The Milan Spring/Summer ‘09 Fashion Week had famous names in fashion getting their share of the limelight. SURAYA AL-ATTAS spotted a few.

Talley walking to his seat at the Marni show.

IN the absence of A-list celebrities in the front rows, photographers at the Milan Spring/Summer 09 Fashion Week naturally went for the next best thing — world-renowned and revered fashion editors and style icons, who are celebrities in their own right.

Leading the pack was none other than US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who was spotted in the front rows of the Etro and Marni shows.

The formidable editor — said to have been the “inspiration” behind former Vogue intern Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel, The Devil Wears Prada, which was turned into a film and which saw award-winning actress Meryl Streep giving a delicious portrayal of the “The Devil” herself was mostly seen in (you guessed it) — Prada.

If her critics are to be believed, Wintour can send chills down one’s spine with just an icy look, though, observing her at the shows, it’s hard to imagine that someone so petite can invoke such fear.
Well, whether or not Miranda Priestly is a thinly-veiled reference to Wintour, it no doubt made her even more famous than she already is.

At the Marni show, Wintour wore what suspiciously looked like an Astrakhan (the extremely rare and incredibly expensive fur of young lambs) coat. But then, being an unabashed fur lover, would you expect anything less from Ms Wintour?

While most people during the fashion week were busy flaunting the latest IT-bags, the first thing one noticed about Wintour was that she didn’t carry any.

The other thing was if she came for a fashion show without wearing her trademark oversized sunglasses, you can bet that by the time the show started, she’d have them on. Yeah, go figure!

And where there was Anna Wintour, there was no doubt that her sidekick, Andre Leon Talley, wouldn’t be far behind.

Unlike the petite Wintour, it wasn’t difficult to spot the flamboyant editor-at-large of Vogue who, at 2m-tall, towered above just about everyone else at the shows. And, unlike Wintour, Talley didn’t seem to mind too much about being photographed prior to the shows.

Then there was the delightful Anna Piaggi, Italian Vogue editor, style icon and muse to influential designers including Dolce & Gabbana.

With her unmistakable eclectic style — that hat perched on her head, walking cane in hand (more a fashion statement than a necessity), blue hair, and bright pink circles of rouge high on her cheeks and red, red lips — it was all one could do not to stare at the riot of colours that is Anna Piaggi.

Dressed in a knee-length Pucci jacket at the Emilio Pucci show, Piaggi — according to an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London — has a collection of close to 3,000 dresses and has never appeared in the same outfit more than once in public. Believed to be in her late 70s, Piaggi’s personal style was a truly lovely break from the mostly sombre colours that dominated the Fashion Week.

You couldn’t find two people with so much in common yet so starkly different than Piaggi and Wintour.

While Wintour would float in and out of a fashion show with a mini-entourage, Piaggi — who apparently has been using the same red manual Olivetti typewriter for her work since 1969 — had no qualms about strolling down a street, like she did after the Pucci show, and even stopping occasionally to chat with friends. Oh yes, and even pose for a photo with yours truly.