As we march towards the end of the international S/S 13 Ready-to-wear shows, we thought we’d pick out a few highlights from Milan, the ever slick and chic capital of Italian fashion.

Prada S/S 13

Miuccia follows her

own curve, and fashion seems to duly chase after it. For S/S fashion’s haute feminist looked East, taking inspiration from Geisha girls, those archaic and uneasy figures of woman-hood. But there was nothing constricting about Prada’s take on the silk kimono, that was deconstructed with a street-style feel and a boyish twist. Single-flower motifs had the graphic feel of the Nineties, a decade that keeps urging a revival. Beauty-wise, it marked the return of the messy crop, that was perfectly punctuated with a slick of red, for that modern vamp look.

Jil Sander S/S 13

Now the designer herself is back at the helm, there’s an extra sense of excitement to see where the label that created modern wearable minimalism a global trend. Where in past seasons Raf Simons created the Jil Sander silhouette in acid array of colour, this collection was muted with just the odd mellow orange and pillar box red placed among the russets, greys and space age white. There were few suprises in the shape of the cut, which was uniformly loosely tailored and kept plain and unpatterned but for some jazzy appliqued discs, but it was undoubtably the Sander that we know and lust after.

Giorgio Armani S/S 13

For Spring Armani sent his elegant socialite into orbit. Starting with elegant loose tailoring, this was a collection of slick greys and dark blues that had an opulent mannish sportiness reminiscent of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby. As ever, Armani’s strengths lay in his evening wear, which can always be relied upong for some super luxe trousers. But it was his star gazing mesh cage and trippy trouser suit that blew our minds.