It’s been a rainy Milan fashion week, and Ferragamo took the risk of an open-air show in the courtyard of its Portrait Milano hotel on Saturday morning.

Phew! While the dark brown carpet was sodden from an earlier downpour and grey clouds hung low, no drops fell on the spring collection, a sultry, soigné and lounge-oriented take on the ’20s, birth decade of the Florentine house.

During his latest trawl through the archives, creative director Maximilian Davis fell upon an image of American actress Lola Todd dressed head-to-toe in leopard – the coat made from the actual exotic skin – and a baby leopard crouched beside her.

Raised in Manchester, England, by Trinidadian-Jamaican parents, Davis posed the question: Why leopard?

“At that time, people were importing textiles.. and leathers fro

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