Alberta Ferretti's soft-toned urban explorers open Milan Fashion Week

The curtain went up on Milan’s fashion week on Wednesday with a soft-toned and feminine collection designed by Italy’s Alberta Ferretti with urban safari-inspired looks.

For the next six days the Italian capital of fashion will host more than 140 catwalks and presentations for the spring-summer 2019 collections, attracting buyers, designers, influencers and fashion addicts.

Milan is the third leg of the month-long catwalk seasons that started in New York, moved to London and wraps up in Paris.

Ferretti temporarily moved away from her signature flowing and delicate long designs, adventuring toward looks for an innocent and fresh-looking woman, caught between adventure and travel.

An explorer wearing wide trousers under cardigans tied to the waist, Ferretti’s 1970s-inspired safari rangers also strutted in flared leggings matched with field jackets or short skirts paired with cropped jackets with pockets.

To the rhythm of French and Italian music from the decade, some models carried loose woven straw backpacks with leather details and wore flat sandals.

But Ferretti returned to her traditional looks with ruched tops, pink overalls with knitted brassieres and short dresses in broderie anglaise.

For the evening, Ferretti’s girls were more mischievous, with even shorter black dresses, see-through pleated tops and above-the-knee A-line skirts as well as skin-tight sheer dresses.

Ferretti, one of brands of the Aeffe group which also includes Moschino, in June unveiled sleek new uniforms for the airline Alitalia.

Clothes, bags and accessories make up 4 percent of Italy’s economy, and 10 percent of the world’s luxury goods, according to a study by Mediobanca’s research department.

The country’s fashion chamber CNMI estimates that this year sales in Italian fashion and linked industries - such as jewelry, cosmetics and eyewear - will grow 2.8 percent, in line with 2017, to just under 90 billion euros.

Later on Monday, Italian luxury outerwear group Moncler was due to unveil another collection of its so-called “Genius” project, whereby monthly product launches replace the traditional biannual catwalk shows.

Milan’s fashion week runs until Monday Sept. 24, with catwalk shows from fashion houses including Giorgio Armani, Prada, Fendi, Versace, Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana.