Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

Optically modern or elegantly pleated?

In a previous post a few days ago I briefly analysed the arty inspirations behind Alexander McQueen’s S/S 2010 menswear collection. The same ballpoint pen scribbles and paint splashes and splotches the designer applied to his men’s garments, reappeared also in his Resort 2010 collection.

McQueen also applied Victor Vasarely’s optical prints to pagoda shouldered jackets, dresses and leggings in bright/red blue and yellow/black.

The fine tract of M.C. Escher's illustrations seemed instead to be applied to cobweb-like leggings and to the overlay of a yellow dress.

Rodolfo Paglialunga spent the last few months studying Madeleine Vionnet’s history and archive.

Paglialunga, who worked for over a decade with Miuccia Prada, became a few months ago the new creative director of the historical French maison, recently bought by Italian entrepreneur Matteo Marzotto.

Designers who previously worked for the maison or who were inspired by Vionnet in their collections made one major mistake: they stopped at the draped and pleated motifs, producing perfectly looking Grecian style tunics.

Yet Vionnet was more than just pleats, the key to her dresses and garments was in fact geometry.

She indeed conceived her dresses as flat designs that became three-dimensional once they were worn. Paglialunga did the same in Vionnet's Cruise collection and, while his tunics and dresses displayed a complete knowledge of the pleated techniques, the flat cut he applied to the fabric showed he tried to achieve what Vionnet had successfully managed to do, allowing the fabric to fall freely on the body in a harmonious way.

Perfect details such as the cut out motifs on the shoulders helped the fabric to flow fluidly on the body and on the arms and the designer carefully studied the proportions and the movement of the fabric on the body.

I’m curious to see where Paglialunga will take the maison in future, but I guess that, if this is just the debut, we can hope for great things.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

projektGALERIE Designer Showroom

If you are currently in Berlin or are planning to arrive soon for the Bread & Butter trade show or the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, and you would like to visit also an alternative place connected with fashion, try the projektGALERIE Designer Showrooms.

Visitors will be able to view in this special space collections by Hermann Fankhauser e Helga Schania’s NEWH Denim by W&J and Wendy & Jim & HELL (a special underwear line created by Fankhauser e Schania in collaboration with DJ Hell);  the classically modern menswear line Sopopular, Seelenkleid by Kazachstan-born Ella Haberlach (a collection mainly characterised by an artisanal approach), accessory and design company 72smalldive, Sarah Heartbo’s Bo van Melskens, Carly Hunter, Antonia Goy, and Sandra Schmidt’s Mangelware just to mention a few ones.

The event will be on from the 1st to the 3rd of July, 11am - 9pm at the HOF96 | Torstrasse 96 in the Mitte district of Berlin.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Sonia Delaunay in a Ferragamo shop window

The 1900s were great times for the interchange between art and fashion.

Indeed couturiers often turned to the world of arts and used its main themes, prints and inspirations in their design.

Artists and designers started collaborating together, sparkling through their innovative work new styles, attitudes and trends.

Painter Sonia Delaunay experimented with what she defined as simultaneous clothing and suggested new decorative solutions through her striking fabric designs and embroidered and patchwork techniques that combined different threads and materials in geometric designs and patterns.

Her fabrics were essentially an explosion of colours and her dresses were characterised by a simplified cut that helped highlighting the colourful patterns.

Delaunay also wrote the essay L’influence de la peinture sur la mode in which she analysed the mechanism behind chromatic perception and the relationship between different colour options.

In the fashion world Salvatore Ferragamo could be compared to Sonia Delaunay. By combining luxurious skins – from suede to kangaroo, snake and crocodile – he created unique patchworks of textures for his footwear or arranged differently coloured squares of suede and leather in geometrical patterns, exploring revolutionary colour combinations (see first pic in this post).
 
The Delaunay-Ferragamo connection has recently been rediscovered: some vintage shoe models by Ferragamo have indeed been re-launched by the Florentine maison and the Florence-based shop (Via dei Tornabuoni 2) also boasts in its window a black coat with a colourful Delaunay-like lining (that reminds me in a way of Schiaparelli's Harlequin coat), as you can see from the second pic in this post.  

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Milano Moda Uomo: Roberto Cavalli, Salvatore Ferragamo, Moschino, Calvin Klein Collection, Prada, Moncler Gamme Bleu, Z Zegna

As usual fears that at Roberto Cavalli’s catwalk show glam may have dominated the runway, reigning supreme over fashion sense and sensibility, were understandably high. Luckily, though, it was the more crafty aspect of Cavalli that prevailed.

The Florentine designer is among the few ones who led interesting and successful experiments with leather and for his Spring/Summer 2010, he went back to his roots, exploiting the new possibilities this material can offer.

Leather jackets and skinny trousers were characterised by laser cut-outs, hardware decorations (could that be a trend? Just in case, stock up on nuts and bolts from your local hardware store…) or embellishments created with special embossing techniques that gave the impression something alien had interposed between the skin of the models and their leather garments.

Trousers – in black leather or in pastel colours – were characterised by an extended waistband that folded and flopped over the hips. As a whole the collection was rather coherent, though heavily verging towards the Edward Scissorhands look. 

Massimiliano Giornetti displayed at Salvatore Ferragamo the same obsession with colours showed by Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, though the former opted for a juxtaposition of bright and neutral colours. Rich orange suits were accessorised with electric blue envelope bags; intense yellow jumpers and trousers were matched with dark jackets and bronze/beige bicoloured suits added a post-modernist touch to the collection.

But the juxtaposition appeared to exist not only in the colours: Giornetti sent out on the runway both youthful looks and more classical, almost old-fashioned, pin-striped and double-breasted suits worn with fedora hats.

Two-tone raffia shoes were instead the male version of the legendary crocheted raffia shoes Ferragamo himself designed during the 40s, when shortages of materials pushed him to find new fashionable solutions.  
 
There are times when I wished Elsa Schiaparelli was still alive, just to see the reaction she would have at seeing her newspaper print being reused ad nauseam by some designers and brands.

Moschino’s S/S 2010 collection was heavily influenced (once again) by the iconic newspaper print.

Employed on shirts and trousers it was alternated with surreal splashes and splotches of ink printed on 50s jackets, waistcoats, trousers, ties and even hats.

Contrasts were created by unnecessary nerd/Clark Kent looks achieved via cropped tailored check suits and retro glasses. You wished there had been fewer newspaper prints and even fewer jackets with patches and slogans that seemed to have been stolen from the wardrobe of a member of the Manic Street Preachers (circa early 90s) and that the possibilities of the paint splashes had been investigated a little bit further as they could have provided more interesting looks.

Designer Italo Zucchelli provided a study of contrasts for Calvin Klein Collection. Mesh sleeves and light nylon see-through tailored jackets and shirts contrasted with matte garments.

Sporty and tailored inspirations were investigated, the final result showing how Zucchelli wisely manages to mix his classical skills with the latest development in technological fabrics.

The colour palette – comprising light silver-grey, beige, military green, bright turquoise, orange and iridescent nuances – was based not only on the theme of lightness but also on studies about light refraction and proved the designer was extremely coherent while coming up with this collection.   
      
Miuccia Prada often injected cinematographic inspirations into her collections. Prada’s S/S 2010 menswear collection has one main connection with cinema and that’s the different shades of grey that characterise black and white movies.

Dark anthracite jackets were matched with light dove trousers and vice versa, while V-neck soft sleeveless tops characterised by perforated motifs were layered one on top of the other to create a stratified look.

Analysing the effects different grey nuances could produce when used in the same outfit was just one of the designer’s aims: the recurrent perforated details that decorated the shoulder area of coats, the micro perforations that pierced the trilby hats and the patterns of holes drilled into the leather shoes, was an attempt at playing with the light, while also being a way to metaphorically make the Prada man more vulnerable, piercing his clothes to reveal his skin.

The uniformity of the main looks was broken by cut off shorts with trailing hems, and houndstooth and almost optical prints that created a sort of 3-D illusion on the carefully selected fabrics. As a whole the collection was extremely well balanced, sober and saleable.

The historical indoor Cozzi swimming pool, hailing from Mussolini’s times but renovated and reopened at the end of last year in Milan, became the set for Thom Browne's Moncler Gamme Bleu catwalk. Originally opened in May 1934, the swimming pool was for decades an important landmark for the local swimmers and even featured an avant-garde opening roof designed by Luigi Secchi.
 
Leaving behind his cloned office workers, Browne opened the collection with a hieratic looking group of swimmers clad in towelling capes and wearing goggles. As they removed their capes and dived into the lap pool, you suddenly felt you were in an Esther Williams films with male protagonists.

While the athletes swam in the pool, one by one the models removed their capes revealing functional parkas and shorts in techno fabrics, grey suits and navy blue trench coats with prints of little nautical flags, see-through nylon overalls, jackets and trousers worn on top of navy blue suits and plaid printed nylon suits.

The collection oozed Thom Browne’s aesthetic and tailored sensibility and this heavily risked at times of obscuring the brand identity.

While the cropped/short suits and tailored garments were rather pleasant, there was one rather embarrassing mistake, the very last item, a sort of slightly padded Moncler tuxedo jacket with trailing tails worn over a scuba diving suit. Rather than understated elegance for a yacht owner, it created the perfect alternative look for The Penguin (of Batman fame...).

Among the brands and designers that showcased their collections on the very last day of the Milan menswear catwalks there is one that intrigued me, Z Zegna.

I was expecting to see a subdued classicism that still moved from this  historical brand’s heritage, but designer Alessandro Sartori opted for a modern and urban dandy style.

Pinstriped trousers, tie neck blouses, tailcoats with frayed hems accessorised with watch chains, raffia top hats and even spat-like bicoloured boots, set a new fashion code for an elegantly modern man.

Indeed, even though some garments were worthy of Dorian Gray, they actually showed a few post-modernist details: in some cases the pockets were surrealistically slightly longer than the jackets, while the lapels of doubled jackets transformed into scarves that extended beyond the hem of the jacket.

Sartori managed to perfectly combine style, sophistication and modernity also through the bicoloured trench coats, the perfect grey trousers that contrasted with the electric blue tailored jackets and the light black leather jackets with perforated motifs.

Despite heavy doses of subtle elegance being injected in some of the contemporary menswear collections, casual and sporty outfits often end up prevailing.

With this collection Sartori brought to the world of menswear a new kind of refinement, while wishing to see the return of a man with a modern and distinctively stylish sophistication both on the runways and in everyday life. You can only hope his wish will become true very soon.    

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Analyse him: Alexander McQueen S/S 2010

I often tend to dedicate longer posts to Alexander McQueen’s collections since I think the British designer always makes interesting points about fashion, art and society. 

McQueen’s menswear collection for the next Spring/Summer season, for example, focused on an interesting theme: entitled “Analyze That”, the collection tackled the agony and the ecstasy behind the creative process.

Exploring this theme with a traditional catwalk may have proved tricky, but McQueen opted for a short film made in collaboration with British photographer David Sims that showed a young tortured artist smearing clay on walls.

The collection - showcased in a nearby room - featured the sort of clothes an artist may be wearing while creating a work of art: ballpoint pen scribbles and surreal oil/coffee stains were printed on shirts; worn out trousers were paired with long oversized cardigans pierced by little holes; patchwork printed jackets were matched with paint splattered trousers and shoes.

Workwear was echoed in the Thayaht-meets-mechanic overalls, while jackets, shirts and trousers with large prints of paint-smeared hands seemed to have been stolen from the workshop of a painter.

Among the best pieces there were a suit with long streaks of dribbling paint and jackets, shirts and waistcoats with disturbing prints of stains evoking Rorschach tests.

It was interesting to see how, rather than opting for a collection inspired by the work of one artist as designers often do, McQueen focused on that delicate process that precedes a work of art, purposely staining with casual patterns of paint his tailored garments, showing as a whole a more relaxed and less theatrical, yet rather "tortured" collection.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Milano Moda Uomo: Bottega Veneta, Frankie Morello, Gucci, Vivienne Westwood, Neil Barrett, Gianfranco Ferré, Versace, Giuliano Fujiwara

Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection could be summarised with a statement: boys, or rather men, just want to have fun.

The brand’s pièces de résistance – its large intrecciato bags – appeared on the catwalk in their bi-coloured version, alternated to crocodile skin bags in intense aquamarine.

Yet Tomas Maier must have felt men need to inject more than just a little bit of colour in their wardrobes, hence the tie dye scarves, blazers and pin-striped jackets and the suits in bright lacquered red and dark purple worn with matching scarves.

Jackets had sharp pagoda style shoulders, a very modern and trendy detail in otherwise classical garments, structured following the principles of the Neapolitan tailoring school (will write more about it in a future post, promise...).

The sporty/casual, yet luxurious look prevailed as the leather baseball bombers, soft jumpers, military green shorts and jackets in light techno fabrics or with asymmetrical zips also showed.

Crumpled fabrics contrasted with the gentle elegance of flower printed jackets and shiny patent leather shoes. The message seemed to be very simple: no need to tone down your style, wear dull clothes and say goodbye to creativity, even in times of crisis.

Hence the cropped trousers that let a short purple sock with a little red butterfly be seen and the printed intarsia trousers. And if you really need to tone things down for what regards colours, Maier seemed to warn, opt for a deep blue classic double-breasted jacket worn with a pair of denim trousers.   

The ironic brand Frankie Morello usually successfully manages to make fashion critics and journalist forget that you can be as theatrical as you can during a catwalk show, yet what counts, at the very end, is the product you are trying to sell.

Transporting the audience to a gentleman’s club, the brand presented a mainly sport inspired collection that featured juvenile delinquents turned baseball players, glamorous golf players and dandified polo players and jockeys wearing shirts and jackets criss-crossed by fetishistic yet essentially useless harnesses. The trompe l’oeil jumpers with boy scout scarves or harnesses would have been interesting if they hadn’t been the umpteenth reinvented and renovated version of Schiaparelli’s seminal Armenian jumper (yawn).

Sport was also on Frida Giannini’s mind when she designed the new Gucci collection and there were genuine moments when you thought that, at least for this time, men were safe from excessive amounts of glamour.

Light parkas in techno fabrics or with mesh inserts and perforated details, trousers and sleeveless jackets inspired by scuba-diving suits, translucent swim trunks and bags in rubbery materials genuinely made you hope for a new direction that mixed the brand's historical experience with the current advanced discoveries and developments in terms of fabrics. 

Even the jackets, trousers and shirts with printed motifs inspired by tapestry-woven carpets and rugs were acceptable, but it was instead slightly unnecessary to see on the runway shiny suits in bright shades of blue and pink, proving that glam is for Giannini and her fans an irresistible state of mind.     
 
Eye patches, tricorn hats and nautical motifs made you think that Vivienne Westwood was trying once again to channel the pirate look. But Joker face painting, sardonic smiles traced on the upper lips of the models, a few fetishistic whips and Robin Hood and Zorro hats revealed there were further inspirations behind this collection.

In fact there were maybe too many inspirations, too many looks and a significant absence of coherence. Quite nice and sensible white, black and charcoal suits, check trench coats, striped drop-crotch trousers and original knitwear with intarsia of big cat’s eyes were indeed obscured by the amount of runway looks. Keeping it shorter would have been probably more effective, as Neil Barrett proved.

Playing on perfect symmetries and geometries Barrett came up with a collection that featured perfectly cut double-breasted mackintoshes in three different shades of grey and long jackets and shirts that contributed to pleasantly elongate the silhouette.

Barrett’s tailoring skills were at the bottom of the entire collection that was also characterised by soft leather panels applied with a special technique onto thin jersey shirts and jackets.

It was interesting to see how in some cases the leather panels gave particular garments an almost sculptural feel, obscuring the rest of the outfits and in particular the jackets, shirts and trousers with prints of Baroque swirls that looked almost out of place in such a clean and aesthetically pleasant collection.

Though Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi tried to reduce the cumbersome silhouette they used for their Gianfranco Ferré’s A/W 09 collection, their second menswear collection still showed an unnecessary rigidity of forms.

Lapels were reduced, volumes were slimmer, but shoulders were rather sharp and garments seemed to be a bit too formal. They made an effort at softening it all up with denim jackets, military green overalls and bush jackets, but should have maybe avoided the nautical shirts with the golden embroidered logo of the maison.

While for what regards the womenswear collections, Aquilano and Rimondi have more or less found their path to enlightenment and maybe even a way to inject new life into the historical maison, menswear might still be a tricky spot.  

I must admit that I wasn’t too confident in what Versace’s menswear collection had to offer. In my mind I tend to file many major Italian fashion houses under the same (glitzy/glam/pretentious/for people with lots of money and not much taste) category.

Alexandre Plokhov managed instead to do the trick by offering as main inspiration the story of an adventuresome French Foreign Legionnaire who adapts his wardrobe to the desert climate and to the fashion of the tribes he meets.

The collection verged more or less on the explorer’s theme seen already at Ermenegildo Zegna and Missoni's, with loosely fitting djellabas used also as evening wear, little bags tied around the waist and bamboo printed ochre leather panels applied on jumpers.

Details were interesting, especially the intrecciato motif appearing on the shoulders of vest tops, but brightly coloured T-shirts with prints of crocodile skin, an alligator jacket and a few rather unoriginal pieces of jewellery may have been avoided (though these will probably become bestsellers among Versace aficionados...).

Giuliano Fujiwara’s creative director Masataka Matsumura provided a safe landing for his menswear collection: parachute safety harnesses were used almost as decorations inside and outside jackets, offering a sort of post-modernist grid to frame and outline the tailored garments or cage the models' feet into men's gladiator sandals.

Tomato red suits matched with acid yellow shoes, light lime blazers and electric blue shirts and jackets gave a strong energy to the entire collection, that, though modern and urban, proved that Matsumura has some genuine talent when it comes to tailoring skills as also perfect light coats, denim jackets and long shirts fractured by long horizontal cuts showed.

A final honourable mention goes to the necklaces that seemed to be made with oversized 3-D Tetris-like pieces and that added an unusual and extravagant touch to classic blazers and cardigans.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Soft architectures: Gianfranco Ferré’s Resort 2010 collection

I must admit I wasn’t expecting Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi, Gianfranco Ferré’s creative directors, to go this soft.

Mind you this is not necessarily bad criticism, but I was surprised to see how for the Gianfranco Ferré’s 2010 Resort collection, the design duo opted for softer silhouettes that are structurally perfect, but are maybe less focused on architecture compared to the ones they favoured in their previous collections.

Indeed, though the outfits in the collection were rather sensual, they also displayed less rigid and more feminine lines, compared to the previous collections Aquilano-Rimondi designed for Ferré.

The collection features linear dresses in beige with toga-like draped details; mini-dresses with ruffles cascading over one shoulder; black jumpsuits with a draped bodice culminating in a row of ribbons; boat neck dresses and mini-dresses cinched at the waist by tall leather belts.

Could this be the future for Ferré's Resort, a younger line that appeals to younger generations? We will have to wait and see, since so far Aquilano and Rimondi have showed enough talent, but also a little bit of that schizophrenic confusion that often characterises the world of fashion. Let's just hope the former will keep on prevailing.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Carta e Costura and Isabella Tonchi @ Villa Vittoria

Walking around Florence's Villa Vittoria last week and having a look at the pre-collections of a group of British designers invited for the first time to meet the Italian buyers, I found two interesting Italian designers, Carta e Costura and Isabella Tonchi.

The former is the brainchild of Alessandra Carta, a Milanese fashion and costume designer. Carta studied stage design at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and first started working as a theatre and cinema costume designer (one of the few Italian contemporary fashion designers I have heard of who comes from such and interesting background). In 2006 she decided to focus on fashion and launched her own brand.

From the S/S 09 season, designer Stefano Fornari joined Alessandra. 
Carta e Costura’s creations combine urban inspirations and haute couture and have just that little bit of theatricality that we all need in our lives.

The collection I had the chance of previewing at Villa Vittoria was quite interesting: it was almost entirely based on two colours, white/ivory, and featured dresses, jackets, skirt suits and trench coats all characterised by a clean cut.

I particularly liked a very simple white cotton one-shoulder dress in which the fabric was pleated and draped as if it were paper, creating wave-like motifs.

I wasn’t allowed to take pics of Isabella Tonchi’s new collection, but I found it disquieting interesting.

It was based on the memento mori theme and featured prints of dancing skeletons on linen dresses and tops. It was Baroque yet urban and a little bit ironic.

Isabella Tonchi first worked at Fiorucci and in the 90s she designed also for Miu Miu. I’m posting here a pic of a detail of a black and white striped (almost optical) dress from Tonchi’s A/W 08-09 collection. I love the way the bi-coloured puffball sleeves seem to be constructed using a sort of "stratification" technique.

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Milano Moda Uomo: Ermenegildo Zegna, C.P. Company, Costume National, Dolce & Gabbana, Jil Sander, Missoni, Armani

Attendance numbers at June's 76th edition of Pitti Uomo weren't fantastically high, yet they were slightly better, compared to the rates recorded in January.

One strong trend prevailed at the Florence-based trade show and that's the importance of offering consumers quality products - a concept many companies forgot about in the last few years in favour of, maybe cheaper, but less luxurious clothes and accessories - accompanied by another concept, that of discreet “everyday luxury”.

These concepts were also at the core of the Milan's menswear catwalk shows, together with another key point: innovating one's designs by going back to your own roots as Missoni or Armani did.

In the next few posts I will try to catch up with the Milano Moda Uomo catwalk shows, alternating them with the Parisian menswear shows. 

Milano Moda Uomo was presented in a shortened edition, condensed in just four days in which 41 designers and brands presented their collections through catwalk shows, while 54 labels decided to opt for press presentations.

One of the first catwalk shows last week was Ermenegildo Zegna's. The company, that is celebrating next year its centenary, is traditionally synonymous with stylish and tailored pieces, but this time Zegna’s collection was characterised by a younger appeal.

Suede blouses and trousers had a relaxed silhouette; soft cardigans gently opened on jersey shirts; linen suits had a streamlined silhouette while cotton canvas trench coats were characterised by round shoulders.

Large bags and raffia hats completed a few looks, hinting at the main theme behind this collection, travelling, while the colour palette went from grey to beige/cream/white with a few splashes of purple. Zegna may be on the right path to renewing and updating itself, though, if it wants to attract younger customers, it will have to be less scared of using colours. 

There was a sort of monochromatic syndrome also at C.P. Company's show. The hope of seeing something new and maybe uplifting also thanks to the arrival of  the new menswear head designer Wallace Faulds, was dramatically reduced by a series of pants with rolled cuffs and tops in plain fabrics and pleasant, though not really varied, shades of blue. In a way it was hard not to wish to see on the catwalk more designs revolutionising the concept behind the brand like Aitor Throup did a while back with his Mille Miglia jacket.

A thirst for everything young and slightly rebellious was probably in Ennio Capasa’s mind while he worked on the new Costume National collection. Unfortunately, though, any kind of rebellious instinct he might have had was reduced to a kaffiyeh scarf wrapped around the neck or around the shoulders. There wasn’t anything extraordinarily new in the suits, while linen mesh tops paired with silk trousers with floral embroideries, also used in dressing-gown-like jackets, produced the undesirable “warrior turned dandy” look.

It’s only natural that in a country where the Prime Minister enlists young local women to be the members of his very personal harem, some fashion designers decide to have their high-profile customer’s pet/toy boy on the runway.

It happened at Dolce & Gabbana's where Madonna’s partner Jesus Luz modelled some looks from the new collection after starring in the brand’s new advertising campaign photographed by Steven Klein and inspired by Luchino Visconti’s Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers). Luz was actually perfect to incarnate the Latin macho look that D&G's fans love.

Dolce & Gabbana's collection featured dazzling evening jackets decorated with sparkling crystals and intricate embroideries and patterns, denim trousers ripped to pieces with long johns-meet-boxer pants peeking out and even denim shirts (right when you thought we had managed to get rid of them...) also available in crumpled and washed versions.

Luxurious embroidered bathing robes, voluminous knitwear, sequins on vests and black trousers, perforated details on jackets (actually the most interesting part of the collection) screamed excess, while the foreign press got excited by what was described as "men’s clutch bags", better known in Italy simply as the borsello, an accessory often carried by mature men, especially in the past, say between the 60s-70s (by the way, thanks for making it popular again, rather than buying it, I think we will dig it out from our uncles/grandfathers' wardrobes...).

There were tenuous references to D&G’s Sicilian roots in the skinny pinstriped suits and coppola hats, the latter worn with leather jackets and black trousers, a look that called to mind the clothes favoured by Simone in Visconti’s Rocco e i suoi fratelli.

Fans of the art and fashion connection rejoiced at Jil Sander's show where Raf Simons filtered the classic lines of menswear through the art of Japanese artist Tsuguharu Foujita.

In some cases even the models’ hairstyles and glasses echoed Foujita’s signature bowl cut hair and circular frame glasses, while the artist's works were printed on trousers and almost transparent vests, shirts and cardigans.

Lightness was definitely one of the main themes of the collection, emphasised by the prevalently white palette, broken by a shot of light blue used for a trench and of dark navy employed in classically cut suits.

Transformation was another important theme. Ordinary polo shirts and vests gradually transformed around the torso and developed two large pockets around the hip area, turning the garment into a jacket.

Simons seemed to use the lightness/transformation themes to explore the structure and construction of various garments, but his tailoring skills emerged better in the special details such as the rounded hems of the jackets and tops that turned classic garments into sportswear items while giving a sense of perfectly balanced geometries to the entire collection.  

The nomadic atmospheres explored by Ermenegildo Zegna came back at Missoni’s. The menswear collection perfectly counterbalanced the womenswear collection presented in February, though in this case we were spared the excessive layering style that in the womenswear case hid some of the most beautiful pieces.

The mood was explorer-meets-nomadic traveller: trench coats, trousers, jackets with ample and relaxed silhouettes and even Missoni’s signature jumpers were all a bit crumpled and worn out as if the models had been wearing them through stormy landscapes and deserts.  

Linen and cotton prevailed, but sky blue denim made a welcome appearance in an almost successful attempt at rejuvenating the label, while keeping it as sophisticated as possible.

There was an explosion of grey nuances at Armani, from anthracite to light dove, at least at the very beginning of the catwalk show. The main suits were based on his timeless pieces, but were reinvented in check fabrics to be faithful to the "classicism 2010" theme of the collection.

An ample section of the catwalk was dedicated to more casual and sporty pieces, with soft leather jackets with asymmetrical fastenings to striped jersey tops, parkas in techno fabrics or in printed crocodile leather.

A touch of further luxury was added with the accessories, especially the snakeskin sneakers and suede espadrilles.

Armani's signature blue nuances - from bright blue to navy - appeared towards the end in impeccable shorts, jackets and blazers, proving that despite the rumours and speculation about his health, the "king of fashion" is still retaining his throne. 

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search

Angela Caputi’s Oriental inspirations

Florence is famous for its artisans and products such as leather bags and gold jewels and every day hundreds of tourists flock to Ponte Vecchio to admire its jewellery shops.

I love jewellery, but I tend to prefer chunky plastic pieces to gold. This is why I admire the work of Italian jewellery designer Angela Caputi.

In 1975 Caputi launched her company, "Giuggiù", opening a jewellery workshop and then a few shops.

The Florence-based designer is well known among jewellery fans for her pieces prevalently made using plastic and synthetic materials.

Caputi likes playing with such materials reinventing them, using traditional techniques to make modern jewels, experimenting with different shapes and colour combinations.

Her pieces have been showcased in exhibitions all over the world, but her jewellery also appeared in many films (so this is another designer lovers of the fashion and cinema connection may want to explore...).

Believe it or not, her jewels appeared even in the Dynasty TV series and in the latest Marco Risi film, Fortàpasc, about journalist Giancarlo Siani killed in 1985 by the camorra.

The pictures in this post feature Caputi's latest collection that includes necklaces, brooches, long earrings and bags inspired by China.

Mythical Chinese dragons – symbols of energy, knowledge, good fortune, success and prosperity – characterise the entire collection.

As you can see the pieces echo the style of Chinese jade-carved accessories.

I particularly like the black necklace with white dragons in the last pic featured in this post. 

I wonder if the dragons in this necklace have any connection with the colour-coded dragon classification offered by Emperor Huizong of Song according to which the white dragons should be spirits of virtuous and pure kings.

I find also interesting the shape of the brooches available in different colours, as it makes me think about the reverse side of Chinese bronze mirrors decorated with dragons.

My favourite dragons out of the nine Chinese dragons are Pi-hsi, who liked reading (that's why he was often carved onto stone tablets) and is considered as a provider of knowledge and luck, and Pa-hsia, provider of strength and support in times of need. I wonder if Caputi's new collection features accessories with specific dragons. You will be able to find it out at Caputi’s shops in Florence (Via S. Spirito 58/r) and Milan (Via Madonnina 11).

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos

Add to Technorati Favorites

Lijit Search