Notes on Milan Fashion Week, From Fashion ‘It’ Girls Yan Yan Chan and Gabriella Brooks
January 1 | 3 minute read
Words by Ruby Devlin
Originally published on | March 13
The celebration of smoky eyes, perfect tailoring and mesh was Peter Hawking’s second venture as the Creative Director of Tom Ford and as model Gabriella Brooks and content creator Yan Yan Chan tell us, it was the show to attend.
We tap the two – in between their stiletto-ing through Milan's cobbled streets and sipping on Aperols – to get the inside word on the show, their get-ready rituals and all things Tom Ford Beauty.
The best part of the season is catching up with people from all over, agrees Yan Yan and Gabriella. “Bumping into old friends, making new ones,” reminisces Yan Yan, having come straight to Milan from London Fashion Week. Gabriella, who has been modelling since she was 14, agrees, adding, “It’s really a special time.”
Yan Yan walks the streets of Milan
Gabriella applies the finishing touches to her look - Tom Ford’s Lip Colour Matte
“I’m wearing this Tom Ford croc leather jacket, with matching short shorts and knee-high boots.” She tells us she was also inspired by Tom Ford's grungy designs from the late ’90s.
The yin to her Yan, Gabriella opted for a cream sheer dress with a gold neckline. Known for her elevated, minimalistic style, she paired the look with a simple, but ultra chic, makeup look – letting her brows be the star of the show with the Tom Ford Brow Sculptor.
Yan Yan says she wanted her look to be extra glam
Gabriella explains it’s the natural vibe she’s most drawn to: “This is how I feel most confident.”
She finishes the look with Tom Ford’s Lip Colour Matte in the shade ‘100’ on her lips and cheeks, adding, “I love the continuity and how it blends so seamlessly.”
Gabriella says she let’s her mood each day inspire her looks
Yan Yan – with Tom Ford’s Shade and Illuminate Blush on her cheeks and a swipe of the Lip Colour Matte in ‘100’ – notes her preference for one stand-out feature when it comes to makeup, saying, “We decided to focus on the eye”. Using Tom Ford's Eye Defining Pen, she described the look as, "nothing too graphic but nothing too smoky. It’s tight and close to the lash line”.
Yan Yan puts the final touches on her look
As a final touch, Yan Yan spritzes the brand's newest scent, Vanilla Sex. “I love a fragrance that enters the room before the person,” she tells us, continuing, “Milano is the city of great people-watching, but it’s also a city where people smell really really good. That’s one thing I’ve taken away from this trip. Always smell good and have extra-long lunch breaks.”
After the show, the pair – neither strangers to the wonderful world of fashion weeks – filled us in on the Tom Ford Winter 2024 show. Gabriella says one of the final looks – an almost sheer, bedazzled jumpsuit with a matching coat – took her breath away. “The model’s skin had the perfect amount of luminosity. It paired beautifully with the dark eye, ” she describes. Yan Yan added, “Tom Ford is the best when it comes to tailoring” as she gushed about the array of three-piece suits on the runway.
Final touch ups backstage at Tom Ford’s show
With the flashing lights of Milan Fashion Week coming to a halt and signalling the end of another season, our correspondents on the ground packed up, ready for the long flights home. Yan Yan gives us her list of must do things in the incredible Italian city, “If you have 24 hours in Milan, I would recommend; visiting Piero Portaluppi’s Villa Necchi, having lunch at Bice, walking past the Duomo, and ending the evening with an Aperol at Bar Basso,” she informs us before adding, “Oh, and Espresso’s in between!”
Before they departed we had to ask which Tom Ford products they kept in their cases. “I always keep Lipstick 100 in my handbag. She comes in handy”. Yan Yan tells us. For Gabriella, it’s also a lip product: “The Lip Blush – I always have it on me.”
