You know how the saying goes “Go big or go home”? Well, fashion designer Vanessa Milanja is definitely not interested in going home at the moment. Last Friday, she and her fashion label “Milanja”, cofounded by Vanessa and her twin sister Christina, made its Monaco debut after much success in their native Australia and just last fall showing during New York Fashion Week.
Sprinkle in a yacht (“Palm B” owned by Gary Fisher, our host for the evening), plus champagne and 80 Monaco residents and guests and we had the recipe for a perfect evening of fashion and fun organised by Richard Shepherd of The Shepherd Collective.
As the sun began to set, models donned the Milanja Spring Summer 17 collection fittingly named “Zephyr”. With its sumptuous silk biased cut gowns in shades ranging from neutral to bright, to choker dresses and cold shoulder necklines, there were offerings to appeal to both the ladies that lunch and their Instagram obsessed offspring.
In one salon of the 37-metre Palm B yacht, lifestyle architect Milena Cvijanovich of MCM Design Studio did a turn in an embellished emerald gown and promptly bought it. In another room, a young hairdresser named Mariella of Aldo Coppola salon (avenue de Grande Bretagne) explored the options of wearing a long navy and white striped skirt as a dress showing the versatility of the Milanja label, as well as its range of appeal to different kinds of women.
As the stunning model/designer Vanessa Milanja, clad in her exquisite blue and white jacquard “swan skirt” and a very on trend cross bandeau top, explained to me, most of the standouts from the collection that I was dying to see were currently on loan to celebrity and VIP clients (kudos to whoever’s stylist nabbed one of their lace choker gowns).
As sunset faded into twilight and the clock crept towards midnight the party moved to the top deck, the music turned up, and the hot tub turned on. Vanessa Milanja dancing against the sparkling lights of the Monaco city line, herself soon to be one of them if what I’d seen earlier was any testament to her future here. Check out more at Milanja.com
Instagram sensation and style blogger Louis Pisano writes SuperficialLivingDiary.com. Article first published August 16, 2017.
