One of the perks of Milan’s light schedule this season was the opportunity for small and medium-sized brands to have a chance to compete with established names and get extra attention from press and buyers. Not that one like Luca Magliano needed it, since his label has been gaining heat for several seasons, but this time the gap between his brand and more widely known names on the calendar felt narrower than ever.
The languid fall 2025 collection he paraded on Sunday looked like a turning point for the Bologna-based designer. His vision is getting sharper, his clothes and the quality behind them more refined. The better news is that not an iota of that authentic, poetic touch he naturally instills in his shows was lost in this maturing process.
True to his intimate and personal approach, Magliano again offered a narrative far from Italian postcard-like clichés, recreating the atmosphere of a night on his familiar Adriatic coast during winter – sandy catwalk, haze and dim lights included.
“It’s an industrial place, a place of work, contented between the manmade and the languid. It’s also common, simple and accessible, but in winter becomes unordinary,” he said backstage. “This is not about escapism or something exotic. It’s about looking for something true, somehow violent. For a shock.”
Stylewise, what Magliano found in the process was “something not minimal, but ‘minimum.’ Reduced. Stripped down. That was only about the touch.”
He subverted the weights of fabrics, opting for textures like jersey, ribbed cotton and crepe de chine for his loose tailoring and padded outerwear. His focus was on channeling a new tactile feel by making “something that should be over your skin the first layer of your wardrobe.”
Transparent mohair pants added to his way of embracing nudity, but there were other subtle tweaks that deceived the eyes. These ranged from turning upside-down a romantic dress with a belted hem to having trompe l’oeil whiskers and lived-in effects on corduroy pants.
The melancholic and nostalgic mood of his humble clothes was reinforced by occasional references to childhood memories, from prints and teddy bear motifs popping on a scarf to quirky accessories such as earrings and necklaces that nodded to dental retainers.
