MILAN, Italy — Rocco Iannone, creative director of Pal Zileri, is a designer with a firm will to anchor the technicality of fashion-making to some deeper thinking. This was his second show for the house. Entitled Vanitas, it was held in the cloisters of Museo Diocesano, and featured a live performance from Coro Gregoriano, mixed with electronic music.

"I was thinking at how self obsessed we all are today and how we should all slow down, regaining touch with what really counts," Iannone said backstage. "A cloister is a nice place to restart".

It made for a surprising, and really uplifting show venue. As for the clothes, there was nothing remotely monk-like about them. On the contrary, the sartorial and sartorially informal discourse was held on a lively cut 'n past note, with textures and styles mixed and mingled into pictorial amalgamations of soft volumes, brocades, lustrous silks and rough linens. Iannone toned down the dandy-like decadence of his debut in favour of something more chaotic and real. He should embrace chaos a bit more from now on. Control, after all, is about abandoning, too.