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M ilan men’s fashion week is where all the big Italian names converge. It’s where Prada dictates what trouser shape everyone will one day be wearing and where Gucci drops the next it-bag. But as the shows got under way at the weekend an unexpected new trend was emerging: the great fashion Brexit .

Just four months after making his debut as creative director of Dunhill at London fashion week, Simon Holloway instead chose the Italian capital for the brand’s spring/summer ’25 show. On Sunday he aimed to recreate “the sense of a beautiful spring day in England” by showing in a garden in Milan. Martine Rose, the cult London designer whose clothing riffs on traditional codes of masculinity such as football and club culture, and is loved by celebrities including Kendrick Lamar, has also defected this time.



Showing directly after Prada on Sunday, Rose took a prime spot on the schedule, which has more than 80 events and runs until 18 June. David Koma has been showing womenswear in London since 2009 – his glamorous designs have been worn by Rihanna and Beyoncé – but for his menswear debut he decamped to Milan, while this month Paul Smith headed to Florence as a guest designer at Pitti Uomo. Gianluca Borghi, chief executive of 10 Corso Como, a luxury concept store in Milan, says the Italian city’s fashion week is gaining more power.

Borghi says different fashion cities dominate at different times, but “Milan offers a rather peculiar and almost unique scenario, than.

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