Italians and fashion go way back – just look at the wealth of historical houses who rose to prominence there, and the fact that nearly everyone on the street just looks chic. Loro Piana is a brand who knows this all too well. The brand combines an appreciation for how garments interact with the elements with its deeply Italian roots, which the house describes as an “appreciation of landscapes and an exploration of crafts, and a taste for multisensorial beauty that is embedded in the way things are made, and the materials they are made of”.

In other words, it gives Italian lux – which was on full display at their presentation this week in Milan. Forgoing a traditional runway show, Loro Piana gave attendees a more streamlined experience to explore its new collection for SS23: presenting at the cream-carpeted delights of Casa Cipriani in the city.

THE PRESENTATION

After ascending to the presentation space (via a lift with a sofa in, as per), guests were greeted by an immaculately dressed barman, at an immaculately dressed bar. From there, you were free to explore the collection which was on show around the space. Set against a backdrop of artistically conceptualised Italian postcards (depicting everywhere from Sicily to Tuscany by Emiliano Ponzi, Karolis Strautniekas, Antonietta Marrocchella and David Doran), the collection itself was spaced out on LP-specific mannequins and plinths.

THE COLLECTION

Here, we saw LP mixing the fluid and feminine with the pragmatic and masculine, as well as balancing the “active and outdoorsy” with a more style-based approach to dressing. There was an option for everyone: from embroidered dresses to tailored suits, cashmere cardis to iconic LP bomber jackets. It was within this variation that the brand’s core ethos of dressing for the elements was revealed – meant to be worn as soon as the collection drops, and able to transition from breezier nights to sun-drenched days on the Amalfi. Or so we can dream.

THE EXPERIENCES

However, the brand didn’t stop at a traditional presentation for fashion week. Across the city, Loro Piana put up various interactive and immersive check-in points for the fashion crowd (and anyone else who fancied) to stop by. The first of which was all about the hydrangeas.

Taking over a shop-window space as well as the flower stands which usually sit between between via Manzoni and via Montenapoleone in Milan, Loro Piana opened up the flower stall of dreams, where floral artist Mary Lennox created live hydrangea bouquets and gifted them to passers-by.

A few minutes down the street saw a LP newsstand become a mini post office, where guests could send the postcards that had formed the backdrop of the collection presentation space and which inspired the collection’s design. Blending visceral with conceptual, experience with visual, Loro Piana proved it still has a firm grasp over Milan and its fashionable tendencies – and that luxury never goes out of style.

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