Roberto Cavalli

The taxis and courtesy cars, street style and front row stars are back in Milan on Sept. 21 as fashion week returns with mostly live audiences for the first time in 18 months.

Russia?s lurch into recession has hit many tourism and luxury goods companies hard, forcing them to cut prices and in turn costs in an attempt to limit the damage.

And there are few signs things will get better soon, with a fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine doing little to ease international tensions over Moscow?s support for pro-Russian separatists in the region.