitted tunic in a red and burgundy zebra print over heavily embellished pants.

When it comes to bold print mixing, Stella Jean is no novice. For SS23 some of her garments had actual pictures of zebras and others were zebra patterns mixed with other prints. Look 2 had both; a boxy short sleeve jacket had a placed jungle print. This was shown over a bra and a mid-length skirt. The skirt had an orange crochet grid over ticking stripes and a complicated zebra print in black and white with raffia trim.

At Missoni, Filippo Grazioli rendered several of the house’s signature knits in monochromatic mixes of zebra prints.

Finally, at Gucci, a show stopping duo of maxi dresses in a sparkling orange and grey zebra pattern was shown on twins, Jake and Josie Dupont.