Black is back, Armani decrees

Giorgio Armani kicked off the Milan autumn/winter women's wear season on Sunday with a showing of his younger Emporio Armani line. Above-the-knee skirts and evening dresses shimmering with spangles of silver and mirror-ball mosaics (above) recalled the disco era. But the overall message from the show was that, after several seasons of colour, black was back. "To be truthful, it has never really gone away," the designer said after the Sunday show.

Milan fashion week opened to controversy at the weekend when the huge number of shows - 103 catwalk shows and 137 'presentations' (where models stand still) - prompted designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to brand it "a senseless circus". In an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper, they called for fewer events of higher quality.