VERSACE

Paul Simon found only 50 ways to leave your lover. Donatella Versace knows hundreds of ways to reprise a dress. Along with some fabulous full-skirted, belted coats, her dresses were the mainstay of this collection. They appeared in liquid silks that skimmed rather than second-skinned the body, or in baby blue and steel grey draped jersey, looped through mirrored metal belts. These, in their glossy, high-shine way, are low-maintenance fashion. Just add an amazing body and you're good to go.

The same could be said of those amazingly cut skinny black silk trousers that stretched endlessly north. If you've got the booty, this is as fine a place as any to get the showcase, although even at Versace bare skin is rationed these days, with discreet glimpses of bare back providing the main action.

Versace has come a long way since the days when her wares had an unhappy knack of looking cheap: the cutting and manufacture of these clothes is top-grade. Compact, starbust-coloured snakeskin handbags and neon-blue belted mink coats (fur is unavoidable this season in Milan) rammed home the point.

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BACKGROUND

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She is one of the few designers still courting celebrities with red-carpet goddess dresses this week - most other houses seem to have lost interest. Even Versace's seemed a bit perfunctory, with lots of déjà vu moments. This was really about daywear (or what passes for it in glamazon circles) and those sexily bared backs. Leave your lover in these, memorable parting shot guaranteed. LA

MOSCHINO

Something is up when the designers at Moschino dispense with their beloved visual puns and start talking about versatility. Instead of T-shirts with rhinestone CND motifs we got chic navy jackets and double-breasted coats with detachable layers of black organza - night and day for the price of one.

Not that next winter's collection has lost its sense of lightheartedness.

Knowing what makes a dress a party piece is buried deep within Moschino's identity. This season the party pieces are escorted by 3-D effect rose prints, flounced hems and corsages the size of small dinner plates.

It is easy to forget, with the number of gimmicks on the catwalk, that Moschino can do a classic Audrey dress, a Grace Kelly full skirt or - if push comes to shove - a Lindsay Lohan pair of black drainpipes. They are all there this winter, minus major gimmicks and with seasonal updates: sometimes the LBD is a little red dress instead, with a side-serving of ruffles running vertically down its seams; occasionally the full skirts are in houndstooth and the cropped jackets have crystals scatted across the collarbones (yes, it's another Balmain moment, but without the peculiarly jutting shoulder pads).

If frivolity is part of this label's biological blueprint, then so is a genius for impeccable manufacturing and clothes that are classically pretty and surprisingly easy to wear - a talent that the recession is throwing into sharp relief. LA

MAXMARA

Some Italian brands, like some Italian women, don't recognise the strength and beauty that can come with age, and turn to all sorts of undignified tricks on the catwalk to prove that they still have what it takes. Generally the results are enough to make you blush.

MaxMara is almost 60 years old. It is very good at making desirable, luxurious coats that are classic and fashionable at the same time. It can turn out a decent suit, too. It doesn't really need to do more. But oh, how it has tried. Still, if there is a unifying retort to the financial mood in Milan, it is that most of the brands here are stripping away gimmicks and returning to basics.

In MaxMara's case, basic means the perfect belted camel trench coat. There were leather or knitted versions, too, some of them in grey. There were also strapless, corseted dresses (a big trend next winter); trouser and knee-length skirt suits, and lots of rolled-up sleeves, some pushed above the elbows to give a stylish half-sleeved effect.

Polonecks, flannel and long sheepskin gilets layered over the thicker coats suggested that this collection was aiming for the colder parts of China, or possibly Kazakhstan -are they still spending there? Irritating styling tricks such as trailing silk skirts worn underneath the knee-length tweed were kept to a minimum.

It may not set the fashionistas on fire but, for now, it was just the ticket. LA

MISSONI

As recession tactics go, piling ten items into one catwalk exit may have seemed a thrifty way of touting one's wares but it also had the unfortunate effect of mummifying the models. Even if they had been swaddled in layers of Loro Piana's vicuña, as opposed to Missoni's alpaca and mohair, they would still have sweltered. It didn't help that the second half of the collection was shown in rather saccharine shades of peach, beige and cream, resulting in clothes that looked like one Barbapapa blob. Still, while this wasn't Missoni's boldest show, the tried and tested Seventies formula - there's no better way to show off great knitwear in the label's signature zigzags or stripes - worked on a commercial level.

It wasn't always easy to discern the mannish tweed overcoats, the ribbed teal wraparound cardigans or even the bronzed Lurex knits, but here lay some of the most practical components of a winter wardrobe. The prints were a Japanese floral affair which added a visual interest to the textural juxtaposition of cobweb-fine silk knits, metallics and heavier herringbone tweeds. The jury is still out on those snoods, though, partly because they obscured the models' faces. CA

ALBERTA FERRETTI

When the chips are down, don't underestimate loud splashes of raspberry, teal and burnt orange, nor load-it-on embellishment on your epaulettes - or so Ferretti appeared to be saying in a collection that was heavy on daywear options and lacking in goddess gowns. As she said post-show: “Women want wearable dresses for everyday occasions.”

In Milan, though, dressing down means settling for fox fur on your collar rather than wearing a trailing mink, or forgoing the 5in diamanté strappy heels before the cocktail hour. No one wants to look too doom'n'gloom.

Ferretti's trick was to spice up daywear with arresting jolts of aubergine and crimson. Conversely, eveningwear was toned down a notch. Opulence appeared not only in the studded neckplates or funnel necks on jersey tops but in the crunchy fabrics of silver and gold metallics. This was a collection that leant towards mix'n'match separates rather than the statement one-piece. The floaty, looser chiffon tops didn't always work with the shorter, A-line skirts, but there was a more practical element to the clothes, which managed to look high-fashion yet still highly decorative. CA

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