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

Missoni Vs The Museum of Everything

I'm republishing today an interview I did for Dazed Digital with Angela Missoni about the new Spring /Summer 2011 campaign shot at London's Museum of Everything.

Sir Peter Blake will forever be tied to the iconic cover of The Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. Yet from the Spring/Summer 2011 season, his name will also be linked to Italian fashion house Missoni.

Enchanted by Blake’s work and his exhibition at James Brett’s Museum of Everything, Creative Director Angela Missoni brought her entire family and some friends to London. Here photographer Juergen Teller shot inside the Museum of Everything the new advertising campaign, with a very special Art Director, Peter Blake.

The result? There may be no Chaplin, Marilyn and Bob Dylan rubbing shoulders with Marx and Brando like in the “Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover, but the Missoni clan – among them Ottavio, Rosita, Vittorio, Luca and Angela, Margherita, Francesco, Teresa, Ottavio, Marco and Jennifer, and friends and acquaintances such as Leighton Meester, Camilla Al Fayed, Eugenie Niarchos, Joan Burstein, Andrea and Charlotte Dellal, and Jasmine Guinness – are pictured having fun in a world filled with bright colours and amazing objects.

Missoni’s Spring/Summer 2011 designs seem to go rather well with Blake’s ephemera showcased at The Museum of Everything. Looking at the illogical environment in which the shoot took place crowded with puppets, fairgrounds, music memorabilia, taxidermy and theatrical curios, you realise that this “put together” museum perfectly matches with Missoni’s iconic “put together” designs.

When did you first hear about the Museum of Everything?
Angela Missoni: I was in London for the Frieze Art Fair and, around the same time, they were opening The Museum of Everything, a space dedicated to the work of non-traditional artists. I went to visit it and, as soon as I got home, I told everybody I knew about it. I guess I found a sort of affinity between my tastes and aesthetics and what I saw there. I almost felt the place belonged to me and I wanted to meet the owner because he seemed to have pieces that you could have easily found at my house or at my mother’s. When the exhibition moved to Turin, I took my mother, my children and the rest of the family to see it. I thought it was extraordinary and I started dreaming of doing something with Peter Blake as I felt we had a lot in common.

Is it true that you feel it was almost destiny that led you to this collaboration?
Angela Missoni: In a way yes! When I started thinking about ideas for the new adverts I kept on wondering if it was better to do a campaign with the family or with a sort of “extended family” and I was literally tormented by Peter Blake’s images for The Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. I remember discovering he had an exhibition in Venice and rushed to see it and bought one of his works, the Palazzo Ducale from “The Butterflyman” series, as I was absolutely fascinated by the hundreds of butterflies flying around this iconic Venetian building. As the time to come up with the new campaign was approaching, while leafing through an art magazine, I stumbled once again upon The Museum of Everything with Peter Blake, so I thought ‘That’s it, this is a sign of destiny!’ and decided to meet James Brett and through him track down Peter Blake.
 
Will Juergen Teller’s photographs be showcased also in any special exhibitions in the future?
Angela Missoni: I would love it. I think it would be really fun to see them all in a different environment. Being able to collaborate with Blake and Juergen Teller wasn’t easy, but the project was very stimulating for everybody involved and I would love to be able to show people the results in a different space. At the end of the project Blake also did some wonderful collages of this amazing group of family and friends and I will keep forever this special work of art.

While shooting this campaign did you ever feel like a kid in a candy shop surrounded by such amazing objects and memorabilia?
Angela Missoni: Yes, I did! It is usually forbidden to take pictures and touch anything in these spaces, but while shooting the campaign we turned the Museum of Everything into our own house. I can assure you one thing is spending in such a place two hours just to visit it and another is living inside it for an entire day!
 
Did anything funny happen during the shoot?
Angela Missoni: We actually had a surprise guest who witnessed our shenanigans. We parked two vans outside where we could get people changed and had their make up and hair done and Margherita was coming out from one of them when she heard somebody calling her name. She turned and found Suzy Menkes who came in and decided this was going to be such a memorable day that she went back home, switched off her computer and came back to spend the day with us! She was a very special and unexpected witness to this wonderful day. It was very bizarre as the joyous atmosphere all around made us feel as if we were at somebody’s birthday. I guess we will now have to find somebody who could maybe interview Suzy about that day she spent with us!

Can you tell me more about the short film connected with the shoots at the Museum of Everything?
Angela Missoni: Well, we didn’t know if we wanted to film the backstage of the campaign or do an entirely separate project that we could use in a different kind of media to reach out to more people. In the end we opted for the latter. The film was shot by visual artist, photographer and director Mel Bles who filmed more or less all the people involved in the campaign. So this was our project seen through her own eyes and it was also the final proof that we did all sorts of things on that frenetic, funny and absolutely memorable day!

 

The Museum of Everything is open until 11th February 2011.

All images courtesy of Missoni

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Wasteland of the Morlocks: “Dark Days” Returns at the Barbican

Many of us remember with fear and fascination the subterranean story of the fictional Morlocks, the underground ape-like creatures who accessed the surface world through a series of well structures in H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine.

Though based underground, Marc Singer’s Dark Days (2000) – on tomorrow evening at London' Barbican as part of the "Architecture on Film" series curated by the Architecture Foundation (6.30 pm) – tells the story of a real community living below millions of tons of cement.

The recipient of many awards, Dark Days (note for music fans: soundtrack is courtesy of DJ Shadow) focuses on the homeless people living in the Freedom Tunnel, an abandoned Manhattan railway tunnel stretching from Penn Station past Harlem.

Singer first heard about them after moving from London to New York and, in between modelling gigs, began hanging around with the homeless people in his neighbourhood and eventually decided to descend into Hell to meet the underground dwellers. 

 There is a lot of anger and misery in the documentary and oppressive atmospheres (when the film came out some critics compared it to David Lynch’s surrealist Eraserhead), since the documentary was mainly shot underground in black and white.

Yet there are also some sparkles of optimism: driven underground by common experiences - from family tragedies to drug addiction - and surrounded by squalid environments, the subterranean dwellers try to recreate a new life in a shantytown made of huts built out of scrap iron and wood, but wired up to the city's electricity supply.

The best thing about this documentary is the fact that it was shot by the underground dwellers themselves who turned for the occasion into untrained and inexperienced yet skilled cameramen, electricians, sound recorders and technicians (one of them even turned a shopping cart into a camera dolly...).

Singer focuses more on the problem of homelessness and on its solutions in the documentary than on politics in general, yet I think it would be interesting to re-watch the documentary (or watch it for the first time...) now, in the aftermath of the financial crisis of the last few years, considering the rise in homelessness, the unstable economy and the global political situation.

In many ways the documentary should also made us ponder a bit about the future living conditions and solutions and the impact they will have on people's ability to survive. "You'd be surprised by what the human mind and the human body can adjust to,'' says one of the subterranean dwellers in the documentary. Over ten years after the documentary was shot, his words sound almost prophetic.    

 

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Walking with Paddock in the Parabiago District (and Appeal for the Zaffaroni Colllection)

So far Irenebrination featured quite a few interviews with fashion designers. But today I’m going to leave you with two special guests, Milo Bandini and Irma Vivaldi from the (bilingual - Italian/English) Paddock blog.

I have been following the work of the Paddock team for a while now and I was pleased to see they have been putting a lot of effort into their well-researched pieces, rediscovering the work of the craftsmen working in the Parabiago district, supporting the “Made in Italy” and analysing in very interesting posts the situation in the Italian factories on strike.

There is a sort of "fake" debate in Italy about looking back at traditions and rediscovering high quality and craftsmanship. Even major fashion publications such as the Italian edition of Vogue claim they support such principles, but don't seem to be doing anything to prove it (that's why I call it "fake" dabate...).

The people behind Paddock have been instead researching, rediscovering and actively promoting the work of quite a few forgotten artisans. 

You will find the interview very interesting (film and fashion fans, please check out their posts tieing in Vittorio De Sica's Matrimonio all'italiana and Barrow's shoes - well done! - I'm so happy to know that when I will be hospitalised in the clinic for 'obsessive fashion and film fans' I will share the ward with the Paddock team...) especially if you are into footwear and you will also discover very interesting connections with Manolo Blahnik. 

So let’s welcome the Paddock team on Irenebrination and, if you are a museum curator/researcher mainly working with footwear, please help the Paddock team finding a place for the Erminio Zaffaroni footwear collection by contacting them at the following email address:

[email protected]

Apart from selling materials to legendary shoemakers such as Ferragamo, Zaffaroni created unique leather designs, taking inspiration from art to come up with extraordinary surface elaborations that gave leather the quality of luxurious fabrics and textiles. But let's hear it all from our Paddock friends.

Can you introduce yourself a bit? Who's behind the blog and what job do you do in your life?
Milo Bandini: Behind Paddock there’s Irma Vivaldi (Marketing Manager) and myself (Construction Consultant) plus a few friends who contribute whenever they can with photos and ideas.

What prompted you to launch the site and what's its main aim?
MB: It all started out of frustration at not finding any information about the artisan who created JFK’s shoes, Celestino Grassi, a childhood memory of mine. I remember visiting his shop in San Vittore Olona (Milan) along the Sempione SS 33 route - a historical road built by Napoleon - many years ago. Then, all of a sudden, it disappeared. We asked around, turning for help to other artisans, local people and teachers but nobody knew anything or they didn’t even care. We couldn’t find anything also on the Internet, but then Irma spotted a piece in a local newspaper, a report about a small footwear exhibition featuring a selection from the Zaffaroni Collection. So we got a hold of Mr. Erminio Zaffaroni (and I can assure you it wasn’t easy) and we got completely hooked by his story and his collaborations with other Italian companies and local artisans.

Irma Vivaldi: He is a charming 74 year old shoe-crazed former entrepreneur: he owns more than 1,000 pair of shoes and samples. We liked each other and we decided to organise an exhibition together last September. He knew very well JFK's craftsman and he filled us in about this story. Mr. Zaffaroni represents the memory of the Parabiago footwear district and nobody gives him the attention he deserves.

Can you tell me more about the exhibition?
MB: It essentially revolved around two Lego brick-shaped containers in Piazza del Liberty, right behind Milan's Duomo. It was funny because we were right in the middle of the fashion week with no ties whatsoever with the fashion system even though we got the support of the City of Milan. We gave the second container - free of charge - to a professional school in Legnano (Milan) which three years ago started a program in cooperation with some artisans from the Parabiago footwear district, an area with a long tradition of high quality craftsmanship - Louboutin, Blahnik, Chanel and many others, produce their designs here. In a nutshell: the two containers represented the past (Mr. Zaffaroni's shoes) and the future (the school) of the Parabiago footwear district. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way we expected.

Why do you think there wasn't a much more positive feedback towards this initiative?
IV: I don't want to get into details but school and artisans didn't back up that much the initiative. No wonder, as this is typical of the Parabiago district. People often think it’s not useful to care about the past and they don't seem to be interested in collectively promoting their work. Starting from the ‘50s you can count quite a few failed attempts at obtaining international recognition as a quality collective brand. In the meantime, footwear labs are closing one after the other. The highlight of the event was the visit of a childhood friend of Mr Zaffaroni who has been working for Manolo Blahnik since 1984. I can't reveal his name, but it was great to see him explaining to astonished ladies how a pair of shoes must be done!

How would you describe Paddock? Is it a a blog, a diary or a safe haven for passionate fashion fans?
IV: It's more like a scrapbook. We don't have enough time to keep up with all the silly things going on in the fashion world, so we focused on the local history because there are no books or information on the net about it. At the same time, we keep an eye open about all things "Made in Italy".

MB: It’s definitely a scrapbook. See, the Parabiago district is like "everyone for himself"; the artisans are so blind they don't even realise they should do something about their condition otherwise nobody will remember them in 10 years' time. That's why we collect every single piece of information we can get our hands on. We also share the views of Paolo Boggi who is very critical towards the fashion system and towards some of the puppeteers behind it. We interviewed Boggi right after the publication of his third book for the magazine we printed in order to spread the word. The magazine became our first – non-digital - Paddock's post. 15,000 copies were given away for free in one week at the above-mentioned exhibition. By the way, we should mention that Paddock is a temporary blog: It will be up and running until the anniversary of the Five Days of Milan. After that, we'll see.

In a few posts on your site you tackled the "Made in Italy" issue and wrote about the strikes at La Perla and probles in the Prato textile district: do you feel the media in Italy are doing enough to raise awareness about these problems?
MB: It's never enough. All the news about strikes, relocations abroad and so on were taken from local newspapers, not from the main ones. The national press is too busy reporting about real estate properties in Montecarlo, prostitution in the government and so on. Right now, climing on the roof of your factory or university, as many workers and students have done so far to protest against their conditions, is not enough to get the front page. It would probably be better if you would hire the entire Cirque Du Soleil to make your protest heard. In fact it would be even better trying with a burlesque show…

IV: The law about the "Made in Italy" issue got some coverage, but, unfortunately, they told just one side of the story and not a single journalist tried to explain it. It was good the EU rejected it. 

You wrote some very interesting posts on historical footwear houses/brands in Italy: which brand - among the ones you rediscovered - is your favourite one and why?
IV: Anselmo Ronchetti, Napoleon's shoemaker, and Aldo Sacchetti from Turin. We heard from Armando Pollini, artistic director of the Vigevano Footwear Museum, that Sacchetti's shoes are the only Italian ones kept at the Louvre in Paris. He is one of the forefathers of the stiletto heel and his designs are beautiful and timeless. Sacchetti donated some shoes at the Musée Des Arts Décoratifs but they are forgotten and collecting dust in some closet. We asked them to provide some info or photo in order to let people see them, we exchanged a few e-mails and finally they asked us money for the rights to use the pictures: how’s that for a non-profit organization?

MB: I have a soft spot for the work of Salvatore Deodato and of footwear company Titano, owned by the Sciuccati family, mainly because Mr. Zaffaroni is so passionate about them. Deodato's work is over the top, but it can't be ignored.

In some of your posts you wrote about rebellion and style: in your opinion, can rebellion be stylish and can style be rebellious?
MB: Definitely yes. The gallery "Style Into Rebellion" is just our tribute to people, artists, bands, writers who did things differently and went against the grain.

What do you think about "fashion/style blogs" in general: do you genuinely think they changed the fashion industry for the better?
IV: They definitely changed the whole scenario, though I’m not sure they did it for the better. Trouble is they are only looking for the “now factor”, turning to contemporary designers, one after the other. They don’t seem to have any time to look back and analyse things in perspective.

MB: We can't beat them, but we don't want to join them either. Although I'm pretty sure among the legion of fashion bloggers - somewhere - there are potential allies; we just need to find a way to take them away from the Vogue brigade…

What are your future ambitions for the site?
MB: We'd like to find people who can help us with information about the Parabiago district history and - even more important - who can work with us to find a permanent place for the Zaffaroni Collection. At the moment it's scattered in 4 different deposits and not available to the public. It must be done quickly, otherwise it will be lost pretty soon. It's a small effort, but with a huge return for what regards culture, craftsmanship and traditions.

All images courtesy of Paddock.

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Hats Off to Borsalino

The word Borsalino instantly conjures up images of Humphrey Bogart, Al Capone, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill in elegantly distinctive hats.

The historical hat manufacturer founded by Giuseppe Borsalino in 1857 in Alessandria produced indeed legendary pieces donned by famous directors, artists, heads of state, popes and gangsters.

Thousands of hats are preserved in the Borsalino archives and in its museum and, in the last few years, the company launched different initiatives to rediscover the power of hats.

The latest - an event entirely dedicated to films and hats - actually opened a few days ago at Milan’s Triennale.

Entitled “Il cinema con il cappello. Borsalino e altre stories" (Cinema with a hat. Borsalino and Other Stories - until 20th March) and curated by Elisa Fulco and film critic Gianni Canova, the exhibition can be considered as a journey through the world of millinery divided in different thematic sections.

The multimedia top hat that visitors encounter at the entrance functions as a symbolic time machine: stepping into it they are transported into a world of images and stories, discovering the transformation processes a character goes through by simply donning a hat. 

Among the famous examples included in this section there are also Greta Garbo in Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939), Audrey Hepburn in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, and Peter Falk in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987), the latter shown as he tries on a series of hats until he finds “the hat that fits the face”.

Hats definitely have special powers: they can make someone laugh or cry, they are symbols of elegance and rebellion and can seduce or frighten. 

The rituals connected with hats are therefore explored through comedies, spy and noir stories, Western movies and costume films - from Jean Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle (1960) to Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007) and Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (2009), passing through Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Gus Van Sant's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and Spike Lee's Inside Man (2006) - and portraits of famous directors and hat fans such as Federico Fellini and Orson Welles.

The best part of the exhibition is definitely the one dedicated to Jacques Deray’s cult gangster films Borsalino (1970) and Borsalino & Co (1974), starring Belmondo and Delon.

The titles of the films were inspired by the golden age of the Italian hat manufacturer whose name was used by the director as a symbol of style and elegance.

The films were also accompanied by the very first major cinematic advertising campaign.

When Deray's first film came out, period cars driven by men in Borsalino hats could be spotted in many of the cities where the film was being screened; shop windows featured images of the main actors and cinemas offered to their one thousandth customer a voucher for a free Borsalino hat. 

For the second film, Borsalino supplied the production company with original looks from 1934-37 that were later on filtered through the ‘70s aesthetics to create unique hats for each character.

This part of the exhibition also features sketches (View this photo) by Jacques Fonteray (Barbarella, La Banquière…) for the film costumes (View this photo) and a 1912 documentary directed by Luca Comerio about hat making, considered as one of the earliest examples of fashion in film ever produced in Italy.

To celebrate further its connection with film, the Fondazione Borsalino in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia also launched a competition open to all filmmakers and videomakers (under 35) and consisting in shooting a 5-minute short with hats as main theme (deadline 12th February; for further info please contact: [email protected]).

Are you ready to take this new Borsalino cinematic challenge?

 

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Cunnington & Sanderson’s Omitted Poems

As a break from Haute Couture Week, I’m republishing today an interview I recently did for Zoot Magazine with Matthew Cunnington & John Sanderson.

The designers play in their latest collection with different dimensions and layers, creating through optical illusions innovative shapes and silhouettes.

In literature and in poetry in particular, the technique of ellipsis - that is the omission of words - is often used to raise expectations and create suspense. Matthew Cunnington & John Sanderson moved from the same principle for their new collection.

Entitled “Omitted”, the collection – focused on a bright palette comprising white, nude and blue hues – is based on experiments with minimalist geometric shapes, origami-like folds and draped fabric effects that help giving an impression of movement and generating optical illusions and alternative perspectives within the garments via positive and negative spaces created around the wearer.

What’s the story behind the “Omitted” collection?
Matthew Cunnington & John Sanderson: This collection transports us to a mystical world where the garments appear to have created their own structure. Geometric shapes of fabric are broken up and re-assembled, turning them inside out and upside down. Origami folds, free flowing draped fabric and inverted pleats are used to create movement and positive and negative spaces around the wearer, giving the impression that the garment created itself. The perspective also changes if you look at the garments from different angles distorting their appearance as if you were peering through broken mirrors, but allowing you at the same time to see the constructions and details from all angles. On first appearance the collection looks harmonious, but, on closer inspection, you notice that not everything is as expected.

What kind of construction techniques did you work with in the new collections?
MC: We combined different types of construction techniques, including origami folding to create 3-D effects and cutting away shapes within the fabric and then repositioning the cut out elements to give a sense of movement.
JS: We tried to transform the structures to change the perspective of the designs. For example, spiral laser cuts open up allowing hidden layers underneath to become visible, the weight of the leather is re-positioned to create tension, shifting the whole surface forwards and away from the wearer to form a 3-D illusion. This effect is accentuated by moving the seam lines backwards and out of view.

Which materials did you use?
MC & JS: Fine crinkled leather, which has been laser cut and combined with nude silk organdie, which is transparent in appearance but is also rigid, so it offers the proper structure. Silk georgette and crêpe de chine enhance instead the draped features within our work and we employed bright white, hand-woven wool with a lacquered treatment for jackets and dress coats. Stone colour cottons evoke instead the appearance of statues.

Are you ever inspired by sculptures in your work?
MC: In a way we are. I like to develop our ideas directly upon the mannequin and attempt to create a garment that comes to life in front of our eyes. Changing the chosen fabrics with techniques such as draping, twisting, cutting and repositioning shapes on the stand and this process gives us a sense of sculpting and freedom. 
JS: I am interested by the endless possibilities that are achievable by this process and the way sculpture can ignite people’s imagination.

You were inspired in some of your current designs by artists such as Francis Bacon, Anselm Kiefer and Rachel Whiteread: do you feel that getting inspiration from art or collaborating with an artist can help fashion designers to bring their work to another level?
MC & JS: We admire many artists and their achievements and enjoy working with people in different fields to try and develop and share ideas. Working together with photographers and stylists can definitely lead you to great results. 

In which way does this collection push your designs forward?
MC & JS: We are constantly learning from our previous work, gaining knowledge and skills, but in this collection we challenged ourselves designing with fabrics that we have not previously used before to understand their possibilities, developing further pattern cutting and draping techniques and adding an experimental edge to our work.

Do you feel this collection represents a change in mood compared to the previous one?
MC: Yes, definitely. Our world is not completely black and in this collection we wanted to use colour to tell a new story that could highlight strong emotions.
JS: This collection has a much lighter and more feminine outlook, with the introduction of a more serene colour palette. The bright white, nude and blue hues have been used to create a whimsical and more optimistic atmosphere. These characteristics are combined with sharper folds, crisp lines and ridges to represent a hidden strength within the collection.

How did you feel about being among the finalists of last year’s Mango Fashion Awards and will you be exhibiting this collection in any galleries in the next few months? 
MC & JS: We are grateful to have been recognised by such a prestigious award and to have been selected as a finalist. This has given us the opportunity to introduce our work to a wider audience. We were fortunate to exhibit on the Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. No further exhibits are planned at present but we would love to showcase the “Omitted” collection again in a museum or gallery.

If you had to choose a female muse who may represent the essence of your designs, who would you choose?
MC & JS: Guinevere Van Seenus for her beauty.

Photography: Amira Fritz; Model: Caroline Schrodl; Hair & Make up: Benjamin Mayer. All images courtesy of Cunnington & Sanderson.
 
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Sci-Fi Legacy Hits Haute Couture: Stéphane Rolland, Jantaminiau, Givenchy, Armani Privé

Apart from proving of being miraculously resistant to the crisis, season after season Haute Couture also proved it is the most resistant section of the fashion industry when it comes to adopting extreme sci-fi trends.

The reason behind this stubborn resistance is very simple: high fashion originates in a world ruled by slow times and private fittings, populated by skilled seamstresses diligently working on each design, in a  nutshell a universe that doesn’t seem to go well with the fast pace of technology.

Yet things may change from the Spring/Summer 2011 season as Haute Couture seems to be quickly catching up, ready to jump on the sci-fi bandwagon, pardon, rocket.

Still heavily influenced by architecture and at times falling into the main trap of designers who take architectural inspirations a bit too literally (i.e. an unnecessary rigidity that detracts from the beauty of the designs), Stéphane Rolland moved towards the sci-fi approach.

There was definitely a Things to Come derivation in his designs that mixed a certain classicism with a very strong emphasis on the shoulders, though at times he seemed to turn to Star Wars for his golden armoured jackets à la C3-PO or perilously verged towards Danilo Donati’s costumes for Mike Hodges’ 1980 Flash Gordon especially in his most elaborate designs in metallic colours or covered in golden embroideries (View this photo).

One billowing evening gown (View this photo) also featured a bustier partially trapped in a sort of skeletal cage that, from a distance, looked very similar to an alien creature wrapped around the body of the model.

Having explored futuristic trends in his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection Dutch Jan Taminiau opted for a surrealist approach that still displayed some kind of alien connotations, especially in the body suits covered in silver sequins and gems.

Though his models with their head entirely covered in sequinned masks brought memories of Salvador Dalí’s "Three Young Surrealist Women" and Sheila Legge as a phantom mannequin in Trafalgar Square, the wooden platform shoes and some of the samurai-like designs (though decorated with tapestry-like motifs) evoked the Japanese tradition, calling to mind anonymous Bunraku theatre puppeteers.

In Italy Japanese series such as UFO Robot Goldrake and Mazinger-Z were extremely popular in the early 80s.

There is actually an entire generation of respectable yet nostalgic grown ups still hiding in their attics their beloved plastic robots from the above-mentioned TV series.

Riccardo Tisci is obviously one of them and, while he mentioned as main inspiration for Givenchy’s Haute Couture collection a cultured and refined muse such as Japanese Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, the Philip Treacy “Muteki Robo Toraidaa Gi Sevun-meets-Future Robo Daltanious-meets-The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3” headdresses donned by his models and the vibrant colours – among them neon orange, red, fuchsia, yellow and green – of the architecturally robotic structures decorating the back of his designs and wing-shaped zipper pulls, betrayed the fact that Tisci wasn’t only inspired, but belongs to that precise generation of mecha-anime obsessed Italians. 

The collection was mainly based on the hard/soft, delicate/strong, human/robotic dichotomies, so while romantic and delicate motifs such as flowers and cranes (symbols of longevity) on beige and cream laser-cut organza dresses and on layers of chiffon and tulle and post-modernist leather obi sashes called to mind Ohno, the structured three-dimensional colourful elements on the back that seemed to intertwine together crosses and robot heads (hands up who detected the head of Kotetsu Jeeg in the red intricate red appliquéd motifs on one of the designs), detracted maybe a bit from Tisci’s poetical vision.

There were moments when you felt that maybe all the bird and wing references in the ostrich feathers verged more towards the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman than towards traditional Japanese costumes, yet each of these designs, especially the ones covered in tiny pearls and featuring intricate appliquéd motifs, required thousands of hours of handwork each.

At least this collection was extremely less oppressive than his previous one pervaded by the memento mori theme and let's hope that in future Tisci will keep his inspirations along this track (while sparing us at the same time a collection inspired by the oppressive and disturbing moods of Galaxy Express 999…).

The award for the best Haute Couture sci-fi designs for the S/S 2011 season goes to Armani Privé.

Despite most of us thought he was fossilised in a dream of perfect shoulders and powerful silhouettes, King Giorgio suddenly woke up from his Han Solo carbonite hibernation, went to the cinema and, hit by Tron Legacy revelations, opted for iridescent fabrics (most of us would desperately like to know what he put into them to make them look so fluidly shiny… View this photo) and extremely covetable metallic saucer-shaped headdresses by Philip Treacy, very reminiscent of the Grid dwellers’ discs in the latest Tron film.

Interestingly enough, so far fashion borrowed ideas from famous films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars to recreate futuristic atmospheres or looked at Space Age designs from the '60s, a decade when there was naturally more optimism when it came to Space discoveries.

Yet, rather than borrowing from the usual references Armani decided to go his own way, moving maybe from his previous collection inspired by the moon and adding further architectural elements and Oriental motifs, while playing down any kind of undesirable Lady Gaga theatricalities. 

Jackets with structured shoulders, skirts and leggings glimmered producing mirror-like effects worth of Tron Legacy’s White-Silver Sirens; 3-D fabrics embossed with triangular patterns,  bandeau dresses and cropped jackets covered in iridescent sequins shimmered with their accessories such as necklaces formed by triangular elements and disc-shaped bangles (View this photo), breastplates of coloured stones, fencing masks covered in crystals and rigid Chinese sunhats.

Armani escaped banality employing moulded materials for bodices, incorporating curved silhouettes in his designs and shaping the body in a robotic yet sensual way.

Indeed he was probably trying to reproduce a typical robotic structure when he sliced dresses at the hips, dropped them a few inches putting distance between the skirt and the body and revealed bright shades of green, scarlet or blue.

Techno Orientalist tailoring? Could be a trend. In the meantime, could we have more of those disc-like headpieces?

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Let the Frivolity Begin: Paris Haute Couture Week

Throughout the decades we have seen it all on the Parisian runways during Haute Couture Week: dramatic settings, colourful gardens of delights, a magic phantasmagoria of beauty combining fashion with art and cinematic inspirations.

Yet, in the last few years, as the crisis and recession hit us pretty badly, and especially after Christian Lacroix’s house went into bankruptcy, there have been further debates about the necessity of high fashion.

Season after season the question comes back: is Haute Couture an unnecessary frivolity for very few wealthy international clients or is it maybe the ultimate spectacle we are left with in an era of instant 140-character reviews and very little beauty, the highest moment of creativity that also allows fashion houses to display the rare skills of talented seamstresses?

It is somehow amazing that, while the death of couture has been predicted for years and years, it hasn’t happened yet.

Au contraire, trend reports show that couture registered strong sales also thanks to the Asian markets’ turbo-growth.

Christian Dior’s fashion show was even moved to a larger space, the Rodin Museum, to accommodate roughly 800 guests, a record number for a high fashion show.

Who knows, probably even Lacroix, designing under the name “Monsieur C. Lacroix” and currently collaborating with Spanish high street chain Desigual, is dreaming of going back to the artistic excesses of Haute Couture.

And if you think that Haute Couture is only for mature and established designers, think twice: the spotlight this season is on 26-year-old Maxime Simoëns, the youngest couturier and the first designer to join the official Couture calendar without ever having staged a runway show.

Will he manage to impress and maybe inspire a younger generation of designers to join the ranks of the small yet stubbornly resistant Haute Couture army? We will discover it very soon. 

In the meantime Alexis Mabille opened the week showcasing his designs at the Musée Bourdelle.

In a way this museum dedicated to the French sculptor was the perfect place to show a collection mainly based on white, a neutral colour that naturally evokes the purest marble statues.

Mabille also mixed in his lace, crepe and duchesse satin designs often characterised by asymmetric cuts, bold and strong nuances, such as dark blue and green and added a floral theme with roses used to decorate a dress or disguised as practical details like a shoulder strap.

Though he mainly opted for traditional silhouettes and floor-length vestal-like tunics prevailed, the designer also carried out interesting experiments incorporating overskirts that could be turned into capes in some of his designs.

Haute Couture doesn’t only mean intricate embroideries and decorations, but also immaculate cuts and perfect geometries.

At the moment there are very few designers out there who can actually master such difficult skills, but Bouchra Jarrar is definitely among them.

The designer opted for a muted sensuality through precise slashes that left open the front and the back of her dresses.

In a collection that seemed to borrow more from architecture than from Lucio Fontana, the best pieces remained her white piped trousers and jackets with open lapels since they displayed a rigorously severe yet perfect silhouette.   

“The colours I love the most are red and black; red is a powerful colour in poster design, but I just like it as a matter of taste in the décor,” illustrator René Gruau once stated in an interview.

It was only natural then for John Galliano to use Gruau’s favourite palette and Dior’s red gowns from the Autumn/Winter 1948/49, 1950/51 collections as his starting points for the iconic French fashion house’s Spring/Summer designs.

Galliano actually already went through a “Gruau phase” in the Autumn/Winter 2007-2008 Haute Couture collection that included a white dress with a swirl of reddish pink fabric that formed a rose, a design entitled “Gruau”.

Yet in this collection Galliano decided to interpret the reference in a more literal way: a master in the distribution of form and colour, Gruau was famous for creating distinctive silhouettes with just a few strokes.

Galliano therefore reworked the illustrator’s bold strokes using mother-of-pearl beads, sequins and embroideries to highlight a part of the body or create ink stains and shadows, while Stephen Jones’s headpieces symbolically called to mind bold strokes of paint (View this photo).

As the collection progressed strong colours gave way to softer shades of cinnamon and beige (probably references to the brown sepia backgrounds in Gruau’s images), pale blue and dégradé nuances, elements often used by Galliano to create the chiaroscuro effects that characterised early Haute Couture images à la Irving Penn and that could also be interpreted as references to Gruau’s skills at incorporating in his fashion illustrations photographic and cinematic elements, composing his works by using light and shadow effects.

By applying layers of tulle on jackets and embroidery only on one side of the fabric, Galliano created poetic effects, suspended between Gruau’s illustrations and Penn’s photographs.   

Yet there was nothing new in terms of silhouettes and shapes since the New Look was revised in all the designs.

The clock was indeed brought back to the post-War years and Galliano made  fashionable once again jackets cinched at the waist with wide belts, bulbous oversized bows, voluminous pleated skirts matched with rigid peplum jackets that looked like crossovers between the iconic “Bar” and the “Rubempré” suits; yards of tulle reminiscent of the “Offenbach” ball gown from Dior’s Spring/Summer 1950 collection (obviously random members of the press sadly spotted in this case the umpteenth Black Swan reference as if tulle only equalled ballet…); a brown jacket with leopard spot-like embroideries (View this photo) that called to mind Gruau’s (Mitzah Bricard-inspired) Miss Dior advert with a slender lady’s hand resting on a leopard paw; ethereal clouds of white marabou and masked models, perfect icons of style rooted in the collective imagination who looked like the incarnation of Gruau’s iconic images for Le Rouge Baiser lipstick (remember the late ‘40s “Sans hésiter Le Rouge Baiser” ads? View this photo).  

As a whole the collection wasn’t extremely theatrical (though there was a final theatrical moment with Galliano in one of his Nureyev-inspired designs from his Autumn/Winter 2011 menswear collection…), but the beauty of a Dior Haute Couture collection doesn't stand in its theatricality, but in the fact that it still allows you to effortlessly write beautifully because it is beautifully executed. 

While Dior played with chiaroscuro, Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel analysed the power of light. The focus here was on delicate ethereal designs, revolving around a palette of pale pink, grey and white.

Though beads, sequins and embroideries decorated the dresses and tight trousers, nothing was extremely heavy.

To emphasise the theme of light, Lagerfeld accessorised his lighter-than-air designs with flat backless black patent shoes bound to the ankle via transparent straps, evoking in this way the grace of ballet dancers.

There was actually a stronger reference to ballet: though some of the designs displayed echoes from the rich Chanel’s pre-Fall 2011 collection looking like ethereal versions of the Empress Theodora look, Lagerfeld mainly turned to the Ballets Russes, a constant inspiration for many collections in the last few seasons.

Yet, rather than going for the most obvious reference, Coco Chanel’s designs for "Le Train Bleu", Lagerfeld opted for Marie Laurencin who designed the sets and costumes for Francis Poulenc’s "Les Biches" (1923; translated in English as "House Party").

This proved an interesting connection since, while the collection looked rather innocent and ethereal, the ballet that inspired it actually explored a host of taboo themes such as narcissism, voyeurism, female sexual power and sapphism. 

Through his apparently innocent designs, Lagerfeld was maybe referencing such themes and Laurencin’s strong women, evoking her short dresses of greyish tulle faced with pieces of pink moiré in his rough-edged pink bouclé suits matched with narrow trousers, drop-waist dresses, feathered skirts and trapeze-shaped tunic jackets.

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The Philosophy of Layering: Missoni A/W 2011-12

I’m republishing today an interview I recently did for Zoot Magazine with Angela Missoni in which the designer talks about her Autumn/Winter menswear collection and her passion for reinventing the staples of a man’s wardrobe.

When Ottavio and Rosita Missoni first presented their knitwear collections at Florence’s Palazzo Pitti in the late 60s, they charmed the American buyers who dubbed their creations as “put together” designs.

Indeed, Missoni’s garments allowed customers to freely create their own style: people could pick and mix jumpers and trousers, skirts and tops, creating perfectly coordinated or uncoordinated outfits according to their personal tastes.

This was Missoni’s main strength and Ottavio and Rosita’s daughter Angela, current women and men’s wear Creative Director at the Italian fashion house, knows this very well.

For the Autumn/Winter 2011-12 menswear season, Angela sent out on the Missoni runway models clad in multi-layered styles, accessorised with floppy suede hats.

There was a trick, though: none of the layered items – shirts, cardigans, bomber jackets and scarves included – seemed cumbersome nor cluttered the silhouettes and the movements of the models.

The trademark zigzagging motifs and abstract geometrical textures weren’t missing, but there were also intarsia creating interesting decors and cobweb-like elements and the focus was on double-faced and reversible items, from jackets to trousers.

Being based on a natural palette of dark blues and greys alternated to maroon, camel and warm browns, with occasional sparkles of colours – from red and orange to electric blue mainly employed in the details of shoes and gloves and in the flecks of the quilted wool jackets – the Autumnal collection promises to be definitely softer compared to the Spring/Summer 2011 season currently arriving in the shops, but it will also score high on three points, wearability, versatility and, above all, saleability. 

How would you define the Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection?
Angela Missoni: It’s a soft collection, but it also reflects the fact that I do have a very different vision of men’s wear compared to women’s wear. Bright colours literally pop out of the current Spring/Summer collections, so for the next Autumnal season I decided to opt for a relaxed palette and more subtle and sober moods. I guess it was only natural to go down this way since, when you work as a fashion designer, for the next season you always want to do something that’s completely the opposite compared to what you did for the previous season. Anyway, there are colourful elements also in this collection: if you see the new designs from a distance you think it’s very soft, based on a natural palette of blues and greys, but, as you get nearer, you realise each piece is actually very sophisticated and each one features a lot of strong colours, especially in the small details such as the buttons.

What kind of yarns did you choose for this collection?
Angela Missoni: A blend of different yarns. We combined alpaca with Shetland, mohair and tweeds to create contrasts between raw and softer elements, evoking in this way the essence of masculinity. Though there are a couple of bulkier designs in thicker yarns, the collection is prevalently made of light knitwear pieces that can be easily layered one on top of the other.

What fascinates you about menswear?
Angela Missoni: I find quite interesting the fact that there are mainly male journalists who come to see the menswear shows and, usually, they tend to imagine themselves wearing the pieces they saw on the runway as soon as the catwalk is over. They sometimes come and tell you, ‘I could already picture myself in this or that design’. I find this extraordinary since they seem to instantly be able to project precise pieces from the collection into their own wardrobes even more than female journalists would do after seeing a womenswear show.  

There are quite a few reversible designs in the new collection, do you feel that this trick allowed you to play a bit with the garments, reinventing them?
Angela Missoni: When it comes to a man’s wardrobe, there is a limited number of items you play with, for example a jacket, a coat, a cardigan, a shirt, a V-neck, round neck or turtleneck jumper and a pair of trousers. You usually buy a piece and then mix it, wearing it as you want, while womenswear can be a bit more complex. Yet, I still find menswear incredibly inspiring because, moving from these basic items and working into them subtle or playful elements, you can still come up with innovative designs and add some zest to your pieces. 

All images courtesy of Missoni.
 

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Galliano à la Barre

It’s funny how before Darren Aronovsky’s Black Swan and its “iconic” Rodarte costumes (read: feathery tutus…), there weren’t many people in the fashion industry who were into ballet.

In fact, asking your fashionista friends if they wanted to come to a ballet performance was a bit like committing social suicide and, if you ever managed to drag them to a show, talking after the performance about pliés, demi pliés, ports de bras and ronds de jambe à terre was simply out of the question. 

So blame it on Black Swan if photo shoots, runways and window shops are an orgy of tutu-like dresses, ballet slippers, arm and leg warmers and pale pink ballet sweater wraps; if fashion bloggers have recycled themselves into ballet experts and the film protagonists are considered as fashion icons (actor Vincent Cassel and director Darren Aronofsky recently worked together on a cinematic ad for Yves Saint Laurent’s La Nuit de L’Homme that will launch at the end of March).

I admit that thinking about the time when a group of mothers, aunts and grandmothers volunteered to hand-knit the pink sweater wraps we needed at ballet school since it was too expensive to buy the ready-made version, while some of us decided to transform tights into sweaters to save even more time and money, makes me feel slightly murderous towards this rather fake horde of fashion balletomanes.  

Womenswear was definitely heavily influenced by Black Swan dementia but also by another trend, the rediscovery of the Ballets Russes.

Yet John Galliano could be considered as the first designer who brought ballet mania into a menswear collection for the next season, though he approached the trend in an almost narrative way, chronicling on the runway the life of male ballet dancers who represented the epitome of manliness and youthfulness, such as Rudolf Nureyev and Vaslav Nijinsky, moving from their life in Russia to their struggles and successes. 

Indeed, while ballet begins at the barre with rigorous and hard exercises, Galliano started the catwalk shows with a vision from the steppe. 

The first designs on the runway were actually more Rasputin than Rudolf, crossovers between the "Mad Monk" and the Russian émigré look, with cumbersome coats and jackets covered in snow or in a film of dust tied at the waist with leather belts, oversized furry hats, scarves (and beards) covered in metal hairpins and crosses hanging from necklaces.

A touch of romance appeared in a bright red knitted motorcycle jacket embroidered with roses and in tapestry-like trousers.

Shortly afterwards the scene changed (after all wasn't Nureyev born on a Trans-Siberian train?) and moved to the West introducing streamlined silhouettes, tight trousers and silk scarves, a dream of an arty, sophisticated and refined world channelled through a fur coat that evoked talented charlatans and impresarios à la Sergei Diaghilev. 

Then the scene changed again, transporting the runway behind the wings, to a world populated by male ballet dancers rehearsing in sweat-soaked grey tops, nude tights and leg warmers piled one on top of the other and with the occasional faun who looked more like a devil in glittery horns.

The show ended with beaded and embroidered sleeveless jackets, turbans (View this photo) and Harlequin printed shirts that called to mind Petrushka's costumes and the constructivist paintings of Aleksandra Ekster, in a nutshell it verged more towards an Orientalist homoeroticism with a few urban connotations. 

So far Galliano has actually been the only designer who reminded us that “la belle danse” actually began as a manly art: it was indeed part of a man’s education together with riding and swordsmanship and ballet masters were essential figures in the lives of a 17th-century nobleman.

Things changed when Russians dancers arrived on the scene with their skills and passion for art and architecture.  

In Galliano’s homage to Nureyev, the comparison between fashion and ballet worked pretty well: fashion is physically and psychologically challenging, but essentially ephemeral, but such qualities can also be applied to the career of a ballet dancer.

Yet there was something missing in Galliano’s collection: the barre usually finishes with grand battements, that is big beats and kicks and, while in ballets such as "Giselle" or "Swan Lake", the main characters may die, the beauty remains to testify that ballet is one of the highest forms of art. 

At the end of Galliano’s show there weren’t any big beats or memorable moments of beauty, but a sort of flat anti-climax that somehow broke the dream and the vision of famous ballet dancers à la Nijinsky, though it was interesting to see an interpretation of ballet in a menswear collection.

That said, if I see another tutu-like dress, layered tights, fakely tattered leg/arm warmers and pink wraps on another runway (hopefully we will be spared this fake ballet mania in this week’s Haute Couture collections - hopefully...) I will dig out of my old trunks my pointe shoes and start using them as weapons.

Somehow I'm sure I will be followed by hordes of ballet dancers and genuine balletomanes.

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Prada Chases the Dragon

The West may be scared of China’s turbo-growth and Chinese consumers’ appeal for luxury brands.

Yet, rather than fighting the dragon, Italian fashion giant Prada is chasing it.

Last Saturday  night, just five days after its menswear fashion show in Milan, the Italian label organised a major event at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, revisited for the occasion by the New York multidisciplinary design studio 2x4.

The night opened with a catwalk show featuring men and women’s wear looks from the Spring/Summer 2011 collections along with new pieces created especially for this event, in a setting designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA’s research unit, AMO.

The event – that attracted a host of celebrities, among them also Chinese actresses Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, Cecilia Cheung, Qing Xu, Korean actress Ha Ji Won, Chinese actors Geng Le e Liu Ye and movie director Lu Chuan – was followed by a dinner party, live performances by Pet Shop Boys, authors of the quintessential Milanese 1986 hit “Paninaro”, and a party with DJs Dan Lywood and Dan Williams.

In a way the event represented a natural progression in Prada’s conquest of the Asian market.

Last year the fashion house designed the uniforms worn by the Italian pavilion staff at the Shanghai Expo 2010 and selected looks from Prada’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection appeared in a play, Love Utopia, by experimental Chinese theatre director Meng Jinghui.

Many luxury brands, such as Tod’s, Ermenegildo Zegna and Salvatore Ferragamo, are putting efforts into a stronger presence in China.

Demand for Prada’s products is growing in Asia: the company recently saw a 51% surge in revenues in China and Prada expects its Asian sales to exceed Europe’s in the next 3 years.

The fashion house is also considering a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that will allow the company to develop its retail network, launch new production lines and ultimately turn into a trans-national corporation.

If predictions regarding the Asian region joining the leaders of global stock markets within the next decade and China overtaking the US as a luxury market consumer are right, Miuccia & Co. are on their way to celebrate in 2013 a very special 100th anniversary.

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