THE six-day Milan Fashion Week has wrapped up with its cutting-edge styles and trends for next spring and summer. During the past week, 78 fashion shows were staged, attracting flocks of fashion magazine editors, stylists, celebrities and buyers to the fashion capital of the world.

For the first time, Milan Fashion Week moved its runways from the remote Milan Exhibition Hall (Fiera di Milano) to the city's downtown areas. Fashion shows were thrown up in the Lawyers' Palace (Palazzo dei Giureconsulti) and three other places, not far from the landmark Scala Opera House (La Scala) and the Cathedral of Milan (Duomo del Mialno), adding a touch of permanence.

With weather cooling down, people begin to look through their wardrobe for thick coats, while designers on Milan's runways are busy providing women some compelling reasons to enlarge their wardrobes for the upcoming spring and summer.

Let's take a look at the spring 2011 collections from some of the brands showcasing during Milan Fashion Week, and figure out some trends for the beginning of next year.

(Shanghai Daily/Agencies)Last season's beautiful Gucci collection was a sartorial palate cleanser, freeing the Gucci girl from her zeal for overstatement. But freedom is only genuine if you've got options. Thus, for spring, Frida Giannini returned to the banquet of conspicuous fashion.

"This time I pushed the accelerator on provocation and irony," she said.

And push she did, but with control rather than wanton excess. This resulted in a bold and appealing show. It found the designer in her comfort zone - that steamy precipice between saucy lady and aggressive vamp - a place where a lot of women rush.

Giannini called this collection "Sophisticated Seduction" and created chic with a little flash. What made that combination mostly successful was that Giannini chose her poison. When she went for color, she kept other embellishments to a minimum, save for bronze-toned belts. Hence, the smart, nonliteral interpretation of a riding look in jade, blue and violet, and a series of chic color-blocked dresses cut to show skin. Conversely, when she went to town with fringe and hardware, she worked in monotones of all black or desert tones, the better to flaunt the details of her skintight, handworked leathers, often held together with countless tiny golden grommets and finished with elaborate Berber-inspired embroideries.

A few minutes before her spring show, Alberta Ferretti said she was "reinventing femininity" this season.

When has she ever not? A more accurate assessment would be to say Ferretti was showing off her casual, undone side, which she was in the mood for "after several seasons of what I would call formality."

While fall skewed toward womanly sophistication, spring was all about girlish bohemia, full of pretty flower girls in floral printed peasant tops and long, hippie skirts for the ultra-feminine free spirit with designer taste.

There were beautiful bias-cut dresses in gauzy silks, some of which came in ruffled tiers, others done as a sheer layer over a floral.

White lace smocks had a youthful innocence while see-through styles teased lace bras and boy shorts underneath.

Mixed among the many dresses were cute, crocheted granny sweaters, pleated miniskirts, shorts and a few great linen coats, all accessorized with flat sandals - not a single heel in sight - and floppy straw hats that pushed a natural-nature motif without crossing into crunchy territory.

It is clear that an Italian garden was what Ferretti had in mind with her soft pastels, nudes and painterly prints.Not all hourglass dresses are created equal. At Prada's spring show, one featured stripes in front and back, Baroque swirls on the sides and two bright gold monkeys grasping the waist. A perfect example of what Miuccia Prada called "exaggerated simplicity." And a perfect example of why after all these years Prada continues to captivate.

Those frolicking monkeys were just two of the many primates in her collection.

"I'm tired of minimalism," Prada said. "I asked myself, 'How can I do minimal Baroque?'" Her answer? Simple shapes, explosive color and multiple patterns, including the monkeys and - what else? - lots of bananas. Underscoring her audacity, Prada herself wore plastic banana earrings.

Prada also loves seemingly plain-cut clothes such as a round-shouldered, stiff T-shirt-and-skirt combo; a curvy flight attendant suit; a slipdress. Only they came, respectively, in the previously noted monkey pattern paired with a giant striped sombrero, and cut in a newly loosened shape.

Along with the sombreros and flora-fauna prints, a pair of dresses with Carmen Miranda silhouettes heightened the suggestion of south-of-the-border festiveness. Her knockout accessory - big, fluffy foxtail stoles in impossible-to-ignore cartoon stripes. Naturally selected for controversial chic.Hair pulled back in a prim bun. Hemlines strictly below the knee. Styles that brush rather than grab the body. Bold but never brash use of color. In a word a subdued summer style.

No big deal for a minimalist designer, but a giant step in a new direction for Donatella Versace.

Sister of the late Gianni Versace, she inherited his penchant for sexy styles, and her shows are always one of the hottest. But she did a spring-summer about-face to a staid look, and the fashion crowd was pleasantly surprised.

Daytime wear was quiet and discreet: simple dresses with plastic geometric detailing, suits with a cropped jacket and a straight below-the-knee skirt, little sun dresses in demure colorful stripes. There were none of the usual Versace favorites: tight pants and short shorts.

The color palette by day and night, aside from black and white, is beige, turquoise and bright red.

The only concession to the sexy old days were the bare backs often decorated with prim straps, and a few slits on skirts and dresses. Footwear is high, but never aggressive.

Nighttime marked a return to black for the cocktail hour and the dinner table. The signature goddess gowns were replaced by ladylike gowns with delicate fringe detailing in mute shades.

To underline her style, Donatella traded her usual runway outfit - tight black pants and a matching glittery T-shirt for a below-the-knee black cocktail dress."It's a garden party," exclaimed Stefano Gabbana. For starters, the invitations featured hydrangea prints and tiny packets of morning glory seeds. The runway was a slice of heavenly Eden - grass and various flora trimmed the wooden catwalk, the backdrop consisted of giant trellises dripping with the herbaceous stuff and, blasting through the speakers as one waited for the show, was the sound of chirping birds and dreamy instrumentals.

Then out sashayed the first model, working that girlish gardener routine to the hilt. She wore a floral-print top, baggy bubble shorts cut from raw linen and shoes topped with a corsage; her floppy, oversize tote - complete with gardening gloves and tools - provided the perfect punctuation mark. And so went the show, with Gabbana and Domenico Dolce skillfully and festively whipping up romantic and coquettish variations on that theme.

There were 1970s-style gowns, peasant blouses, overalls, ruffled bloomers and onesies, in pretty florals, ginghams and picnic-cloth checks. Apronlike skirts opened up in the back to reveal frilly bloomers for a cheeky touch, while wide culottes and jackets, in denim and oatmeal linen, tempered the season's bloom indulgence nicely. It all made for a vibrant, cheerful take on the spring's emerging bohemian trend. Adding to that sense of whimsical fun were graphic tanks and T-shirts featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Giorgio Armani, looking tanned and healthy after a recent bout with hepatitis, took a bow at the end of his second line Emporio show, aimed at the younger set.

According to Armani, who over the past 30 years has created a fashion empire of stores, restaurants and most recently hotels worth over US$3 billion, "fancy" represents the perfect balance between "wit and fun."

There were lots of "fancy" items in the show, from large ethnic-inspired necklaces to high-heeled satin sandals to mini evening bags.

Leitmotif of the latest Emporio collection was the stretch tulle legging or skirt, which provided a covering layer for the above-the-knee skirts and mini dresses, both for day and night.

Everything in the show had a feel of lightness, especially the summer jackets which could double for a gauze scarf.

The main Emporio palette, like many collections seen during the current Milan Fashion Week, is based on natural tones, from light gray to sandy beige, with flashes of green and the occasional black.

Watermelon red is Armani's "fancy" color, which the designer fashions into a fiesta of evening dresses with straight neckline, flounced skirt and, of course, the tulle cover-up.