Pucci, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce

The season has come, the stages have been set and the catwalks are open.

It’s Milan’s fashion week. And to describe it in the only word capable of describing such a week, it is fierce.

Pucci, Gucci, Fendi and Dolce & Gabbana strut their spring and summer lines for 2010 in a weeklong extravaganza of fashion.

Fashion shows occur daily and nightly. Small trailer-like “pop-ups” appear every time I pass by my street corners. These temporary stores are filled with clothing from different designers peddling their latest and greatest designs for the season.

Fellow students stood at 8 a.m. the opening day of fashion week waiting as people on the lists got in and found their seats. We waited patiently beside the doorman.

If you wait long enough, there is a small chance that you can talk your way into the show. Pouting or trying to sneak in does not work.

They have seen it all, and now so have I.

I was a fashion student for the day – a small white lie for the price of standing in the back of a crowded room as photographers flashed their cameras and bursts of color swam down the runway.

If fashion is God, this is heaven.

The week is filled with events, including an enormous public event celebrating the fashion of Milan.

At the Piazza Duomo, thousands of Milanese locals and tourists gathered in the square for what might as well have been one of the largest fashion shows. “Milan Loves Fashion” was televised throughout Italy, giving the public a free seat at a private fashion show.

A jumbo-sized stage housed contemporary dancers, Italian rock stars hysterically singing Queen’s “We Will Rock You” with an atrocious accent and a full band ensemble dressed in long black clothes floating across the stage with fire burning above their heads.

Bizarre, I know. And this was all before the models came out.

I’m still attempting to understand what I saw that night.

It was a clash of modern and ancient. The stage and the Duomo faced each other, separated only by the ocean of people dancing, jumping, and snapping amateur photos.

The Duomo of Milan was built during the gothic period and is one of the only things that was not destroyed during many years of war in Italy. Its detailed beauty stands as one of the tallest points in the city.

That night, the stage adorned with lights and pyrotechnics seemed to be from another world. The beauty from the surroundings only added to the beauty of the clothing and the event.

I still can’t tell you what the fashionable thing is for the next season or what the up-and-coming style is for women or men. I still am not convinced that spending more than $1,000 on shoes or a handbag is worth it.

But now, I will be convinced that artwork can be found in more than a painting or a museum. It can be found on the runway, too.