May 15thPrada took top billing at Milan but the buzz was about Raf Simons

Models in Prada creations at Milan fashion week. Photograph: Luca Bruno/AP

Miuccia Prada has built a global brand out of awkward chic. “My stores tell me that women don’t buy so many jackets now. They want dresses,” the designer said backstage, by way of explanation for a collection based on jackets and without a single dress.

Three days before the Oscars, Prada did not include any eveningwear, saying that “to me, the daytime is more important.” And despite the emphasis on tailoring, she insisted that the collection was not about power dressing. “I’m not interested in power. You need to make yourself relevant. That is all.”

The influential Prada label was for once forced to share top billing at Milan fashion week with news that the search for a successor to disgraced designer John Galliano at Christian Dior may finally be over. Raf Simons, the 43-year-old Belgian designer who has been widely acclaimed for his collections at Jil Sander will leave the post after Saturday’s catwalk show.

The announcement has thrown the fashion industry into a whirlwind of conjecture over where Simons, considered one of fashion’s hottest design talents, is headed. Late last year, it was reported that Christian Dior were in talks with Simons to take over the role of creative director which has been vacant since Galliano’s downfall last February.

Simons began his career as a furniture designer in Antwerp, before moving to menswear and subsequently womenswear. His is a modernist and minimalist sensibility which would represent a leap for Dior, where the codes of the house are inseparable from the folklore of Parisian femininity. But Simons has recently explored the Dior aesthetic in a series of uncharacteristically ladylike shows which he dubbed his “couture trilogy”, suggesting that he might be open to the possibility of a Dior move. On Dior’s part, such a clean break with the past might appeal after a traumatic year for the house.

However, on Thursday Dior cast doubt on the rumours, telling reporters that no announcement was imminent. Some in the industry believe Simons could be headed to Yves Saint Laurent, pointing to the natural synergy between the YSL style, strongly influenced by menswear, and Simons’ designs. The Parisian labels are owned by fierce rivals – Christian Dior by LVMH, and Yves Saint Laurent by PPR – either of whom would consider the recruitment of rising star Simons to their stable a coup.

There is strong speculation that Simons’ replacement at Jil Sander will be the founding designer herself. No official announcement has been made, but reliable sources maintain that Sander, who founded the company in 1968 but left eight years ago, could be back at the helm of her label as early as next week.

Change is most certainly in the air at Milan fashion week. After last season’s frivolous collections, Italian fashion has a new muse: the taxman. The new government’s commitment to fighting tax evasion is already slowing demand for expensive cars, as affluent Italians adapt their habits in order to avoid attracting attention. Vittorio Missoni, chairman of his family’s fashion house, recently told Womenswear Daily that “people are afraid of showing they can spend.”

The shift in the nation’s outlook is already being reflected on the catwalk. A Maxmara coat is a blue chip Milanese status symbol, but at the latest Maxmara show designs were deliberately under-the-radar, the cashmere felted to give a utilitarian finish. The dominant colour was olive green, rather than the more recognisable camel, or the high-maintenance winter white popular in recent seasons. At the cuff of the coats, the traditional five gold buttons were nowhere to be seen; in their place was a luxurious but understated trim of fur dyed to match the sleeve.