GX Fashion Week excellence in fashion in the heart of the most exclusive Milan

An international runway in the heart of Milan, suspended between haute couture, new creative visions and the timeless magnificence of Palazzo dei Giureconsulti.

There are cities that tell their story through their shop windows, and cities that do so through their stones. Milan belongs to this second, exceptionally rare category. Along the stretch separating Piazza Duomo from Piazza dei Mercanti, one can breathe an ancestral elegance, made of marble polished by time, porticoes that have witnessed centuries of power, and a light that in Milan has always possessed something theatrical, almost hieratic. It is here, within this treasure chest of beauty accumulated over the centuries, that fashion once again encounters its noblest origins. 

The GX Fashion Week once again chooses to move beyond the conventions of an anonymous runway, embracing instead the incomparable fascination of history. The beating heart of this new season is Palazzo dei Giureconsulti, in Piazza dei Mercanti, one of the most magnificent and historically significant buildings in all of Milan. Commissioned from 1562 according to a design by Vincenzo Seregni, the palace became the home of the Collegio dei Giureconsulti, a temple of legal knowledge, the distinguished centre of the city’s financial life, and a silent witness to every golden age Milan has ever experienced. It housed the Stock Exchange in the nineteenth century, has been associated with the Chamber of Commerce since 1911, and today opens its frescoed halls to a new, dazzling chapter. It is within this setting of rare beauty and character that Gentiana Dervishi once again brings her vision of international fashion to life, sophisticated, highly personal and never predictable. Not simply another fashion show, but a ritual, a sensory encounter between contemporary elegance and the magnificence of a setting that seems almost conceived to preserve beauty. Every detail, from the choice of venue to the dramatic construction of the narrative, speaks of authentic luxury, the kind that requires no ostentation because it is carved into the stone, the light and history itself. 

The GX Fashion Week thus returns to Milan’s most precious salon, surrounded by the echoes of a glorious past and the radiance of a fashion world that looks boldly towards the future. A new chapter in a project that, season after season, does not simply seek a showcase, but a stage worthy of its ambition, international, timeless and irresistibly Milanese. A choice that, in the words of its founder, Gentiana Dervishi, is rooted in a conception of fashion that begins even before the stage itself, with the deeper meaning of the places, people and stories that the stage is called upon to tell: «I chose the heart of Milan, the Duomo, because my work begins first and foremost with the heart, even before professionalism. And if there is a city where this choice could acquire its fullest meaning, that city is Milan, the world capital of fashion. I strongly wanted its city centre because, for me, the centre is not merely a geographical location: it is the designers who take part, their identity, the research behind each collection, and the almost meticulous care with which they are selected. They are the true focus of every edition we create. And I am certain that, once again, they will present collections destined to leave their mark, to generate discussion well beyond the days of Fashion Week, capturing for months the attention of industry professionals and an increasingly demanding international audience. This is my commitment, the same one I renew with every Milan edition. We began many years ago with an intuition that, at the time, carried all the fascination, but also all the risk, of a professional challenge; today, we find ourselves mentioned by the most prestigious publications, observed by an increasingly knowledgeable and attentive audience. For me, this is the most tangible confirmation of the journey we have undertaken. Fashion, however, is far more complex and layered than a superficial glance might suggest. I am not referring to its contemporary spectacularisation, to that ephemeral dimension that too often attempts to replace substance with appearance. I am speaking of the quality of our choices, of the ability to recognise genuine talent, to build a path for it, to provide space for a vision and to assume full responsibility for it. This is what we have built our work upon, and it is precisely this quality that is recognised today.» 

A selection of designers and fashion houses will give shape to this new edition of the GX Fashion Week, each embodying, through its own distinctive language, the plurality of expressions that defines contemporary fashion today. Taking to the runway will be Pin-Up Stars, the beachwear brand founded by Jerry Tommolini in 1994, which over the years has developed a creative research process capable of freeing swimwear from its purely functional meaning and elevating it to a fully fledged aesthetic category. The identity of the brand lies in a vision that places substance before ephemerality: an almost painterly approach to the use of colour, a sculptural sensitivity in the definition of form, and an obsession with beauty that becomes a method before it becomes a style. A body of work built over time through layering rather than proclamation, and one that for more than thirty years has established the brand as an absolute reference in Italian swimwear, demonstrating how beachwear itself can be elevated into a genuine creative discipline, with the same conceptual dignity as great fashion. Alongside this now-established name, Nina Tsiklauri, from Georgia, brings Uniqe to Milan, the haute couture house she directs on Via Vincenzo Monti, where she pursues a body of work of rare stylistic consistency: a couture house built with almost architectural precision, capable of restoring to the garment its noblest dimension, that of structure becoming character. In her work, tailoring technique is never an end in itself, but a tool in service of an elegance that unmistakably belongs to the present. From Albania comes Xheksil Muça, young designer and founder of Plisi, already recognised for a creative research process that combines conceptual depth, originality and a strong authorial identity. His work transforms memory and cultural heritage into a contemporary vision, through particular attention to garment construction, materials and aesthetic research. A highly personal creativity, capable of moving between fashion and art without losing its connection to its roots. Safeguarding the continuity of great Italian tailoring will be Umberto Michele Perrera, (Sartoria Perrera), Knight of the Italian Republic and a true patriarch of Piedmontese haute couture: at 87 years of age and with 62 seasons of fashion shows behind him, he embodies an artistic journey that challenges time itself, a path in which every collection has become a chapter in a single, uninterrupted narrative of beauty. Through his Sartoria Perrera in Novara, he has transformed craftsmanship into vocation and vocation into legacy, composing over the course of a lifetime a body of work that now belongs to the collective memory of Italian fashion, alongside its most celebrated protagonists. Completing this international panorama is Owana Lima, Guatemalan designer and founder of Nictel, whose name itself already contains a poetic manifesto: in the Mayan language it means “flowers”. Having trained between Milan, Paris and Miami, Lima has made her work a bridge between two seemingly irreconcilable worlds, international haute couture and the deepest soul of Guatemalan craftsmanship, transforming each garment into a fragment of collective memory, almost a living echo of her roots. A creative research already celebrated on the runways of New York and Paris, which now arrives in Milan bringing with it not merely a style, but an entire cultural cosmology: that of a country which, through its most authentic sensibility, continues to tell its story to the world. Five names, five countries, five distinct ways of understanding the garment as a language. 

This is Gentiana Dervishi’s vision: to bring together in the same space the strength of an established fashion house, the rigour of Milanese tailoring, the most authentic Italian craftsmanship, the new creative scenes of Albania and Georgia, and the textile soul of Guatemala. Milan, once again, as the place where distant worlds meet, and fashion does what it does best: transforming a story into a form. Behind every silhouette unfolds another form of creation, less visible but no less decisive: that entrusted to the Hair & Make-Up Artists, called upon to complete the aesthetic language of the runway through volume, texture, light and character. Because in fashion nothing is merely accessory: hair and make-up do not simply accompany the look, they define its visual identity, transforming a collection into a complete image, into a narrative that leaves its impression on the eye even before settling into memory. Leading this team will be Diana Jaupi, Hair Director, together with Alex Randulescu, Make-up Director: they are the ones orchestrating the work of the entire team, called upon to give form and coherence to the show’s aesthetic vision. Alongside them, a collective of talents will create the volumes, textures and looks of every outfit on the runway: Emma Berisha(Image Advisor), Motoc Monica Alexandra, Izabella Alexandra Vass, Mishaela Zefi, Suleimenova Kamilla, Stingaciu Alina, Ishanova Anastasiya, Minushe Dauti, Flutura Coniku, Bocîrnea Anca Gachi, Alekparova Alma, Andrei Cretu, Marjeta Shahini, Bardas Alexia, Colesniuc Adrian, Anastassiya Nurullayeva, Gerta Dhimitri, Antonia Cojocariu, Füstös Nagy Erika, Popa Elena, Armanda Çepe Alex Toto, Meli Sonia, Di Napoli Ilaria. Holding together the threads of this complex operation will be Alessia Xhafa, Coordination Director: very young, yet already shaped by years of international editions of the GX Fashion Week, she orchestrates with surgical precision every mechanism concealed behind the scenes, ensuring that the show can unfold flawlessly before the eyes of those watching. Giving voice to this runway will be Alessio Marrari, who will lead its narrative with the strength of many years of experience as a blogger, communicator and podcaster, in addition to his background as a radio presenter. International Communications Director for GX and Albania Fashion Week, he transforms every runway into a story, guiding the audience through elegance and creativity with the authority that belongs only to those who possess an authentic understanding of the language of fashion. Coordinating the entire photographic team for this season will be Arjentina Kola and Nicola Giordano: they are responsible for orchestrating the work of all photographers present, safeguarding the official visual record of the event and capturing, frame after frame, the entire magic of fashion in motion.