Daniel Lee is one of the main offspring of the Nineties to head a significant extravagance house and his liking for the decade portrayed by all dark and moderate coarseness punctuated by the corrosive glimmer of rave culture, was on full presentation on the runway, which enunciated a route forward for style that was not moderation, maximalism or road, yet a gathering of every one of the three (sans logos, obviously).
Behind the stage, he recognized the Nineties “are inserted” in him, however, said it was Bottega Veneta‘s trailblazing purse history that was his beginning stage — explicitly, how the brand made its name breaking with Sixties organized sacks and bringing non-abrasiveness and erotic nature into the class with cowhide weave intrecciato.
He still worked his now-familiar tough, elongated silhouette on men’s and women’s tailoring, but instead of using leather, used black stretch fabric on long-line coats cinched with leather straps in the back, and flared pants slit over square-toed luxe versions of Fryes.
A boxy, cropped zip-front jacket over high-waisted flared pants for men was fresh. And flashes of acid green and hot pink (as on the extended collar and cuffs peeking out from Kaia Gerber’s black suit), mussed things up with a hint of up-all-night subversion.
On the sportswear side, a covetable women’s trench with volume in the sleeves, and for men, an intrecciato puffer vest were strong commercial propositions, but waxed Barbour coats seemed like a bit of a tangent.
Bridging “super-formal and the street” was a goal, Lee said, so there were elements of decoration throughout, from the one-off gilded button that lent specialness to a black double-breasted flared coat, to the long-sleeve, liquid beige sequin glamour gown, to the coolest embellished designer jeans to come down the runway since Gucci in the actual Nineties — high-waisted, flared legs, coated in muted tones, and worn with a cape-sleeve button down.
Of course, there were miles and miles of fringe (is it something in the water in Milan?). Hot pink knit fringe was swinging from a dress under an elongated cardigan, and swaying from a butta’ yellow shearling statement coat. Allover fringe knit pants may have gone a strand too far, but a supersize yellow shearling clutch with fringe mane looked like a prime cuddle buddy.
Speaking of softness, Lee is working at developing knitwear into a house signature. Black ribbed-knit flared pants and a pleated short-sleeve top was no-brainer comfort wear, and a black sweater dress and cardigan cleverly worked the chunky gold chain detailing from the brand’s jewellery and handbag offerings into the scoop neckline and cuffs.
Accessories included an Haute Croc-like shoe (they just will not go away!), a twisted weave envelope clutch, and a supersize woven tote in keeping with fall’s more-is-more bag trend.
Where Lee had been a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights during the postshow scrum the past couple of seasons, this time he was prepared, ably stopping mid-sentence to greet his Boss, Kering chairman and chief executive officer François-Henri Pinault, and the actress Sigourney Weaver, who it should be said, was swooning over what she’d seen.