Capsule #89 ft. Katrina Mirpuri

Hello!

First of all happy MAYHEM day 🥲.

Today’s newsletter is quite long (sorry or you’re welcome, depending on how that news finds you!) so you might need to click ‘read online’ in the top corner if it gets clipped. I hope it’s worth it — a look at the core trends from Milan, my personal faves, and some thoughts on Anora.

As ever, scroll down for some recs for your weekend and a great Hot & Not from Katrina Mirpuri.

And if you feel pulled to share your thoughts on the Glasto lineup with me, hit reply I am here. 🫶

Holly x

🇮🇹 Dispatches from Milan Fashion Week 🇮🇹

Three larger themes and then a couple of my personal highlights from the Milan shows. Feels like it’s been fashion month forever! On we go…

🐆 Fur everywhere 🐆

London dabbled and Milan went all in. The most clear trend emerging across so many of the shows is faux fur, or as was the case with a lot of the Milan shows, shearling. As noted by the New York Times, PETA qualifies shearling as “animal-derived” — but because it can also be a byproduct, it’s treated as a little less controversial.

Why fur and why now? Perhaps the mob wife trend of last year trickled up — we talk about designers wanting to appeal to younger consumers, so it’s entirely plausible that the TikTok-fuelled interest in in finding vintage furs made its way up to fashion houses. There’s also the “post-woke” reactionary stuff — a second Trump presidency and its mission to course-correct woke behaviours means things that were previously faux pas are now a signal of authenticity or relatability. Fur is traditionally associated with old school glamour, and wearing it signals that you are both up for a good time and a connected to historic success — two things the current political zeitgeist is trying to put front and centre.

And then there’s also new technology. Ferragamo’s Maximilian Davis told the NYT:

So the faux furs of today are at a totally different level to a decade or longer ago; processes have emerged that make the final product actually feel luxurious. I think that really matters, and positions faux fur as a trend with the potential to actually last. It’s tied to societal shifts, has innovation, and designers are investing in it. And those are the necessary ingredients.

📿 Fringing everywhere 📿

Fur was definitely the standout on the runways, shortly followed by fringing. Not something you’d usually pick up on but when you’ve seen it five times… Maybe it’s an attempt to make the roaring twenties round two a thing, maybe just a failsafe way of creating dynamism on the runway. So many people praise clothes for how they move when you see them in motion, and of course, runway shows are ultimately a big sales pitch. Adding movement adds to the allure.

👔 Modest suits 👔

But at the same time as the fur and fringing and the general dazzle, most collections weren’t without the grey suit. Less on-the-nose corpcore than we saw in New York and London, where it felt like designers were dressing women for the jobs they need to work. The style in Milan was more classic than a trendy or gimmicky take, which meant the result oozed modesty and refinement.

🍑 Bums are in 🍑

But it wasn’t all modest, especially not at Diesel, who brought the Bumster back to the runway 30 years after Alexander McQueen coined the style at his infamous AW95 show.

A few days later, Zoë Kravitz wore a custom Saint Laurent dress with a bum cutout, based off a similar style from the Spring 1996 collection. The Cut suggested this was her revenge dress after splitting with Channing Tatum, and if you look at instances of the style throughout history, it’s a clear choice for people who want to leave a mark.

If you take these three trends from Milan - fur, fringing, and Bumsters - the over all signal is pretty clear: we’re here to have a good time. Where in New York and London we saw lots of looks inspired by corpcore, and designers showing the difficulty of keeping up, the mood in Milan was more loud and proud.

🫶 My personal faves 🫶 

The styling at Jil Sander. This show convinced me of the double belt trend that’s been popping up for a while now!

Inside out seams and unfinished hems at Prada to show us the human craftsmanship behind these clothes. It felt in dialogue with the Tolu Coker presentation I talked about last week — luxury now is all about showing just how much work goes into this product. Markedly not AI or fast fashion.

Messy hair. Rachel Tashjian wrote this excellent piece about the Oscars looks being too perfect — I think that’s why I wasn’t super into the Ariana x Schiaparelli look even though it technically works. Everything is too perfect - skin, teeth, hair, dress, jewels - nothing is allowed to slip out of place and show a bit of human warmth. I like undone hair generally, and loved how the Prada show really leaned in, as did Hunter Schafer at the Oscar party. I know Hunter’s isn’t messy messy but for a very glam party filled with Hollywood glamour curls and slick back buns, it was cool.

Moving on! Three things I loved about Anora…

I found the middle segment (shouting, chasing, fighting) slightly long to sit through… But beyond that, a great film. Skip this if you haven’t seen! And if you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

1. Highlighting that wealth and privilege allows people to stay younger for longer. There’s only two years between Ivan (21) and Ani (23) but the maturity gap is huge. It comes through in Ivan’s physicality — he slides across the floor in his socks to traverse the house, runs upstairs rather than walks, like kids who run everywhere, does a back flip on his bed, and plays a lot of video games. He’s young and not trying to grow up; he has no reason to. On the flip side, Ani thinks about money constantly - one of the ultimate differences between youth and adulthood. And she plays the role of the teacher when they first meet, sexually of course, but also with general responsibility - she raises the question of using a condom, and guides him with it. She’s also left with the burden of dealing with his parents’ posse on the night he runs away.

2. Kindness, or lack thereof. It’s abundantly clear that Ani is not used to being treated with kindness or respect. Mikey Madison’s facial expressions during these moments are some of the best in the film: when Igor offers her the scarf, when he suggests Ivan apologise, when he reveals the ring to her. I kept thinking about the Blanche (originally from money) line from A Streetcar Named Desire: “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers” and realised Ani is the opposite — her lack of proximity to wealth means she has literally never depended on goodwill.

3. Names, language, and ascribing meaning. I made a note of Ani refusing to speak Russian at the start, assuming we’d find out later about some troubled family history. That didn’t come through so vividly, but we can assume that going by an the Americanised ‘Ani’ over Anora and critiquing her Russian language skills means she is suppressing her heritage. This theme peaks at the moment Ani greets Ivan’s mother in Russian, only for her to reply in English: “You are not part of this family.” Language is used to exclude. Igor reinforces the value of words at the end of the film when he asks what the name Anora means. Although Ani says “In America, we don’t give meaning to names. It’s not a thing,” he Googles to find that it means light, flooding the moment with tenderness.

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe this week:

• The Capsule roundup of excellent fashion at the Oscars and the Vanity Fair party

• Millie Bobby Brown is done with people commenting on her appearance

• The Pretty Little Thing rebrand isn’t impressing everyone

• Louis Vuitton is launching make up, with Pat McGrath as the creative director

• Another great Robert Pattinson interaction 

• A look worth seeing: Chappell Roan at the Rabanne show

• Love this data on every time Anna Wintour has given a standing ovation

• The best reference in a long time

• And the best dressed person this week (what a week)

• Love that Lady Gaga did a press conference for fans

• And the Glasto lineup is here. Some thoughts!

This week, Katrina Mirpuri popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Katrina is a journalist, presenter and editor, currently working at The London Standard as their Senior Social Features Editor. When she’s not organising a viral Harry Styles lookalike contest, she writes about sustainability, food, travel and music, and has written for Conde Nast Traveller, Stylist, Metro, Huff Post, and more. She’s currently learning how to DJ and is looking to collaborate with other DJs as part of mini series documenting the process!

📺 Watching: One Of Them Days in the cinema. And the long form Lady Gaga x Zane Lowe interview.

📖 Reading: ‘Would You Rather Have Married Young?’, an essay about the two ways to spend your twenties: securely in love, or single and prioritising experiences, which taps Girls, Sex and The City, and Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? for examples. I’d argue that it’s not so binary but I enjoyed it.

🎧 Listening to: MAYHEM, the new Lady Gaga album. Plus Old Joy, the newly-released Yo La Tengo EP and soundtrack to the 2006 film, and ‘Rust’ and ‘Dreaming’ by Witch Post after seeing them on Caroline Polachek’s IG story. A good rec!

Some news from myself and Chilli: Search interest in “no buy” is at all time high, and "no buy year rules" increased +120% in 2025, making it one of the top-trending searches relating to “underconsumption core”. But at the same time, a few Capsule readers have reached out recently asking when the shopping collage guides will be back… Rest assured the spring fashion is coming soon, but in the spirit of underconsumption core, there will be a focus on working with bits you’ll already have.

If you’d like to adopt Chilli or one of his friends, click here to learn more.

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See you next week 💋

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