April 4, 2026
Caterina Guarna
Maranza and Moguls: Who Does Milan Fashion Week Belong to?
From models walking the Gucci show sporting maranza staples, to tech billionaires sitting front row, Milan Fashion Week keeps on feeling more divided every season.
Milan Fashion Week has just been and gone; people from all over the globe flocked to the fashion capital amidst the busy Autumn/Winter 26 season between the 24th of February and the 2nd of March, and they have now dispersed back across the globe.
MFW has evolved to be quite a dichotomous display of fashion. To notice the difference in its currents, it’s enough to put a Dsquared2 snowy slope against a sleek Giorgio Armani runway, or a Diesel “egg hunt” (as seen in S/S 26) next to a Loro Piana presentation. Street-styles and urban inspirations battle it out with classic and traditional designs. So, what where the emblems of these two forces this season? And what can we make of them?
The most anticipated collection of the season was Demna’s runways debut with Gucci, a quintessential Milanese fashion house. With his “La Famiglia” S/S 26 collection, captured by Catherine Opie in a series of archetypal portraits of Milanese characters, the Georgian designer made it clear that the city and its inhabitants were going to be central to his designs – and so it is for his A/W 26 collection, named “Primavera.”
A standout character of Primavera is the maranza – a cultural phenomenon, an urban aesthetic that has now become its own subculture and is creeping its way into high fashion. Demna proudly embraces Gucci’s involvement in it. Rapper Fakemink was strutting down the runway in the maranza essential; a Gucci bum bag, close to the chest. Of the same colour and make were his boxers, peeking from sagging leather trousers. This is not the first time high fashion (especially Demna’s) is inspired by the streets and realities of people who aren’t necessarily high fashion’s core costumer, and it won’t be the last.
Demna’s Gucci has so far been entirely made of the social fabric of Milan, yet, though the archetype of maranza might be a fun fashion escamotage, can they in any way be active protagonists of Italian fashion?
“Allegiance” to higher bidders felt clear the moment Mark Zuckerberg arrived fashionably late at Fondazione Prada in search for his front row seat, alongside his wife Priscilla Chan – both dressed in Prada head to toe. It was the first time the tech mogul attended a show at any of the fashion weeks, but not the first time a multi-billionaire attempted to grasp some good ol’ fashion clout.
Famously, and according to many ungracefully, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez made many appearances at Haute Couture Week in Paris, this late January. Not only that but the couple has been announced as the sponsors of this year’s Met Gala and was rumoured to be in talks to buy Condé Nast, the conglomerate behind, just to name a few, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and GQ.
Zuckerberg simply followed suit; realising the amount of cultural capital, influence and business expansion opportunities that sitting front row at Milan Fashion Week could bring. In fact, his appearance at Prada’s show comes after reports of Meta collaborating with the fashion house on AI glasses.
The participation of Prada in all of this is particularly disheartening, as Miuccia Prada has always been sure to promote her values through her collections. A member of the Communist Party and a feminist activist in the 70s in Italy, Prada’s homonymous fashion house always designs in reaction to the world happening around it.
With the luxury market in growing struggle and a widening wealth gap (accompanied by rising price tags), every year the question of “Who is fashion for?” becomes more and more pressing. And who does Milan Fashion Week belong to? Because on the runway we see collections inspired by ordinary people, subcultures and everyday struggles, yet it is clear that the business of fashion cannot, or will not try to, survive on ideologies.
In a time where access has been democratised through social media, fashion houses want everyone to perk their ears and give them all of the attention our TikTok-ridden brains pertain. Still, attentions fleets in the face of an unaffordable product that even a few months of saving couldn’t buy. In Milan we can clearly see this; with shows like Demna’s Gucci and Dsquared2, that push a youth-forward narrative, cohabiting the city with many other shows that in turn design to get themselves far from the streets and all the way to the penthouses overlooking the Duomo.