Today’s post is directly connected - at least for what regards the first part - to yesterday's.
While writing about the Florence-based exhibition featuring Annamode’s designs, I mentioned a cotton swimming suit with prints of green candies.
When I saw it I couldn’t resist taking a few close ups: I absolutely love the candies wrapped in their emerald green paper as they seem to have the power of instantly putting me into a good mood, looking playful and fun.
Besides, if you blow up the image further you will discover that the white cotton background is not actually plain but it features a sort of floral motif which I find really interesting.
As stated in yesterday’s post, this suit was made in the mid-50s, in 1955 to be precise.
Prints are usually more fun in women's rather than men's designs, yet there are quite a few contemporary menswear designers using original and interesting prints in their works.
In the early 60s it was popular to use prints to enrich the details of sport coats and jackets.
Brioni's 1962 Spring/Summer collection featured for example a black gabardine raincoat with leather details and a printed lining with images inspired by means of transport and cars in particular.
As illustrated by this image the raincoat lining included drawings of old cars, engine parts and vintage car horns.
As the decades passed, the endless quest for originality pushed designers to develop more interesting prints also thanks to new digital techniques and employ them in shirts, trousers and jackets, creating more exciting pieces for the male wardrobe.
Some of the best examples of contemporary fun and surreal prints are courtesy of Italian duo Leitmotiv.
I was happy to meet again Fabio Sasso and Juan Caro at the Pitti and couldn't resist taking pictures of the duo's shirts.
One print featured a ceramic figurine reminiscent of the pieces produced by German porcelain manufacturer Nymphenburg with a surreal Mazinger Z head.
The other was even crazier and featured a snail, a modern building, a plane and, erm, Super Robot Gaiking from the mecha anime series Daikū Maryū Gaikingu.
The shirts put a smile on my face as they brought me back to when I was a child and used to watch with my brother Japanese robot series on TV.
I wonder if there is also a Ufo Robot Grendizer-meets-modern architecture-meets-kitsch porcelain figurines in the collection.
Will definitely have to investigate it further or, in case, ask the guys if they can produce it for me!
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