With one week to go before the Oscars, Hollywood is getting ready for its glitziest night out. In Milan the city's designers are showcasing their newest designs. Despite the distance between these two places, there has been a direct correlation between these events in the past: the red-carpet opportunity has meant that flashbulb-ready gowns featured heavily on the catwalk.
But this season there is a disconnection. Milan fashion week is having - by Milanese standards - a quiet moment, with flat shoes, sliced neoprene skirts and medieval fairytales rather than sequinned, floor-length va-va-voom dresses. The collections are arguably all the better for it.
Dolce and Gabbana, which topped the bill on Sunday, was a good example. The duo took their native Sicily as their starting point - not Hollywood. The label has toyed with Italian themes for the past few seasons - recent collections have featured 50s screen goddesses, Roman architecture and even pasta, as catwalk motifs. But this season the Sicilian theme took a more dreamlike, playful approach.
'Everything is an enchanted garden and every girl is a fairy,' declared designer Stefano Gabbana backstage before the show.
But, this being a high octane brand, the fairytale was more glamorous and ornate than childlike. More Tim Burton with glitz than Brothers Grimm. The show began with Tchaikovsky and a snowglobe effect. A tree rose up to fill the enchanted woodland set and a model strode out wearing an appliquéd brown cape and flat boots. Catwalk elves and Little Red Riding Hoods followed wearing capes with appliquéd velvet foxes on them and bejewelled pointed flat shoes.
Many of the looks were finished off with what is likely to be next season's most photographed accessory - the bejewelled balaclava.
There was a medieval element to the show - exemplified by those extravagant balaclavas. The look was said to be inspired by the Norman period of Sicilian history and was expressed in simple clean cuts, including a tunic with jewelled buttons over knitted leggings worn with flat pointed shoes and glitzy knights' headdresses. Had the designers been studying that period of Sicily's history? 'No we dreamed it,' was Gabbana's impish reply.
At times the secret garden theme was overpowering - a print representing the keys to a secret garden and a chiffon dress printed with squirrels strayed too far into Maid Marion territory. Best was when the theme could be seen working in real life. A black lace see-through tunic top with a high neck and elbow-length sleeves worn with a powder blue brocade skirt with appliquéd squirrels and jewelled acorns was a winner - it hinted at sex and sparkle with modern restraint.
The finale of shiny Tinkerbell dresses and tunics ticked the high glamour box but not in a way that might work for those actors still finalising their spray tans and worrying about what to wear next weekend. Backstage, when asked about Oscar night, Gabbana claimed it wasn't on the minds of the designer duo.
With Roberto Cavalli declaring this weekend that he didn't want to dress actors for awards ceremonies, a vamp drought at Gucci, sporty neoprene tailoring at Marni, and Donatella Versace showing gowns with removable sparkly sashes, the Oscar red carpet looks set to be more tasteful than ever.
An Oscar knight is, sadly, unlikely.
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