Battle of the Milan Fashion Week Parties: Gucci’s Girls vs. Bulgari and Bella Hadid

As Oscar madness takes over Hollywood, the fashion set kept the party going overseas at Milan Fashion Week. In between countless shows and presentations, editors and It-girls alike burned off all those bowls of pasta by dancing well into the night at various fetes around the city. Naturally, the week’s best parties came from two very Italian houses: Gucci and Bulgari. The former celebrated its fall collection with an all-night, music-filled bash, while the latter tapped new accessories ambassador Bella Hadid to host a cocktail party to celebrate W‘s editor-in-chief Stefano Tonchi and the magazine’s March issue. See how the two parties stacked up, here.

When Gucci: Late Wednesday evening, just a few hours after the brand’s crowd-pleasing, apocalyptic-facing fashion show. Bulgari: A complete Thursday night out, starting with an 8:30 p.m. cocktail dinner, followed by a full-on party at 10 p.m.

Where Gucci: Milan’s Educandato Statale Setti Carraro, an all girls boarding school complete with frescoed ceilings, mirrored hallways, and plenty of vintage furniture and leafy plants for good measure. Very on-brand. Bulgari: The Bulgari Hotel, of course. Again, very on-brand.

Guest List Gucci: Designer Alessandro Michele‘s eclectic crew of devotees, ranging from an Academy Award-winning actor (Jared Leto, going incognito in a black beanie with a hooded sweatshirt pulled over it) to a former-tween blogger (Tavi Gevinson, natch, surprisingly understated in a printed midi-skirt and red bomber jacket–a far cry from her pastel-hued hair days). Also hanging out in the school halls: Tom Hiddleston, Florence Welch, Charlotte Casiraghi, Alexa Chung, Petra Collins, Hari Nef, Gia Coppola, Soko, and A$AP Rocky, who is never one to miss out on a good fashion party. Bulgari: Host Hadid flew without her usual Calabasas crew–Gigi and Kendall–opting instead to pal around with fellow Bulgari ambassadors Lottie Moss and Jasmine Sanders, as well as model Winnie Harlow. The bash also drew out Anna Cleveland, Candela Novembre, Margherita Missoni, and Nieves Alvarez.

Dress Code Gucci: Your best, mismatched Gucci, of course. On the simpler end of things, Chung opted for a streamlined silver lamé dress, while Coppola went full-Gucci in a violet-printed short sleeve dress paired with a pair of sequin embroidered purple leggings. Welch was a highlight among the bunch, effortlessly cool in a pair of faded flare jeans and silk blouse. Bulgari: Shine, shine, and more shine; all the better to show off those Bulgari jewels. Hadid stole the night, naturally, in a mini, asymmetrical chainmail dress by Alexandre Vauthier, paired with a classic Serpenti necklace.

Pièce de Résistance Gucci: A performance by Tori Amos, who delighted the crowd with a review of her greatest hits. For those not into the folk-scene, there were also DJ Sets by Bobby Gillespie, Louise Chen, Yasmina Dexter, Bradley Zero and Benji B. Bulgari: A Bulgari-branded light installation that doubled as the night’s defacto photo-booth. Anything for the ‘gram.

Instagram of the Night Gucci: Nef’s pic of herself with the man himself, Michele, complete with a sprawling, 144-word caption quoting Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Bulgari: Another point for Hadid, thanks to an over-the-shoulder shot showing off her jewels–and plenty of skin–that has already amassed almost 500,000 likes.

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