In fashion history there are usually exact explanations to why a show is badly lit or held in darkness: the designs on the runway may feature special effects only seen in the dark; the sombre atmosphere may be a style choice to put people in a pensive mood or could be a functional trick to fool people and hide bad clothes.
Upon entering the venue for the Y/Project show, presented at the Cloister of Santa Maria Novella in Florence yesterday evening during the Pitti Uomo 95 event, people were handed small torches.
Some of the members of the audience took the chance to explore the place in the darkness, taking in the details, admiring the stained glass windows, statues, frescoes, Giotto's 13th century wooden crucifix and garden.
Their reaction - slowly looking at things, trying to discover new and maybe unseen details in a well-known location - was what Glenn Martens, Creative Director at Parisian label Y/Project, hoped to get when he opted for a show immersed in the dark.
When the show started the lights weren't turned on, the main point was indeed for the audience to provide the light for the collection, shining the torches on the clothes.
The latter didn't actually feature any special glow-in the dark effects (if you take away the shiny gold waders...): when it came to menswear, Martens played with crystallised tailored codes and subverted them, adding volumes (think double-breasted boxy styles altered via draped lapels and juxtaposed towards the end to slimmer suits; or oversized black faux shearling jackets matched with an ample mint green suit), wavy lines around lapels, pleats, or slashes that were maybe hints at the styles favoured during the Renaissance.
Black washed velvet denim designs introduced a urban theme, but the knitwear offer was more intriguing as it feature transparent overlayers, a motif replicated on the coats covered in a thin layer of tulle (a well-known fashion trick, often used to restore garments and exhibit them in museums).
For women Martens included ample camel coats, spooky and eerie shirtdresses worth of ghosts, tartan and leather skirts, faux fur pants and jackets (reinterpretations of fur costumes seen in Renaissance paintings?).
Accessories included black-and-white sock boots matched with tuxedos, and superwide, supersized thigh-high suede and gold metallic waders.
The latter actually looked borrowed from Margiela's A/W 2001 collection (and filtered through Vêtements' multiple collections that included thigh-high boots...) and went well with the other Margiela-isms such as carpet-pattern scarves with white fringes (Margiela-isms that have been plagueing contemporary runways and the collections of too many young designers).
Some of the details from the collection became more distinguishable at the end of the show when the models gathered on a lit platform in the centre of the garden for the conclusion.
When you saw the models all together you understood that the final message was easy to grasp even in the darkness: it's not a brand that makes an individual, but the other way round.
That's why quite a few of the pieces in this eclectic collection - that had a touch of vintage about it and more than just a few second-hand shop-like vibes (yes, apart from those Margiela-isms that at some point will hopefully be purged; knitwear may rescue Martens from copying Margiela too much, but he's got to work on it and maybe rework in his designs the principles of his original studies in interior architecture that may offer him fresh inspirations...) - can be altered, adapted and scaled, according to the taste of the wearer, to create wrapped or draped effects.
Giving the audience the role of lighting directors didn't work too well, though, since not everybody seemed to respond in an active way to this suggestion.
Yet, while the lack of proper lights didn't play in favour of the clothes (darkness can be a beautifully intriguing and relaxing realm as long as you don't have to write a review of what you saw...), at least this exercise prompted people to ponder a bit more and learn again to keep their hands off their mobile phones.
There was another positive note in this show: Martens gave a new meaning to the "democratic fashion" definition and via social media opened the show to ordinary people and students as well.
That was a refreshing attitude for a Pitti event (the organisers and brands showcasing often acted in the past in a very elitist manner that resulted even in bans from press conferences...). A fairer, more equal and more open trade show? Sign us up for it, but next time add more lights.
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