Here’s Why We’re in the Era of Sciura Style

JUST BEFORE THE Ferragamo show in Milan, a nonna called me out. She had sweeps of rich chestnut hair that mirrored the lush strips of fur lining her tweed jacket. Her handbag logo said “Prada.” Her facial expression said, “Oof.” We were sitting at a marble slab of a cafe; her with espresso as black as her Tod’s loafers, me with a heart-shaped cookie, the kind with raspberry jam oozing out the sides.

“That cookie is from the children’s menu here,” she said in a thick Milanese accent, her eyebrow arched, her smile amused. “You are eating like my 4-year-old granddaughter. You are dressed like her, too,” she laughed, pointing at my flouncy floral Cecile Bahnsen princess frock, which I’d paired with New Balance sneakers, giant sparkly barrettes, and an #OldCeline bomber jacket. “Is cute,” she grinned. “But you could be very beautiful, like a woman. You should wear some Armani.” She said it like she was giving me an assignment, then said, “Ciao,” and gave me a warm kiss on the cheek.

I had just encountered my first Sciura, a fearsome and fabulous Italian archetype. Older than 60 and richer than the saffron risotto butter at Clotilde, the Sciura is a Milanese woman whose elegant air and extensive designer closet propel her through daily life with unmistakable glamour. Think: If Cate Blanchett’s Carol went to Naples and met the wealthy intellectual women of My Brilliant Friend. The Sciura uses her Birkin instead of a reusable bag at the grocery store. The Sciura won’t go to her weekly mahjong game until her manicure is done. The Sciura tells Millennial women that a $12,000 peplum blazer and a deep commitment to Napa leather boots will make their lives infinitely better, and prego, she’s probably right.

The Sciura has been used as a style icon with regular reverence by Italian-founded labels like Fendi, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana. The reference goes back to the origins of Italian glamour, but really leaned in circa 2023. You can still see her in the strict seams on their wool jackets, the clacking of 18k gold link bracelets and necklaces, the dusty pastel silk scarves and cashmere turtlenecks in the same colour as Marchesi almond candies. But especially it’s the fur, pluming out from collars and cuffs. Gucci’s house mascot might be a bee, but veramente, it’s a Sciura.

The archetype got weirder this season — neon fuzz instead of lush brown; cropped tops under cropped jackets—thanks to Gen Z’s recent discovery, and online obsession, with these Italian elder stateswomen. There’s an Instagram account, Sciura Glam, that spies on them as if they’re k-pop stars. There are TikTok videos where the Valentino muses hold tiny fuzzy microphones and pretend, badly, they’re baffled that anyone is interested in them.

We’ve been seeing a lot of riffs on classic elegance during the Fall 2025 shows thus far, whether by way of updated shapes like tailored jackets with more loosely crafted peplum, or abstracted embellishments and textures like printed furs and off-beat embroideries. There’ve been designers whose no-nonsense repertoire have expanded to embrace this more energised, more cluttered version of glamour. It was pretty thrilling to see it at Bally, where designer Simone Bellotti had dusty pink stoles pushing out of black leather tops and pencil skirts. Tod’s augmented its pared-down-but-dressed-up sensibilities with a fur-print trench and brushed wool coats that mimicked the fuzz of mink. Model Irina Shayk sported snakeskin Tod’s boots made for “when I was your age, I slept with Fellini!” outbursts. At Prada, they laminated a shearling coat in plastic to mimic a grandma sofa that’s too nice to sit on. And subverted tweed abounded, especially at Antonio Marras, who interrupted some trusty teatime suiting with strips of olive and silver jacquard. “The personality and determination that only older women possess were important,” said Marras after the show. He confessed he was partial to the Sciura set for their “charisma, history, and experience.”

Maybe the most surprising Sciura moment came from Ferrari, the car brand trying to rev up its lifestyle offerings with a line by Rocco Iannone that’s pretty fun. Along with the requisite driving gloves and seatbelt-or-actual-belt touches, there was a Sciura-worthy gray suit made with puffy, inflatable fabric and a ladylike cropped jacket in gleaming headlight red. And, of course, the signature Sciura fur stole manifested itself, this time as a pencil skirt.

On the streets of Milan, teen Sciura tributes abound — which might be why the hometown label Sunnei added a floofy fur cap-sleeve to their decidedly Gen Z slip dress and Matrix-y yellow sunglasses. (The model carried shopping bags instead of handbags, as if headed to the bakery before hosting Sunday lunch.) But the city’s college students and young professionals prefer a slightly different homage to their grannies: Faux fur jackets paired with drag-on-the-cobblestone jeans and a statement bag, sometimes Prada or Dior and sometimes shaped like a puppy or cartoon character.

“Everyone knows the Sciuras are the most glamorous, so it is fun to dress like them,” said one such youth, 19-year-old Livi, of her giant faux fur Zara jacket. But does her nonna approve of the fur paired with old Levi’s jeans and Adidas Sambas? Not exactly. “I think if she was still alive, she would probably kill me.”

This article originally appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR US.