Nakashima's zip it up, zip it down creations open Milan Fashion Week

Japanese designer Atsushi Nakashima showcased a casual collection for men and women featuring zippers which allow the wearer to create their own stylings at the opening of Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday.

Panelled coats, tops, skirts, capes in earthy greens merged with bright yellow, cobalt blue and fuchsia ones.

“Zippers are the main inspiration, you can take off one piece and put another one, so that you can make your own clothes,” said the designer, the former creative head of French fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier

Nakashima, who launched his own brand in 2011, said he wanted the concept of putting clothes together to extend to people.

“I would like the world to connect, be together, understand each other and have more communication,” he told reporters after the show.

Gucci, French luxury giant Kering’s biggest brand, showed off its eclectic collection in the group’s headquarters to a backdrop of giant replicas of statues of myths and gods from Ancient Egypt and Greece, with arches over the catwalk.

Models wore glittery pieces, fur coats, long ruffled skirts, adorned with bum bags, purses, glasses, hats and bonnets and jewellery, in a splash of textures and colours.

“Creation is a poetic act, an eruptive process, an explosion in which vital strengths are finally released,” a style note said.

The verve of Alessandro Michele, director since January 2015, has been key to the brand’s revival, based on a bold aesthetic which has quickly gained great popularity, particularly among younger customers.

Its strong identity and a geeky-yet-chic look has led to growth, up 48.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

“Alessandro has the capacity of evolving though maintaining a clear line in his designs, he doesn’t change his aesthetics and remains coherent,” Gucci Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri told Reuters at the end of the show.

Designers and luxury brands, including Prada, Armani, Cavalli, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, will showcase a total of almost 160 collections, for spring and summer 2018 during the six-day extravaganza.

Revenues for Italy’s fashion industry are expected to rise 3 per cent this year to 86 billion euros, data from the Italian national fashion association, CNMI, showed.

“Italy continues to perform well, even outside the country, through strong exports,” chairman Carlo Capasa said.

Italy is the largest single producer of fashion -– comprising textiles, clothing and accessories -- with 41 percent of Europe’s total production, Capasa said.