Geometries for the Body: Sharp Vs Soft Angles in Fashion

There are different ways to approach architectural references in fashion. Digital printing has provided quite a few designers with obvious structural references such as well defined and detailed images of buildings and other assorted architectural features. Yet the most interesting way to reference architecture is via tailored lines. Carlo Brandelli, Creative Director at historical Kilgour has cleverly done so in his Autumn/Winter 2015 menswear collection.

Kilgour has been going for a long time: founded in 1880 as T & F French, the tailoring house merged with A.H. Kilgour in 1923 turning into Kilgour & French. As Fred and Louis Stanbury joined in the mid-'20s, they introduced a sharp cut that attracted many elegant men (Cary Grant and Fred Astaire were among its prestigious clients). Brandelli started working for the Savile Row tailor at the end of the '90s as a freelancer. He bought the brand in 2004, but sold it four years later, resigning in 2009 to focus on a series of artistic projects.

When last January new owners arrived at Kilgour, Brandelli was offered the chance to go back as a freelance Creative Director and he accepted, hoping to introduce some architecturally based innovations in menswear.

The resulting collection – based on one main fabric, flannel – is a sort of compact study on certain elements and features of menswear tailoring, namely lapels, filtered through Brandelli's passion for sharp angles (the short film "Reflective 1" by Brandelli and Nick Knight on Kilgour's site references this inspiration through geometrically cut glass panels and mirrors).

Brandelli worked on the notch, the peak and the shawl lapel: he reduced the curve of the shawl substituting it with angles; eliminated the notch and reshaped the peak. He also eliminated the pocket flap and left in its space a small rectangle of fabric in a contrasting colour. The resulting structure is a jacket or a coat clearly defined and highlighted by seams.

Though Brandelli mainly worked on perfecting the jacket and left behind the trousers that may have actually benefited a bit more from his angular obsession, he worked on developing with Adidas a hybrid sneaker with a flannel upper on which wearers can use tailor's chalk and customise the iconic three stripes. Now it will have to be seen if Brandelli will be focusing on more collaborations, work on creating an angular vocabulary for menswear or if he will just re-shift his focus on more artistic projects (he could easily come up with an artistic project entitled "The Lapel Variations"…).

The story was different at Max Mara's Pre-Fall 2015, but it had at the same time an architectural connection, this time with softer angles. Creative Director Ian Griffiths combined several inspirations together in this collection that were all linked with the new Renzo Piano-designed Whitney Museum of American Art.

Max Mara will sponsor its opening party in May (an event that will strengthen the link between the company's founder Achille Maramotti's passion for art and his heirs' work at the Collezione Maramotti), so Griffiths channelled in the images of wildlife (bobcats and owls) on coats and ample cashmere sweaters Fritz Haeg's "Animal Estates 1.0: New York, New York" installation at the 2008 Whitney Biennial (the installation prompted visitors to ponder about the animals we share our urban habitats with), mixing them with abstract elements that called to mind Robert Smithson's land art images as exhibited at the Whitney.

Though there were further references to artists in the show notes (Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring among the others) and the location of the new Whitney Museum in New York's Meatpacking District also inspired a connection with legendary nightclub The Roxy (the silvery sequinned disco ball tops and wide-leg trousers), the focus was on soft tailoring (the functionally elegant long belted or double-breasted coats in black, grey and vivid red) and soft fabrics/materials (double-face cashmere, ultrasuede puffer coats with fox collars and shearlings).

The Renzo Piano reference was taken to the next stage via the "Whitney bag", a black/brown bag designed by Max Mara and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to reproduce the museum's steel-beamed exterior. Piano often states he tells stories through his buildings, it looks like this year his tales will expand to incorporate also the language of fashion and the semantics of accessories.