Milan Italy

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 Beyonce 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.

Love and hate are both acceptable reactions to fashion shows, but indifference is the kiss of death. And that was what many retailers and editors came away with after the spring shows here last September. Milan's position as a fashion capital was in serious jeopardy.

Franco Zeffirelli was cheered and showered with roses on the opening night of his new production of Verdi's "Aida" at La Scala on Thursday night in Milan, Italy, making his triumphant return after a 14-year absence from the opera house where he first made his mark.

Being a woman is a blood sport, according to Miuccia Prada, who on Sunday showed her own powerful vision of the tough chic that is emerging as one of the biggest fashion trends for fall. And it didn't involve the rocker wear we've seen from so many other Italian labels, including Gucci. The arena seating should have been a clue.

By the time the spring-summer 2010 men's Fashion Week in Milan wrapped up Tuesday, the runway had showcased enough old-school macho archetypes to form its own (infinitely more stylish) version of the Village People. While several designers riffed generally on the concept of the nomad and the loner, others were more specific.

The remains were unearthed northwest of here, from a 6-foot pit of dirt and bones. The accused killers called themselves the Beasts of Satan. A 27-year-old named Andrea Volpe led investigators to the wooded site where police say he and his accomplices beat and stabbed two teenagers, then buried their bodies in what officials describe as a ritualistic human sacrifice.

An operatic feud at Milan's La Scala came to a head Wednesday when hundreds of workers called for music director Riccardo Muti to resign from the house he has run with an iron baton for almost 20 years. Backstage hands, bassoonists, baritones, ballerinas and others behind La Scala's glamorous image added mutiny to the theatrical ego battles and offstage maneuvering that have shaken the famed opera house for weeks.

The board of Milan's La Scala is set to meet Tuesday to plan for the future of the famed opera house. The opera house has been in turmoil since late February when music director Riccardo Muti fired general manager Carlo Fontana and replaced him with Mauro Meli. The move angered the staff, and the maestro resigned April 2. The unions also are demanding the departure of Meli, who has placed his fate in the hands of the board.

On a drizzly February morning, a bride and groom posed for photos in the barrel-vaulted Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world's oldest and grandest retail arcades. They held hands and kissed in front of the Louis Vuitton and Prada stores, the latest "it" bags spotlighted in the windows behind them. In a city that's serious about shopping, it was a fairy-tale setting.

The fleet of fashion editor-filled sedans moves from one show to another every hour on the hour -- stilettos out of the car, stilettos in the car, bubble skirts out, bubble skirts in. And the yawning spreads. Japanese photographers snap Anna Wintour's picture here and there, runway lights go down and up, cigarettes are lighted and stubbed out. And still the yawning spreads.