Many publications compile during and after the runway shows lists of new trends that will become popular in a few months' time. Well, here's a survey of the trends, inspirations and ideas, you shoudn't maybe follow as too questionable, puzzling or just uncannily bad. Enjoy!
The Three Boobs Optical Effect
Colours, patterns and bright textures always prevail on Marco de Vincenzo’s runways, but in this Spring collection there was something else that should have been edited out. De Vincenzo's S/S 16 collection featured pleated Lurex and metallic leather designs; garments inspired by Japan with motifs such as the Japanese flag and Mt.Fuji, and pieces covered in dégradé laser-cut crepe georgette fringes. And then there were cocktail dresses that featured around the breast area a Victor Vasarely optical pattern recreated in an optic lace.
Highlighted by an underwire detail, this motif that may have been used in a clever way to enhance the breasts without turning to plastic surgery, ended up creating an undesirable Barbarella-meets-La Planète Sauvage effect, looking particularly surreal when the optical pattern seemed to form a third boob in the middle. A definite 9 on a 1 to 10 scale of the uncanny.
The "I've got a wonderful inspiration and ruined it" Syndrome
The "Veiled Christ" by Giuseppe Sanmartino at the Sansevero Chapel in Naples? You can't go wrong with that. This incredibly moving statue has a mesmerising quality about it as the veil covering the body of the dead Jesus looks almost real. It's genuinely impossible to stand in front of it and not be touched or hit in the stomach by its beauty. The chapel also hides further mysteries and legends linked to and surrounding Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, anatomist and crazy alchemist, who renovated the chapel in the mid-1700s.
Amazed by the power of the statue, Francesco Scognamiglio decided to move from it for his new collection. Unfortunately, he came up with a pile of lingerie-inspired looks, chemises and negligees (albeit available in a wide range and in black or white...). Yes, you could try and find juxtapositions and contrasts between the two themes, such as the sacred and the profane, the pure and the sexy, but - bloody hell - this looks really cheap compared to the Veiled Christ. Lack of variations and very familiar looks contributed to the general disappointment.
How can it be possible to go from the beauty of the Veiled Christ to a baby doll? The answer remains a mystery that we don't really want to explore, and now pondering about the fact that Scognamiglio has recently found a new investor (Malaysian entrepreneur Johann Young) backing him and helping him debuting his Haute Couture collection in Paris in 2016, suddenly becomes a very scary thought.
The Tale of the Hybrid Dress
DSquared2's new collection was an acid trip on a tropical island during which surfing gear, early Christopher Kane, Hervé Léger, Balmain and Balenciaga met and combined to create sexy and athletic silhouettes, sporty swimwear, crystal studded bikinis, tattoo body stockings, marabou feathers, scuba-tight gear and colorful climbing ropes, maybe a nod to the so trendy and cool paracord bracelets. Then, in between all the colours and the sexy athletic bland badness, there was also a mini dress that looked rather puzzling. A sequinned beach towel seemed indeed to have been randomly stitched around the breast area to create tentacle-like tubes. Hmm. Is this a dress with an octopus stitched to the front? Does the protruding fabric have any kind of functional or practical application? Hopefully, we will never know (yes, hopefully, as we'd rather not know). But this is not the only dilemma awaiting those ones trying to dissect the looks and trends for the next season.
There were indeed other examples of hybrid dresses on the Cavalli runway. Peter Dundas tried to update Cavalli by not disappointing his fans, so, rather than bringing in any surprising earthquake, his debut was a predictable exercise. Dundas ticked all the Cavalli boxes, then added a few chiffon numbers that looked pretty unconvincing. Available in nude and lilac they could be interpreted as rococo multi-tiered ruched and ruffled chiffon nightgowns the ghost of Lady Macbeth may be keen to wear.
That's not all though: the catwalk finale included a peach ruched mini dress contoured by a line of ruffles that pointed towards the lining of coffins. That could almost be the ultimate hybrid dress and an investment as well: after you've used it in your life, you can always recycle it in death.
Last but not least...The Return of Captain Dash (Wow, That's Really Uncanny!)
This is absolutely the BEST, but, hell, now that we thinking about it, this is actually pretty scary as well. A while back we took the piss out of certain commercial designs such as Moschino's A/W 2013 menswear collection with its fake Fresh/Ariel adverts, a theme that re-appered in the car wash section of Moschino's S/S 16 womenswear collection and we made a connection between the supermarket trend in fashion and vintage adverts à la Capitan Dash (Captain Dash) a year ago.
But dementia in fashion is always around the corner and the reality is quite often crazier than fantasy. So, it's official, after taking the piss out of Captain Dash over a year ago, we can now dress like him thanks to Au Jour Le Jour.
Dash, a popular clothing detergent in Italy is currently celebrating its 50th birthday, and Au Jour Le Jour teamed up with Procter & Gamble, the detergent owner, that eventually ended up sponsoring the show.
The collection opened therefore with a stain motif (ketchup, blood, coffee and so on) splashed on dresses and separates and then the detergent that could remove them all - Dash - became the protagonist with its logo appearing on necklaces, totes, boots and dresses emblazoned at times with its vintage classic slogan ("PIù bianco non si può" - "Whiter Than White", oh the political incorrectness of this all...) and discount offers.
Now, you can interpret this as Pop Art cartoon fun à la Jeremy Scott at Moschino, but there are differences: Scott has so far remixed real brands and slogans to create fake ones (and even in that case the results were at times quite questionable), Mirko Fontana and Diego Marquez just used the logos as they were, coming up with costumes for Dash adverts rather than with saleable clothes.
There is indeed no fun and no pun involved in a selection of pieces that have a clear advertorial nature and that seemed to pay tribute to a powerful sponsor rather than making fun at it. What if this exercise will be recreated by any other brands? Somehow the mere thought of the consequences fills you with shuddering fear and horror...
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