Milan, March 2 - Mothers know best at Dolce & Gabbana whose fall-winter 2015 Viva la Mamma collection on Sunday afternoon celebrated motherhood - an ideal follow-up of the family theme showcased last month for men's wear.

Both shows came with Twitter hashtags to heighten the social media appeal of the duo's storylines, this time #DG mamma.

"Fashion is cold if you don't tell a story, if you don't show your feelings," the designers said.

"You arrive, you watch a fashion show and you go, but life isn't like that".

On Sunday, the inspiration was not confined to the setting, which included six-month pregnant model Bianca Balti, three models carrying babies and a little girl walking down the catwalk to the beat of the Spice Girls' 1996 hit song Mama.

Motherhood had a major impact on the clothes.

Dresses and sweaters featured scrawled child-to-mother 'I love you' messages and prints of children's drawings of houses, trees, queens and butterflies.

The naivete of the patterns did nothing to tone down the clothes' strong femininity - a house staple.

Accessories included huge shopping bags in mink and bejeweled headphones, a tongue-in-cheek hint at the mother who wants to escape it all - her children's noise, the food shopping - if only for just a brief spell.

Tight-fitting pencil skirt suits, A-line mini dresses, bustier gowns and sensual coats, red roses embroidered on black and pink dresses and furs enhanced the mother-femme fatale duality of womanhood in a sexy melting pot that has become a trademark of the Italian fashion house turning 20 next fall.

This romantic ode to family was also a business-savvy move for a company that was listed as one of the top 10 Italian fashion houses in a recent Mediobanca study of the country's leading 135 fashion brands.

Dolce & Gabbana Junior was launched in 2012 and data released last month by the Italian federation of fashion businesses Sistema Moda Italia (SMI) showed that children's wear in crisis-hit Italy grew some 1.5% last year, with revenues exceeding 2.6 billion euros.

And the buzz at the weekend was also centered around Peter Dundas's likely departure from Florentine fashion house Pucci, where he has been creative director since 2009 and where he expressed his own vision for the brand that became a global jet set staple in the 1960s.

Dundas had come from fellow Florentine label Roberto Cavalli, and rumor has it he might be heading back there after the company is sold. It was a vision he spelled out in 61 looks on Sunday, one of an unapologetically youthful and sexy take on the house's aristocracy. There were high-impact hand-made prints in the style of founder Emilio Pucci, as well as black-and-white Op Art sequined dresses and zodiac motifs on ankle-length jersey dresses.

There were also references to past hits that have marked the designer's tenure, like the bold velvet pants and sexy shirt combos.

And along with rumors on where the Pucci legacy is headed after the meaningful direction given by Dundas, the upcoming sale of a majority stake in Cavalli was very much the talk of Milan's front row over the weekend.

Roberto Cavalli, who founded and molded the brand into one of the best-known worldwide, looked to the east to concoct the mixture that has turned his clothes into stand-alone icons over the past two decades - his vision of the sex bomb.

Heavily beaded patterns from the Ming dynasty, opium-garden embroideries over a tiger motif and silk fringes sweeping the catwalk in the grand finale were as much a component of the fall 2015 collection as the signature looks that have always been a part of the brand's identity.

The rich handmade detailing, the stunning prints, the sexy vibe of a sinuous pleated dress with cutout diamond shapes or an exotic print mini dress all followed Cavalli's career-long train of thought.

With sale talks entering due diligence, CEO Daniele Corvasce said the current ownership could remain involved and Cavalli could stay on as the founding partner.

Dundas is likely to take the helm as creative director, according to well-informed sources.

He could be replaced at Pucci by the founder and designer of hit brand MSGM Massimo Giorgetti or by Marco Zanini, who left his post as head of women's collections at the house of Schiaparelli in November 2014 after just a year.

Cavalli will sell a stake worth "over 51%", said Corvasce.

Meanwhile, the designer told ANSA he does not plan on "leaving his origins" any time soon.

"I hope that I can rest," he also said.