Fans of the fashion and religion connection may remember that Jean-Charles de Castelbajac designed the ecclesiastical robes for Pope John Paul II as well as rainbow-striped vestments for 500 bishops and 5,000 priests for the 1997 Paris World Youth Day. JCDC brought back the rainbow theme last week during Milan Fashion Week on the Benetton runway.
The new Benetton artistic director in charge of both the men's and women's collections for the brand, paid tribute to the late Karl Lagerfeld before kicking off the show, his first runway for United Colors of Benetton.
Entitled "Rainbow Machine" the show tried to bring back the colourful and joyous world Benetton created during the '80s: the co-ed runway featured indeed a selection of layered looks and designs in JCDC's beloved primary colours - yellow, red and blue combined with the brand's trademark green and with an Autumnal palette of brown, camel and beige broken by vivid splashes of fluorescent orange.
Benetton's trademark knitwear designs prevailed with intarsia motifs of graphic letterings, square icon-like kawaii infograhics, and long branded scarves. Denim was employed for functional workwear-inspired pieces and for cute mini-dresses that evoked the freedom and joy of childhood, something hinted at also by the colourful tights à la Pippi Longstocking and by the padded boots reminiscent of Rainbow Brite's style.
JCDC didn't forget to add his passion for cartoons and comic strips, taking motifs deconstructed from Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse's gloved hands to create details like side pockets. The Peanuts were instead turned into prints for T-shirts and supersized tote bags with slogans about sustainability, planet Earth and recycling (is Benetton actually cleaning its act?).
The French designer also added personal references to his own archive: his infamous teddy bear coat was indeed transformed for the occasion into a coat made with a giant cluster of three-dimensional sheep in rainbow colours (there was also a scarf made with the same technique), a way to pay homage to the company's knitwear tradition.
The "rainbow" in the title referred to the heritage of the company, but so did that "machine": the set for the runway show featured indeed knitting machines and was supposed to look like a factory where Benetton workers took measurements and sewed the designs. The message throughout the show was clear - looking back at the heydays of the company and in particular at the '80s, to bring back the optmism and popularity (and positive financial results...) the company had at the time.
One of the T-shirts read "Time To Be Brave", a message that could be interpreted as the slogan for the company's revamping. Executive president Luciano Benetton retired indeed in 2012, but his son Alessandro who was supposed to take the company into the future exited it after two years, so, after years of constant decline, Luciano Benetton decided to "be brave" and come back to try and restore the brand.
Yet making United Colours of Benetton relevant again is no mean feat: since 1999 the Benetton family controls Autostrade, Europe's largest toll road operator (the company was at the centre of a diatribe about road safety in Italy after the Morandi bridge collapsed in Genoa last summer). In the last few years the family has therefore been making more money from ventures that do not have anything to do with fashion (from Autostrade to Autogrill, the highway rest stops and airport restaurants chains) or clothes. Year after year competition from other high street retailers and Benetton's emphasis on low-cost production eroded the sales and reputation of the company, that was also among the brands producing clothes at the Rana Plaza factory complex that collapsed in Dhaka in 2013, killing over 1,100 people.
Yet something may be changing at the company: as announced by Luciano Benetton, who also brought back Oliviero Toscani as collaborator, the brand is planning to take back the production closer to Europe.
In the meantime JCDC delivered a collection with selling potential that may genuinely mean there is a will for the company to go back to its identity and take a new (and more sustainable? more ethical?) direction.
Another sign that the company may be changing was choosing JCDC as artistic director, rather than a trendy yet inexperienced influencer who may have brought instant attention and media revenue to the company, but may have turned into a financial disaster in the long run.
And while a rainbow sheep coat may be too much to wear on an everyday basis considering that even Lady Gaga left behind her extravagant "Kermit the Frog" coat (View this photo) from JCDC's S/S 09 collection (fans will remember how JCDC also designed for her the black and white striped dress for her "Telephone" video...) and opted for a less extravagant strapless black Alexander McQueen gown with padded hips (accessorised with long black gloves and a128-carat Tiffany yellow diamond necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn) for the red carpet at the Oscars last night, you feel that colours and irony will not hurt consumers, especially if we consider the complicated and often dark and depressing times we're living in.
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