How Milan Fashion Week swapped sexed-up style and sky-high stilettos for practical power dressing

"Gianni, you always knew how powerful women are. You helped women reclaim their own voice. Thank you.”

The words of Donatella Versace, spoken by an actress, bellowed across the catwalk during Friday night’s epic show, which was a tribute to her brother to mark 20 years since his tragic death.

The show ended with a triumphant finale featuring the original supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Helena Christensen, along with Versace herself and the former French first lady Carla Bruni, striding along to George Michael’s Freedom and the deafening cheers of the top fashion editors in the world.

Seeing those six women, who are literally old enough to be the rest of the models’ mothers (Cindy’s daughter Kaia Gerber actually walked in the show) and who looked incredible, as well as owning the catwalk in a way the younger models aren’t yet capable of, felt like a sea change in the way women are represented in Italy’s fashion capital.

There was a palpable feeling of female empowerment in the room that night, and one that echoed the mood across the whole of Milan Fashion Week.

Once the home of the kind of sexed-up über glamour that tends to come very much from a male designer’s perspective - think super-high heels, short skirt hems and lashings of sequins - this fashion week the vibe was one of women in control, and of women with a slightly more relaxed outlook on how to dress for success. Most obviously, this new spirit manifested itself in the form of trousers of every shape, shade and style imaginable.

Women who like to party comfortably were well represented, with satin disco pants at Gucci, bright retro designs teamed with fluffy pool slides at Marco de Vincenzo, and shimmering lame at Alberta Ferretti.

The latter’s soundtrack fittingly featured a string of songs by strong female vocalists, including Grace Jones’s Slave To The Rhythm (we recommend humming this tune while looking at the pictures on this page).

Tod’s went big on the ultimate in relaxed luxe with its shiny leather pyjama suits while shorts were smart and tailored at Fendi, embellished with crystals at Prada, and came in butter-soft leather at Bottega Veneta and Sportmax.

Miuccia Prada brought her A-game with a collection that she was reluctant to admit was inspired directly by menswear but that didn’t feel feminine in the traditional sense. “You could say masculine but I don’t want to,” she said after the show when asked about the Crombie-style coats, sharp shirting and winklepickers on display.

“I wanted to show that you can be feminine and strong and clever”.

This manifested in smock dresses styled over tailored trousers, and skirts teamed with knee-high football socks.

The show also enlisted the talents of a collection of female cartoonists who created the comic-strip women that were emblazoned across the walls at the show, and included speech bubbles such as “What’ll I wear? I don’t wanna look too femme but I don’t wanna look too butch”.

Notably, Roberto Cavalli, whose sexy clothing is usually styled with vertiginous strappy platforms, showed nearly every look, including loose, billowing palazzo pants and lots of out-of-character tailoring - with flats.

The only heels were actually disguised as low, concealed wedges, and marked a change in direction for the label, now headed up by the designer Paul Surridge, who studied at Central Saint Martins.

At Max Mara, a series of chic outfits aimed at the independent working woman was showcased, be that one who enjoys wearing transparent lilac overalls to the office or one whose workwear is more geared towards the classic black trouser suit.

And of course, the power suit - complete with killer shoulder pads - reigned supreme at Versace, where prints from the house’s archive between 1991-1995 were reimagined on jackets and pants with a less restrictive, more modern fit than theoriginal guises. Because if there’s one thing every woman wants, it’s freedom, and she can’t achieve that in uncomfortable trousers.