Fashion followers got a wet welcome to Milan as chilly temperatures and persistent rainfall marked the opening day of the weeklong preview showings for spring-summer 2007.

Giorgio Armani, for one, is in a very good mood.

Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the front row guests at the Monday afternoon show in the ultramodern Armani headquarters.

Armani is just back from a whirlwind tour in London last week where he opened an Armani Casa housewares store and orchestrated a gala charity event to combat AIDS in Africa.

On hand to help with the cause were Armani fans such as DiCaprio, Ashley Judd and Alicia Keys . The fashion highlight of his London trip was the presentation of his second line Emporio collection for next summer, which will not be shown in Milan.

Nighttime at Armani is in elegant black, with sumptuous gowns caressing the body but never grabbing it. Demure silk berets or hats with brims worked like lace complete the romantic look.

Earlier Monday, the fun-loving duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana jazzed up the summer catwalk with their latest bright and funky club fashion for their second line D&G collection.

Outfits consisted of off-one-shoulder toga dresses or short frilly skirts and hot pants coupled with skimpy tops. These disco looks came with leggings in neon shades or black lace stockings. In lieu of an evening gown, the designers offered a slinky black lace leotard with a wide patent leather belt cinched at the waist.

If D&G is a barometer for next season‘s look, we are in for a sizzling summer.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 9:58 am and is filed under Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.