There is always a lot of talk about architectural styles in fashion and at times the most complicated and conceptual designs are described with this adjective. Yet, quite often, the best architectural styles are the simplest as proved by these designs from 1960 by Mario Luciani (Italian journalist Irene Brin used to collaborate with him and with Giovanni Battista "Bista" Giorgini in the early days of Italian fashion shows).

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The first ensemble included in this post came in wool shantung or silk and wool (so fabrics that were soft but at the same time still had some structure) in steel grey and consisted in a jacket and a dress.

The jacket had an almost traditional silhouette and was characterised by two distanced functional and decorative oval buttons. A horizontal slit added a minimalist dynamic to the garment. The same architectural motif was repeated in the matching dress that had an oblique fastening with a single oval button and a fabric belt around the waist.

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The second design was a "fake skirt suit": this was indeed a wool jersey dress in a dark grey shade that incorporated a straight skirt with a cropped top slightly detached from the body but anchored to the skirt with two buttons.

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The third design is probably the most interesting: it is a short sleeved Shetland wool honey tunic dress with a wide boat neck and a profiled silhouette that created a sense of movement on the front, punctuated by two decorative oval buttons. The dress was matched in this image with a black leather handbag decorated with a minimalist slit and a button that called to mind the horizontal slit in the jacket of the first ensemble included in this post. Have an architectural Sunday!

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