Attend Milan Fashion Week with Diego Portillo, Associate Visuals Editor at Vogue

Hi Vogue Club, I’m Diego Portillo, Associate Visuals Editor at Vogue. With my role, having a working knowledge of the runway helps with researching and deciding the best visuals to use across print and digital. To give a bit of insight into how I keep an eye out for new trends and key moments in fashion, here’s a rundown of my recent trip to Milan Fashion Week.

Although my role allows me to travel globally—recently I’ve ventured to Mexico City, New York, Paris, and London—this was my first time traveling to Milan, and while there I was fully submerged in the festivities of fashion week.

What I wore to my first fashion show

Of course, there’s quite a bit of debate around just what to wear for fashion week. I recently read an article by Lynn Yaeger and Beka Gvishiani—called The “Rules” of Fashion Week—in which Lynn and Beka talk through the dos and don’ts and explore the etiquette surrounding the various shows and functions. Ignoring their advice about not going full-in on a label before their show completely, I took a trip to the Diesel store in central Milan before the show—and left with a full outfit. (Bonus: the clothes now double as a souvenir!)

Diesel Fashion Show

By coincidence, when I arrived at the Diesel show I met Beka, the founder of Style Not Com—he’s somebody whose work I’ve followed, so it was great to meet him IRL.

As for the show itself: The runway saw models walk through a heap of scrap denim. The detail you would have missed if you weren’t taking a close look: the models wore white, red, yellow, and black contact lenses. Seeing the collection in person really helped me appreciate the materials and the details, which sometimes don’t translate as vividly through images or video. (I also loved seeing the attendees’ outfits!)

Vogue Italia’s 60th anniversary party

Shortly after arriving in Milan, I joined in the celebration marking 60 years of Vogue Italia, which kickstarted with an exhibition dedicated to its history and stand-out issues. I loved looking back at this particular issue from 1969, featuring Berkley Johnson, who represented timeless beauty, but with an edge—a concept I always associate with Italian fashion. It blew my mind, because of how modern it still feels today.

Latin American Fashion Awards Cocktail