How to Dress Like an Italian Woman: Milan Street Style Lessons.

I used to live just outside Milan, Province of Monza and Brianza. Grey mornings, packed commuter trains like Trenord, and women who somehow looked finished at seven in the morning without seeming to try.

I never figured out how they did it back then. Allora, years later, I think I finally understand. It has almost nothing to do with money and even less to do with trends.

It has to do with three women who get photographed outside fashion shows more than most people actually walking in them: Viviana Volcella, Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert, and Anna Dello Russo. 

Search “Milan street style” for more than five minutes and you’ll run into all three. Scott Schuman, the photographer behind The Sartorialist, has been shooting them for close to two decades, along with dozens of other Milanese and Venetian women he stops on the street because something about how they put themselves together makes him stop too.

So let’s actually look at what they wear. Not their résumés. The outfits.

Contents

• What “Italian Style” Actually Looks Like
• Viviana Volpicella
• Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert
• Anna Dello Russo
• The Accessories That Actually Tie an Italian Look Together
• What These Three Women Actually Have in Common
• Autumn 2026: The Trends Worth Stealing From Milan Street Style
• How to Bring This Into Your Own Wardrobe

What “Italian Style” Actually Looks Like

Every few months someone asks me why Italian women “always look so put together”. Usually they’re picturing a woman in oversized sunglasses eating gelato in a movie. 

Real Italian style is quieter than that, and much more specific.

This post is more about the thinking, not the shopping list. Volpicella, Battaglia Engelbert, and Dello Russo each push these habits in a different direction. That’s actually the point. There isn’t one Italian style. There are women who know exactly which version of it is theirs.

Viviana Volpicella:

She’s proof that restraint can still be interesting. Nothing in her outfits shouts. Everything fits. Her entire look often builds outward from exactly that.

Viviana Volpicella for me is Color, Print, and Zero Hesitation. She’s the loud one of the three, and she’s built her whole signature on it. Where most style advice pushes you toward neutrals, she treats color and print as the actual point, not something to tone down. Her own read on it is simple: her world stays tropical, meaning it’s summer year round no matter what the calendar says outside. Fruit, floral, and foliage-inspired prints show up again and again, worn like they’re basics, not statements. 

Life hack: pick one loud print or color and let it lead the outfit. Keep everything else around it plain. That’s the whole trick to looking put together instead of chaotic, even when nothing you’re wearing is quiet.

5 Viviana Volpicella Looks to Copy:

Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert:

Maximalism, On Repeat She doesn’t edit down. Pattern, color, and sparkle show up together in the same outfit, and she’s unafraid of any of the three.

Life hack: stop retiring your favorite bold piece after one outing. If it’s good enough to wear once, it’s good enough to become part of your actual rotation, the way she keeps bringing back the same statement heels or sunglasses season after season.

5 Giovanna Battaglia Looks to Copy:

Anna Dello Russo

More Is the Whole Point She’s not interested in restraint, and she’s said as much herself: gold, logos, flashy pieces, a real statement. Everything about her look confirms it.

Life hack: pick one exaggerated accessory, a headpiece, a wild pair of shoes, and let it carry the entire outfit. Keep everything else simple enough to actually move in.

Anna Dello Russo Looks to Copy:

The Accessories That Actually Tie an Italian Look Together

This is the part people skip, and it’s the part that matters most. You can wear the simplest black dress in the world, and the accessories are what decide whether it reads as Milanese or just plain.

Bracelets.

Milanese street style has leaned hard into stacking lately, mismatched bangles piled on one wrist rather than a single delicate chain. The trick is mixing textures and finishes on purpose, not buying a matching set.

Earrings.

Statement earrings are doing more work than necklaces right now. Think sculptural gold hoops or one oversized pair, not a dozen small studs up the ear. Pair them with sunglasses and you’ve basically nailed the Milan Fashion Week formula.

Necklaces.

The current move is layering chunky pieces together instead of one thin chain, silver or gold, worn stacked rather than spaced out. If you only own one necklace, make it something with real presence, not something dainty that disappears against a coat. 

Glasses.

Oversized or cat-eye sunglasses are a street style constant outside every Milan show, rain or shine. Quality matters more than logo visibility here. A well-made pair in a strong shape will outlast a dozen trend-driven ones.

Accessory checklist before you leave the house: 

• At least one accessory that photographs well up close
• Mixed metals or textures, not a perfectly matched set
• Sunglasses with real shape, not an afterthought
• Nothing delicate enough to disappear under a coat

What These Three Women Actually Have in Common

Take away the differences in how loud each one goes, and you’ll find the same three habits underneath all of them.

They dress for the version of themselves they already are, not for an imagined future version.

They pick pieces that photograph well because the pieces themselves are interesting, not because they’re loud for the sake of being loud.

And none of them look like they’re trying, even when the outfit clearly took real thought. Te capi?

It’s not about copying their exact pieces item by item. It’s about borrowing the decision-making underneath them, and applying it to whatever’s already in your own closet.

Autumn 2026: The Trends Worth Stealing From Milan Street Style

This season’s Milan runways leaned hard into deep, saturated color:

Colors that read as expensive without needing an actual price tag to prove it. Tailoring made a real comeback too, but softer than the boxy blazers everyone was wearing a few years ago. Structured coats and blazers that still move with you, instead of standing away from your body like armor.

This season’s shopping list (three items, not thirty):

• One deep-toned coat that works with everything you already own
• One piece of statement jewelry you’d wear on a random Tuesday
• One pair of shoes with enough personality to carry a plain outfit on its own

How to Bring This Into Your Own Wardrobe (Without a Stylist’s Budget)

None of these three women are dressing for other people. That’s the real lesson here.

Three life hacks to actually use this week: 

• Build one outfit around a piece you already own that fits perfectly, instead of around a new purchase
• Add one accessory that feels slightly too bold for you, and actually wear it out
• Stop buying things because they’re trending. Buy things because you’d still want them in three years

So, which one would you actually borrow from: the colorful one, the maximalist who repeats her favorites, or the one who never holds back at all?

Sono molto curiosa!

Fatemi sapere! Maryna