The Welcome Return Of The '90s Supermodels At Milan Fashion Week

We all know something funny happens when designers are preparing for fashion shows. No matter how many interviews they have given in the preceding months about their passion for dressing “real women” and the unparalleled joy it brings, seeing their clothes being worn by “empowered” females, come show time they inevitably revert to type. Led by teams of casting directors, they’re charmed by the lithe bodies and baby faces of lissom 17-year-olds.

How refreshing, then, that this season there are wrinkles on the runway. We’re talking delicate walnut lines on skin, as well as hips, thighs and proper breasts. In particular there is a vogue for the supermodels of the Nineties, the first-name-only faces that defined an era and made fashion feel like fabulous fun.

Versace, a supermodel factory as always, led the charge. Mariacarla Boscono, freshly strawberry after a turn on the Burberry catwalk last week, took to the catwalk with Liya Kebede, while Shalom Harlow closed the show in a halo of curls. At Salvatore Ferragamo, it was a similarly mature line-up, with Stella Tennant, Georgina Grenville, Karen Elson, Mariacarla Boscono, Carolyn Murphy, and Didier Vinson (this was co-ed, don’t forget) ensuring a sophisticated mood. Dolce & Gabbana, signalling a return to its classic roster of look-at-me tailoring, bombshell body-conscious dresses and tongue-in-cheek ball gowns, enlisted Carla Bruni and Eva Herzigova alongside other vintage headliners such as Isabella Rossellini and Monica Bellucci, to drive home the message: older, wiser, sexier.

Marni boasted Guinevere Van Seenus. Creative director Francesco Risso said backstage that he and Midland Casting chose the 41-year-old because “her energy perfectly reflects the soul of this collection that celebrates the beauty of bodies, and the intimacy in the connection that we should regain with our own bodies.” At Agnona, Simon Holloway tapped Tasha Tilberg and Amber Valletta. "When I started working in the 1990s, models like Amber and Tasha were a prominent force on the runway. I idolised them, I think we all did," he told Vogue. "These women have lived and loved and look all the better for it. This isn’t about some notion of nostalgia for me; it’s about portraying real women as part of a modern narrative. Of course they are still exceptionally beautiful models, but there is substance and gravitas there that renders clothing of value that much more believable.”

It’s worth pointing out that New York was similarly senior. Ralph Lauren took the opportunity of his 50th anniversary to welcome back Carolyn Murphy, Liisa Winkler and Caroline Winberg to the catwalk. For Riccardo Tisci’s Burberry debut in London, he enlisted Boscono and dyed her hair red. Elsewhere, credit must go to Versace, whose spring/summer 2017 collection was rounded off with a reunion of Gianni’s girls, Carla, Claudia, Naomi, Cindy and Helena, and to Dries Van Noten, who spent the majority of his autumn/winter 2017 show budget - his 100th fashion show - flying in a coterie of women synonymous with his seminal presentations. Casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro called up Kristina de Coninck, who had walked in Van Noten’s first show, to open; she was joined by Alek Wek, Guinevere Van Seenus, Esther de Jong and Tasha Tilberg.

Will Paris uphold the maturity? Guinevere Van Seenus, backstage at Marni, said she wasn’t sure whether she’d be heading to Paris or back home to New York: “I’m here for the ride. I could go home tomorrow, but who knows? Story of my life. Story of everyone’s life.”