Zipped black leather from Versace

. Photo: AFP

The Milan fashion season has gone off on a happy trip. At Prada the audience was greeted with flight maps superimposed on blow-ups of Venice. Showing 1950s style full-skirted dresses and hand-made-esque prints on luxurious fabrics, Miuccia Prada caught the real mood of the season with a quirky and disquieting show.

Burberry showed a subtle collection with ticking stripes or faint checks so lightly marked that the loose skirts, wrapped at the hips, and the baggy pants were barely traced with the graphic patterns. Even the big flat striped bags were in the same light, crumpled cotton.

There were high hopes at Cerruti that David Cardona, the Los Angeles-based designer who is best buddy of Janet Jackson, would sprinkle some of that Hollywood stardust on his first Milan show for the Italian brand. But the only outfits with the Oscar spirit were the grandiose black and white gowns at the show's finale.

Color was the message at Bottega Veneta where the designer Tomas Maier had left behind his familiar dark, chocolate box shades for the Adriatic seashore to produce an exceptional and well-thought-out collection. Gucci, who is still trying to get out of its slow sales doldrums, returned to the elegance it is known for and the mix of the romantic with contemporary glamour scored well over the in-your-face-sexiness from past seasons.