Despite the Milan summer collections opening with some great 1920s flapper dresses from Gucci and leather strapped evening gowns from Versace, there has been much less cocktailwear from the party-loving Italians and a dearth of red-carpet glamour on the catwalks. The Italian designers are clearly experiencing a reality check in the current financial climate and focusing instead on elegant daywear. This, however, leaves all those red-carpet stylists with a problem: who will be the go-to designer for the photo opp evening goddess dresses?

The answer is Roberto Cavalli, who had more party dresses on his catwalk than the rest of the Milanese designers put together. His show opened with a gold paillette (oversized sequins) suit and it didn't stop until the last outfit left the catwalk. Printed chiffon dresses shone with gold - strips of paillettes emphasising the knife-pleated patterns created a fringe effect that echoed the flapper dresses seen on other catwalks. Cavalli slipped tautly tailored masculine dinner jackets and spencer jackets over the short flirty dresses and the long evening gowns, or toughened up the femininity of his animal and flower-print chiffon and lingerie lace goddess dresses with expertly tooled leather jackets produced in his Florentine atelier. Altogether this was a brazen collection full of bravura at a time when Italy is facing financial meltdown.

If Cavalli is the king of the red carpet, then Alberta Ferretti is the queen. Just look at the number of prettily embroidered, Grecian-style dresses that were photographed at the recent Emmys, the Venice Film Festival and Cannes before that. There were some of her haute chiffon and tulle gowns in the new summer collection, a few picked up on the new, loose, drop-waist 1920s-style silhouette either delicately beaded or dissected with Art Deco linear patterns of organza. Nevertheless, much of the collection swerved towards a safari look, trimmed with wooden and tonal coloured beads in tribal motifs in a warm palette of earthy African shades such as ochre, ivory, brown and terracotta.

Veronica Etro tapped into the Jazz-Age mood by stripping back some of Etro's archive paisley prints for her Roaring Twenties fringed dresses and adding a bit of Art Deco geometry to the mix for an upbeat collection. Etro is famed for its loose, flowing silk prints, usually mixed to riotous effect, but she simplified the colour palette to black and white with shades of salmon pink and celadon green.

Missoni's gypsy girl dresses were lively flamenco styles, perfect for dancing in. There were frills, fringes and giant flounces worked in vivid blue, turquoise and sunny yellow hues that were splattered with prints. These festive dresses and giant fringed shawls appeared in all manner of fine geometric and wavy patterned knits.

Now all a party girl needs is the occasion to wear them and, despite the economic fears, there were a few events around Milan Fashion Week, with Trussardi celebrating its 100th-anniversary with a party and fashion show in the famous Castello Sforzesco to show off their leathergoods. Bulgari held an elegant cocktail party on the grounds of the Bulgari hotel for their new luxurious leather Sac handbag, which is pleated, smocked or worked into a basketweave texture by their artisans in Florence and trimmed with jewel-coloured coins inspired by their signature coin jewellery.

Finally, the biggest event of the week was the night that a select group from the fashion crowd decamped from Milan to Florence for the spectacular opening of the new Gucci Museum. Located next to the Palazzo Vecchio, this glamorous occasion was celebrated with a dinner in the historic Renaissance-painted hall in the Palazzo - a rare experience followed by a performance by Debbie Harry. There in the crowd was the Gucci designer Frida Giannini shimmying in one of her new Jazz Age dresses from the catwalk show - from catwalk to party in just five days.

Milan fashion houses hope emerging markets will allow the luxury industry to ride out any new recession. Executives at Milan fashion week were happy to talk about the prospects for growth this year but were coy about 2012 in the face of financial market wobbles and the effect of austerity measures on the mood of European consumers.

"Fashion houses have worked on prices, costs. They are getting ready to face a crisis that we hope will not last long," Roberto Cavalli group's chief executive Gianluca Brozzetti told Reuters at the show of Just Cavalli.

The luxury industry is normally the last sector to enter recession and the first to rebound, but companies realize they will not be immune from any re-run of the 2008-9 downturn. Known for its animal prints and flowing dresses, Cavalli is betting on the relaunch of its youthful Just Cavalli line with Diesel's founder Renzo Rosso and on new store openings in fast-growing markets next year to ride out the storm.

"Demand from emerging countries should offset losses in mature markets," Brozzetti said at a smoky former warehouse on Saturday where denim-clad models wore flowing silk dresses.

In a clear sign the industry is cutting its cloth to fit leaner economic times, top brands are widening their entry-level offer to satisfy all pockets and needs.

"I think we're witnessing a degree of nervousness that we haven't seen since 2008. The European markets are looking very fragile and US wealthy sentiment is turning bearish," James Lawson, director of international luxury market research specialists Ledbury Research, told Reuters.

Dolce & Gabbana announced last week they would bring their D&G second line under their top brand, which already makes swimsuits, fragrances and sunglasses.

Shoemaker Ferragamo launched its first jewellery line last week with prices of between €300 and €15,000. Speaking in the garden of a neoclassic palace in Milan, chief executive Michele Norsa said he thought Chinese customers would like the finely branded Ferragamo bracelets.

At the other end of the luxury chain, emerging brands like Antonio Marras or high-end shoemaker Alessandro Oteri aim for selective shoppers with handmade, made-to-order pieces.

"Everybody wants to feel unique," Marras, former creative director of LVMH's Kenzo label, told Reuters at his atelier where he mixed ready-to-wear with couture dresses.

NO FEAR: Looking at 2011, luxury goods makers such as Ferragamo and Versace confirmed their expectations for a positive year, but declined to give details. Asked if she was afraid of a crisis, Italian designer Miuccia Prada said "no."Prada posted a forecast-beating 74 percent rise in first-half profit and has said it would stick to its expansion plans.

Cavalli's Brozzetti said the group would adjust its plans next year if needed. In May, he forecast retail revenues would surge around 29-30 percent this year, as the group revamped its retail network and expands into accessories. Cavalli reported a 6.8 percent increase in net profit in the first half. The only fashion house to say the word crisis out loud in Milan was youthful Italian brand Frankie Morello.

A crackling Italian song dating back to the Great Depression resounded on the catwalk to the surprise of the guests, asking: "But what is this crisis all about?."

Ignoring the age-old rule that skirts should get longer, not shorter, when the markets tumble, designers exhibiting at Milan's fashion week are countering the doom and gloom emanating from the nearby Milan stock exchange with a series of colourful shows.

Compared with other sectors of the Italian economy, which has endured an awful week after the downgrading of government debt, the €63 billion ($110 billion) fashion industry is booming - with 15,000 buyers, 70 catwalk shows, 150 collections and 2000 journalists.

"In dark times like this, we need joyful and romantic clothes," said Anna Molinari, with a collection covered in rose designs. Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Molinari have all opened new stores in Milan to coincide with fashion week. Even tyre manufacturer Pirelli got in on the act, with Naomi Campbell opening its new high-end clothes outlet.

"The designers have a good feeling; they are against pessimism and they are not reading the papers," said Italian journalist Cinzia Malvini, who has followed the Milan shows for two decades. "9/11 disorientated the business, but now people are getting used to anything thrown at them and are tougher."

Despite the upbeat mood, there may be trouble ahead. The 4 per cent growth predicted by the National Chamber of Fashion this month contrasts with the 11 per cent figure it was quoting as recently as June.

"There is the fear that we will have 2008 all over again, which caused the market to shrink by 15 per cent in 2009," admitted Mario Boselli, head of Italy's Chamber of Fashion.

Financial expert Roberto Spada, who has rescued insolvent designers, said he was concerned many family-run Italian fashion firms lacked expertise to face up to a long recession. "Apart from the designers bought by French groups like Gucci and Fendi, and firms like Prada and Ferragamo, who have listed on the markets, many firms are still stuck in the 70s when it comes to running things."

But whether 2012 turns out to be another 2009, designers can look for solace to the emerging "Bric" countries - Brazil, Russia, India and most of all China - where fashion retail sales grew 24 per cent in the first half of 2012 and which have just overtaken North America as Gucci's biggest market.

That is why people took notice when popular Chinese actress Yang Mi showed up for the Gucci show. "Of the Bric nations, Russia is still the top destination for Italian fashion, but China is growing fastest," said Boselli.

With the opening boom-boom of bass, the Spring 2012 runway shows began in Milan with a stream of black, camel, and wimpy, sea-foam blue clothes worn by models with hair that looked days overdue for a shampoo. It seemed as though little joy would be coming from the Italian fashion capital.

Milan was wholly disconnected from New York, where a week earlier, designers had defined the coming season with childlike joy: bright colors, kooky prints, and a raucous spirit. New York designers served themselves up as a giddy antidote to war, economic decline, and the mournful remembrances of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Milan, while not sober, has been more knowing and more ambivalent. It has not been in a mood to celebrate—at least not in such obvious and chirpy ways. Gucci’s Frida Giannini kicked off the week here with a sexy and glamorous collection that she herself described as “hard core” art deco. It didn’t so much exude joyfulness, as give off an attitude of vaguely reckless debauchery.

Giannini’s  loose-fitting flapper dresses, with their architectural patterns outlined in gold and black paillettes, recalled late nights of dancing, coolly bopping jazz, and the kind of bracing cocktails that would leave midnight carousers tight—as a Hemingway character would say—after only one round. (The dresses and tuxedo-style trousers were so glamorous that one is even willing to forgive Giannini for those trousers with a pair of horse heads printed on the tush.)

Her collection hit all the notes that define the Gucci brand. It looked luxurious with its simple patterns lushly detailed with sequins and rhinestones. It was sexy and sophisticated. But it also had sleek and easy silhouettes—nothing as fussy as the French might come up with, but nothing as relaxed and sporty as the Americans might generate.

There also was a hint of darkness about the collection. Like Hemingway’s revelers—whose hard partying was a front for fear, anger, and despair—these clothes were tinged with melancholy.

The collection, so representative of the Gucci essence, also was a tease of a sort. On Sept. 26, the company will celebrate the opening of its first museum—dedicated to its archives and its artisans—in Florence.

To some degree, Max Mara also celebrated its essence—in this case, its love of camel. The design team sent out a dirge of mostly camel-colored leggings, leather shorts, tunics, and jackets. The show plodded along with the models balanced atop platform-wedge heels. The collection was dutifully filled with good taste and familiar shapes, but the effect was a bit like watching a runway show organized by the local PTA.

Alberta Ferretti ‘s show wasn’t much more energizing. She offered a familiar mix of chiffon dresses with textural patterns that recalled the art deco period—or perhaps that was just because Gucci had only a few hours earlier put that thought in the air. Regardless, the dresses looked like the same ones Ferretti has always done, which is to say they were lovely. But they were not the sort of items that make a person sit up and take notice and shop.

Mixed in with the dresses were several patterned knits in bright colors that seemed to be Ferretti’s way of acknowledging that there was some sort of movement afloat in fashion—this fascination with color and pattern—and perhaps it was worth a dabble.

But then, as if she’d stuck her toe in the water and found it too cold for her liking, Ferretti retreated to those reassuring chiffon dresses.

In the search for bliss, surely one can find it at D&G, by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana? After all, they are the ringmasters of fun, sex, and naughty, naughty references. And sure enough, right there on the D&G runway was an avalanche of color and patterns and good times.

The designers were inspired by scarf prints and so the fabric looked like 1960s Pucci and 1980s Versace mixed, refined, seasoned, and molded into something that felt both fresh, and fun, fun, fun.

It was good to see the models strutting along to a soundtrack devoted to the dueling screams and grunts of Prince and James Brown. One was flinging kisses and the other was feeling good. And models were dressed in soft blouses in a swirl of pink and yellow floral shorts. Tunics in dizzying rococo prints were bedazzled with sequins for a double-your-fun lushness. There were floral pants, printed bikinis, and even wedge heels covered in patterned silk twill.

Milan Fashion Week opened yesterday with a show of strength and sparkle from an international mega-brand steeped in history. Gucci celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, and the company's creative director, Frida Giannini, presented a collection that nodded to the label's fashionable roots and formidable reputation.

References included Metropolis and Blade Runner, with fringed shift dresses dripping metallic beads and chains combining the flapper styles prevalent during the early years of the house with the sleek, urban aesthetic for which it has become known latterly.

Bugle beads, carved Plexiglass and crystals snaked over black silk in linear art deco patterns, while slash necks and drop waists undercut the excesses to create a loose, almost boyish, silhouette. "I wanted to explore an optical side of femininity by creating a sculptural glamour," explained Giannini. "Fusing elements of our DNA, from design history - making them current with a strong sense of personality."

It is personality that lies at the label's heart, to which the interlocking 'G's of its signature print attest. They stand for Guccio Gucci, a dishwasher turned leather merchant who set up a saddlery shop in Florence in 1906 and founded the label there in 1921.

Having worked at the Savoy hotel in London, he was aware of the tastes of the jet set, for whom his bags and valises became a must-have. Success was cemented during the war, when the next generation of Guccis introduced a low-cost, printed canvas range, and the label then diversified into clothing during the 1960s. It was a favourite with Jackie Onassis, after whom a handbag is named.

Since then, Gucci has been synonymous with high-end hedonism. During the late Nineties it became famous under the designer Tom Ford for its sexualised campaign imagery and tight-fitting opulence.

But Frida Giannini has carefully woven the label's divergent high-glitz and heritage strands together since taking over in 2005, picking up where Ford left off in the glamour stakes but adding some of the bohemian and equestrian influences of the brand's origins, all finished with a characteristically slick Italianate gloss.

Yesterday's collection was evidence enough: gold chains, scarf prints, frogging and enamel found in the house's archives adorned slim-fitting jackets and deconstructed tuxedos paired with narrow-leg and pin-tucked silk trousers.

The label's signature shade of green was rendered in Chrysler motifs and stripes, as well as abstracted animal prints merged together on shift dresses and chiffon blouses.