Black is the next black at Milan fashion week

MILAN - Black is back. The color crowd may have had their way in the fashion world for the last few seasons but Milan's designers know what sells, and it's black.

But as the winter 2005 shows got going, some of the world's top labels proved that black need not be boring or bland.

Miuccia Prada proved her position at the top of the fashion pack when she sent out a series of winter coats that billowed around the body, proving that wool is not always dull or dowdy.

"I'm waiting for Prada to have a bad season," said one British critic backstage after the show.

The collection was about tailoring and simplicity, decoration pared down to a sea of beads down the front of a chiffon shift dress, bronze eyelets studding a biscuit brown bag, a black feather shoulder cape over a hourglass dress.

Black felted coats were darted down the back with pleats high on the waist so the wool bulged out into a bell bottom, light glinting off the coat as it changed shape.

Black suits were lightened slightly with the occasional splash of white along a seam or a second biscuit brown lapel crouching under the top, black one.

At Armani, it was black all the way apart from some cream and purple paisley velvet numbers that left critics perplexed.

Stock market traders will be hoping Armani has his finger on the pulse, though. Tradition has it that share prices follow the length of skirts and Emporio Armani's were as high as was decent -- from tiny flapping hot pants and fishtail minis.

"It's powerful, very exciting, sexy," said Kal Ruttenstein, fashion director at Bloomingdale's.

Fringed black satin skirts shimmered under jet velvet jackets while for day, thick black wool jackets were folded like a fan jutting out from the back like origami clothing.

BLOOMING BLOOMERS

At the top line Giorgio Armani label, the shape was tucked in with pencil skirts elasticized above the knee and racks of Armani's famed jackets worn over mid-thigh bloomers.

A top U.S. fashion critic, who declined to be named, decried the ballooning shorts as "monstrous" but Armani said they were "more modern, more courageous -- after all women like to show their legs."

Above the bloomers, Armani showed a variety of jackets cut tight on the back with big wraparound lapels or double collars that tied at the neck, followed by a long line of little black dresses for socialites of all sorts.

"It's a collection for a woman who loves her glamour, who goes out to eat at night. It's a homage to beautiful women," the white-haired doyen of Milan fashion said.

- REUTERS