Italian design at Milan Fashion Week

Milano Moda Donna kicked off a week of high fashion for the luxury goods market Tuesday. With a full agenda for the week, many are anticipating great things to come out of the AW2019 runway shows by local favorites Donatella Versace, Prada and Roberto Cavalli. Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana are likely to wow audiences Saturday with a highlight event for the week.

While the concept of fashion week struggles to maintain its relevancy in a world of fast fashion and Insta-accessibility, Milan looks to be outdoing itself, with a schedule including 64 catwalk shows and 160 new collections presented over six days.

The opening of Milan Fashion Week coincides with London's closing, an overlap that has the fashion elite struggling to make the rounds of the Big Four fashion shows. To keep up interest in London, the seasons showing highlight was set for Tuesday, February 20, when Queen Elizabeth made a rare appearance to present Richard Quinn with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.

Milan has long drawn fashion connoisseurs due to the number of luxury goods houses and quality designers that call Italy home. A new exhibition at the Palazzo Reale celebrates the world's love affair with Italian fashion by featuring styles from 1971-2001. It's timed to open on February 22 when the city is overrun with style junkies.

Milan may not be known for its freezing temperatures but out on the nearby Alpine slopes, French outerwear maker Moncler is all the rage. Designers attempted to recreate the snowy conditions perfect for their signature parkas inside a Milanese warehouse in a colorful, much-talked-about show.

After showing eight collections at once, including floor-length parkas cut in the style of ballgowns and modeled among a faux-glacial backdrop, Moncler CEO and creative director Remo Ruffini announced the brand's "genius" strategy of replacing Fashion Week with see-now buy-now. "The concept of the catwalk show doesn't exist any more for us, it's a new way of working from now on," he said.

One of the more anticipated shows of the season by Gucci had tongues wagging after a model was sent down the runway holding a model of her own body-less head. The grotesquery continued in a catwalk show set amid props set up to resemble a hospital's operating room. Pure theatrics that will remain in audiences' memories for some time.

Paul Surridge took over the reins at Roberto Cavalli last year -- a move that had him tasked with assembling a fashion show with just eight weeks' notice. The British-born designer known for colorful red carpet gowns has shifted the luxury house's focus to everyday womenswear, a task that came off well on the catwalk. "With a women's collection, there are infinite possibilities," he told the BBC.

Milan is the place to be to see big name models and this season was no exception. The highlight of the week seems to be model Kaia Gerber, who walked for Alberta Ferretti, among others. Cindy Crawford's daughter, whose Instagram expertise has made her one of the most engaged models online, appeared to be coming into her own out on the catwalk.