Umit Benan's departure from the house of Trussardi in February of this year left room for Gaia Trussardi to take the helm of her family's house as its new creative director. Though if rumours are to be believed, she's been more than involved for a while and certainly had a clear vision of where she thought the house should be going (on leaving the talented Benan telling tweeted, 'have just completed my internship at Trussardi'). And what a vision it was. While Benan had worked to modernise the house by putting together collections that riffed on the house's travel heritage but offered genuinely covetable, directional pieces, Gaia Trussardi was looking to smack us all in the face with heritage and luxury. Everything - really everything - was made from leather. There was so much of it that the sweating models eventually began to look like walking skins.
Her show notes spoke of 'sophisticated authenticity that avoids fakery' and 'true Italian craftsmanship', but her collection felt unfortunately passé. Her debut cuts to the heart of current changes in the luxury market. Often the reason Milan high fashion can feel a little dry is because it continues to champion obvious luxury, rather than creativity. Unfortunately Gaia Trussardi fell into the trap of trying to make her collection look expensive, rather than trying to make it look good. All in all, with that barrage of leather, you couldn't help but feel hot under the collar, and not in a good way.
