Milan's best runway shows reflect mood of the times

MILAN — SOMETIME during the runway shows here last week, I had the distinct impression that a lot of designers weren't speaking to me. Instead, they were winking at Katy Perry with a nautical striped playsuit, nudging Beyoncé with a Rococo-painted bustier dress, or sidling up to Cate Blanchett with a sweeping watercolor gown. And it didn't even matter if the stars were there.

That doesn't play the way it used to, though. Whether Beyoncé wears Cavalli or Armani might make a difference when it comes to selling a dream in a perfume bottle, but some of us need to be persuaded now more than ever that designer clothes are worth paying attention to.

When the headlines scream "bailout," "rescue" and "warnings," the red-carpet whims of the .00001 percentile suddenly seem like such folly. Which is why the collections that really resonated were the ones that took into account a real woman's needs, putting wearability over glitz and stilted magazine-friendly concepts.

The best collections looked luxe, which should be mandatory for anything with a designer price tag in this economy. They weren't just a rehash of the '70s-era leafy print caftans, safari jackets and cotton blazers in Miami brights (Gucci) that are already perennial summer staples at Banana Republic. They had real design value. The immensely chic '70s-era "Charlie's Angels" pantsuits at DSquared felt so much more in sync with the sexy Gucci spirit, with expensive-looking details and sharp cuts to match, that I couldn't help thinking how much fun it would be if Canadian duo Dean and Dan Caten were designing for the Italian powerhouse instead of Frida Giannini.

Armani has always been a pragmatist at heart. And this season, he left behind his past transgressions -- all the silly hats and dropped-crotch zouave pants -- and showed it. Red-carpet fantasy -- watery pastel floral gowns covered in crystals -- was balanced by the reality of superbly tailored jackets, long and fluid with layered hemlines or overlapping lapels, worn with tidy shorts or slim khaki pants. It is "a style that has changed the face of fashion," he wrote in his show notes. (Just ask Hillary Clinton.) And too often, he's forgotten it in the effort to prove his relevance from one fickle season to the next.