Lucio Fontana slashed his canvases to explore the hidden dimensions beyond them, a microcosmic free space the artist was so fond of and about which he stated, "My discovery was the hole and that's it. I'm happy to go to my grave after such a discovery."
Fontana's slashes were often echoed in fashion collections and cuts returned in Undercover's S/S 23 designs. Yet, this collection was neither a tribute to Fontana nor a punk gesture.
Presented during Paris Fashion Week at the American Cathedral on Avenue George V, in a solemn atmosphere, the collection featured several slashed garments.
The designer left all the slashes open and didn't attempt to mend any of them: fluid pantsuits, crispy white or beige shirts, casual separates, and statement T-shirts emblazoned with one word – Dream, Sweet, Angel, Love – all looked as if they had been vandalised with a blade.
In some cases, the open wounds were lined with ruffled organza and lace or sprouted colourful fabric flowers; in others, gemstones were appliqued around the slashes, almost to elevate them to badges of honour.
There was a metaphor behind the slashes: Jun Takahashi has been away from the Paris runways since Covid-19 hit.
This show marked an emotional return and, through the slashes, the designer symbolized the unhealed pain we all went through. More metaphorical slashes have opened in our minds since Covid-19 started, more worries and anxieties clutter our minds, from adverse weather conditions all over the world caused by climate change to the war in Ukraine.
The collection also featured a selection of slip dresses with a second dress that seemed to protrude from the waist and the show closed with four demi-couture bulbous strapless constructions – a red slashed design, a sphere of green tin foil, a turquoise bubble and a beige cotton spherical gown ripped apart and blooming with neon-coloured flowers.
Lucio Fontana went beyond space with his slashes, but here there was a different meaning, the slash represented a wound that we all carry inside, maybe the pain suffered during the early months of Covid-19, an illness, the death of a dear one, fragments of life that have exploded leaving us shell shocked, hit by invisible shrapnel like Undercover's models who had tears in their eyes (that actually seemed almost real compared to the prosthetic teardrops trickling down the cheeks of some of the models in Gucci's A/W 19 collection).
A symbol of emotional turmoil, the tears were a reminder of our collective human condition and hinted at the fact that many of us (or maybe all of us…) are still hurting.
But there was a positive message as well on the runway: flowers blooming, creeping from the wounds, and the slashes in a bomber and a biker jacket that transformed the back of the designs into something new and elegant, almost a bow, reminded us that life goes on and that, if we move forward, we will see those vividly bright flowers bloom from the deepest recesses of our wounds and be healed. At least that's what we dream, hope and wish for.
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