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

Can Fashion Learn to Reshift the Attention on Clothes Rather than on Ranting Celebrities?

Many years ago, I was at a trade show in Italy and I was chatting with one of the people involved in the organization. We were having a casual chat and, suddenly, the topic swiftly changed to fashion reporting. My interlocutor lowered her voice and told me that I was sometimes too critical, harsh and that I dared to say the truth in my features, then proceeded to mention me a journalist - a man - who got more assignments than me because he kept quieter. I nodded, pretended I had an appointment, politely said goodbye and left. To be honest, that incident didn't reveal me anything new about fashion: we all know that in this industry there are "polite" boundaries and that you will never see on glossy publications a prominent designer being attacked for being a copycat or for having been lazy in their latest collection. There's money involved and adverts you may lose if you say something bad, so, when something is not that convincing, reviews are strategically shortened, words become banal and borrowed inspiration are simply silenced.

But maybe things will change after this edition of Paris Fashion Week and for this we should indirectly thank Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

After opening Demna Gvasalia's Balenciaga show in a security outfit that engulfed his body in a rather grotesque and ridiculous way (yes, let me be harsh, disrespectful, but honest as well…), the rapper announced he was launching his YZYSZN9 collection in Paris. The event was hastily organized off-schedule and took place in a vacant building not far from the Arc de Triomphe. Important guests managed to attend, among the others Anna Wintour, John Galliano, Riccardo Tisci, Balenciaga's Demna Gvasalia, and Alexandre Arnault, the chief marketing officer of Tiffany & Company and a son of the LVMH's chairmain and CEO Bernard Arnault.

Starting late and ending up clashing with other events by smaller brands who had worked harder than Ye, the runway opened with a pre-show rant that, rather than unboxing the collection, was the umpteenth display of erratic public behavior from the rapper. In the speech, Ye attacked Gap that recently ended its partnership with Yeezy, then he called Bernard Arnault his "new Drake", that is a competitor and enemy. According to Ye, Arnault offered him a deal for the Kanye West line after Yeezy 1, then, three months after that, he pulled on the deal (on Instagram, Ye also accused Arnault of having killed his friend, the late Virgil Abloh, creative director for menswear at Louis Vuitton and of LVMH trying to kill all his friends...). Ye also declared, "You can't manage me. This is an unmanageable situation."

That the situation was unmanageable was clear from his T-shirt with an image of Pope John Paul II and the words "Seguiremos tu ejemplo" (We will follow your example) on the front, and the slogan "White Lives Matter" on the back . The Anti-Defamation League called this sentence hate speech and attributed it to white supremacists who started using it in 2015 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Candace Owens, American conservative influencer, commentator and climate change denier, was in the audience and wore a matching shirt. While it may have aligned with West's previous puzzling comments and views including calling slavery a "choice", controversially supporting Donald Trump and wearing a MAGA hat, the shirt sparked outrage on the Internet. 

Ye refused to elaborate the message, saying that the shirt said it all, but, while the wider implications were serious, wearing it in the fashion context was a further moment of confusion as it took ages, the Battle of Versailles and further battles to see Black models and diversity on the runway. 

Sadly, the offending garment was also on the runway, donned by Selah Marley, the daughter of Lauryn Hill and granddaughter of Bob Marley (Matthew M. Williams, the Givenchy designer who worked with Ye/West earlier on in his career; and Naomi Campbell also walked in the show).

Created with Shayne Oliver, founder of Hood By Air, Yeezy (or, as Ye rebranded, it as YZY) season nine included garments with no buttons, zips or snaps.

Looking like a crossover between Demna Gvasalia's Balenciaga, Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga and Rick Owens's collections (Michéle Lamy, Owens's wife actually modelled one design), dystopian and apocalyptic, overshadowed by the horrid "White Lives Matter" design, Yzy season nine should be filed under the label "aggravated miserabilism". The collection included indeed bodysuits with face-covering hoods, oversized puffer jackets and black quilted rain ponchos, all matched with knee high rubber boots of the kind you may see in an abattoir, in an industrial plant or a nuclear power station. It remains a mystery while there wasn't a mutiny among models who had to wear the designs, especially the offending shirts. 

Vogue contributing editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was brave enough to call the incident "indefensible behavior" and "incredibly irresponsible and dangerous act" on her Instagram stories. Later she added, "there is no excuse, there is no art here," but she was attacked by Ye who mocked the fashion journalist's personal style, stating she is "not a fashion person" (he then erased the post and stated he had gone to dinner with Karefa-Johnson to clarify the situation).

Vogue also condemned Ye's actions, stating on Instagram: "Vogue stands with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, our global fashion editor at large and longtime contributor. She was personally targeted and bullied. It's unacceptable. Now more than ever, voices like hers are needed. In a private meeting with Ye today she once again spoke her truth in a way she felt best, on her terms."

You may argue Ye's behavior is the result of his unstable mental health, but, after being banned from performing at Coachella and at the Grammy Awards (due to his "concerning online behavior" in this case), maybe Ye should also be banned from fashion weeks. There shouldn't actually be any space for this sort of behavior in any kind of industry, not just in music or fashion.

But let's hope that the Parisian incident becomes a wake up call for fashion commentators as well - we need to reshift the attention on clothes (and on brands/designers working hard) rather than on vapid (and in this case ranting) celebrities, and have the guts to condemn rather than condone, after all, it is better to lose your front row invitation than your integrity.

Cinderella & The American Dream: Thom Browne S/S 23 Vs Barbe & Doucet's "Cendrillon"

In yesterday's post we looked at a fashion show during Paris Fashion Week that hinted at the sorrows of the world through somber yet imaginative constructions. Elsewhere on the Parisian runways, there was instead flamboyant grandeur and the joy of a fairytale.

Thom Browne's S/S 23 collection marked his return to Paris and brought back to the French capital his imaginative narratives. For the occasion, he suggested a reinterpretation of Cinderella (complete with a giant shoe at the back of the runway), filtered through American proms and combined with opera (the runway took place in the foyer of the Opéra Garnier).

The Cinderella inspiration actually came to Browne as "Cendrillon" was being performed when he explored the possibilities of hosting his next show at the Opéra Garnier.

The bonus of the show were actresses Gwendoline Christie and Golden Globe-winning "Pose" star MJ Rodriguez (hands up who thought about the fairytale ball flashback in the series's Season 3, even though Rodriguez played Snow White there), in the parts of Charming and Cindy.

Like in an opera there were acts that defined separate sections characterised by different looks. The show opened with Christie in a grand robe with golden embroideries on the back and sleeves, and golden sandals with a three-dimensional rendition of Hector, Browne's dachshund, at the front of each foot.

Then models appeared in twenty billowing taffeta opera coats with varsity jackets numbers on their backs.

The coats, in pastel shades and ruby, red and diamond tones (did Browne borrow them from Balanchine's "Jewels"?) incorporated maximalist bows and ruffles or giant swirls and roses reminiscent of the fabric roses that broke through the designs in Comme des Garçons' A/W 13 collection.

The coats were matched with heeled versions of the iconic saddle shoes from the '50s and most models donned a wrist corsage that evoked romantic prom nights.

Models then came back minus the opera coats, revealing a series of giant polka dot patterned tailored designs (some of them incoporating a time-consuming technique to create intarsia-ed polka dots) in a childlike pastel palette. 

After the polka dot army, there was a "Grease" moment with reinterpretations of classic '50s petticoat skirts with the poodle that was obviously turned for the occasion into a dachshund. The inverted cupcake skirts were matched with corsets and a cropped jackets with a three-dimentional ruched fabric.

Then punks arrived wrapped in polka-dot fabrics, and evoking in their attire and sculpted heeled/platform shoes Vivienne Westwood's moods.

The tale closed with Christie and Rodriguez in Charming/Cindy outfits, that is opulent coats covered in gold embroideries, and there was an added bonus, a final moment with Rodriguez "wearing" a life-size pink tulle Cadillac. The final message of the show was an includive one - the shoe doesn't fit only Cinderella, but everyone fits in the shoe.

So far so good, but some of the references in this tale of Cinderella seemed borrowed not by any ballet or opera dedicated to the famous character, but by a specific one, Jules Massenet's 1899 opera "Cendrillon" with costumes and sets by André Barbe and Renaud Doucet.

In their version Cinderella is named Lucette and lives the American dream. The opera is set in the '50s with Lucette working away in an outsized kitchen in pastel tones complete with shiny appliances and there is also a Cadillac in a drive-in scene.

In Barbe & Doucet's version, the costumes were fabulous exaggerations with plenty of pinks, purples and greens and '50s shapes. Besides, the prince donned a varsity cardigan, there were also secondary characters in classic 1950s petticoat skirts (decorated with shoes rather than poodles) and polka dot prints for Cinderella/Lucette's stepsisters.

Apart from aesthetic similarities, the final message of this show echoes the notes of Barbe and Doucet's "Cendrillon" in which they explained: "Escaping is […] a matter of being recognized for who one is within oneself. To be discovered because one exists, to be loved because one exists, to be celebrated because one exists [...] Everyone can be the chosen one since everyone is unique. Everyone has a talent waiting to be discovered, is a true love waiting to be found. One absolute condition: one must know who one is in order to know what one wants."

Browne has so far designed costumes for the New York City Ballet, but never tried creating costumes for an opera. Who knows, maybe one day he will try his hand at opera as well, but before then he may have to watch more performances, discover further costume designers and maybe attempt a proper and official collaboration with Barbe & Doucet.

Lamentatio Vitae: Comme des Garçons S/S 23

Martha Graham's "Lamentation" is a modern dance solo with a strong poetic component. In the choreography, inspired by The Book of Lamentations, the dancer represented a universal female figure in mourning.

Graham's body movements were used to highlight that condition of grief, dramatised also by the jersey cloth that encased her body leaving her face, hands and feet exposed, and allowing her to sinuously bend and twist, while sitting on a bench.

As she stretched her body through movements based on contractions and relaxations, Graham used her costume to create architectural figures, at times angular, at others more fluid, altering and morphing her silhouette.

Graham's body distorted and contorted, because that's what an immense sorrow does to you, it gnaws at your mind and body, mentally and physically destroying you.

Graham's "Lamentation" came to mind while reading the press notes for Comme des Garçons' S/S 23 presentation. "A lamentation for the sorrow in the world today," Rei Kawakubo explained about the show that took place during Paris Fashion Week, "And a feeling of wanting to stand together."

Marking the return of Kawakubo on the Parisian runways after the Covid-19 pandemic, the presentation focused on the designer's preoccupation with the current state of the world.

In February this year, as the fashion week was taking place in Milan, Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine. The war continues and things are getting more complicated with Russia holding a fake "referendum" on the occupied territories of Ukraine, while Putin threatens to use tactical nuclear weapons.

In the meantime, in Iran they are entering into the third week of protests after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd, died after being beaten and detained by the regime's morality police for infringing hijab rules. Besides, hurricane Ian has unleashed its deadly wrath in Florida reminding us that we aren't doing enough to fight climate change, while our collective preoccupations about how to pay the rising gas and electricity bills are leaving many of us sleepless. But these are just some of the issues that are on the news nowadays – there's also the migrant crisis, unstable political situations all over the world and constant attacks on human rights.

So, rather than a celebration, Kawakubo's return to Paris was a way to take stock, look inward and ponder about the state of global affairs.

Finding clues in Kawakubo's black and white abstractions wasn't easy: figures in giant hoods in white or covered in black lace, pointed at Graham's attire in "Lamentation", but what came later on - inverted dresses that created optical illusions, monstrously voluminous biker jackets, bulbous constructions and a disquieting black hole opening in the torso of a model to maybe symbolize an emotional void - reminded us about the distortions caused by sorrow.

There were also designs evoking bedsheets and pillows, but these weren't bed dresses inspired by the quarantine blues, they were more similar to soft armours or bags filled with sand of the kind we saw protecting statues in Odesa, Ukraine.

Gradually the black faded away, making space for a pure white shade and for floral patterns. Yet the white designs, including a coat made with a cascade of ruffles, didn't offer any break from the darkness: this colour is a symbol of purity, but used to be associated with death and mourning in Japan (samurai would also wear ritual white clothes when committing seppuku).

The designs were matched with blonde wigs by Takeo Arai and cage headpieces by Gary Card and Valériane Venance that contributed to give a feeling of oppression and imprisonment.

In this sea of disquieting bodies, there were contrasts between the sinister black lace and the floral prints that also incorporated orange Tithonia flowers with a three-dimensional bright yellow core, a dichotomy that maybe pointed at hope after despair.

So, like the classical Latin authors in their consolationes, Kawakubo was maybe implying that it is useless to cry about human destiny.

Yet, through that glimpse of flowers, she was also giving us a more positive message about that feeling of "wanting to stand together", that may save us from the daily anxieties causing our relentless mental and physical destruction and reverse extinction through a vision of humanity as community.

Say It With Flowers: The Araceae Flower Family in Fashion from Cinzia Ruggeri to Loewe

Fashion changes rapidly, but there are some motifs and inspirations considered as timeless, such as flowers. Some shades only last for one season, but not a season goes by without a floral motif appearing at some point in at least one collection.
 
Symbols of rebirth or at times disturbing fleurs du mal, flowers keep on returning for one main reason - with their beautiful colours, extraordinary and at times disturbing or bizarre shapes, they are nature's gift to mankind and they are also elegantly (and effortlessly) attired (remember the line from the Gospel: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these").

It is obviously possible to go down the simple or banal path and just come up with colourful floral prints, but the best designers can achieve unusual and innovative effects, by focusing not on flowers in general, but on one flower in particular or on a family of flowers. In this post we will look at two designers who moved from the Araceae family.

This family of monocotyledonous flowering plants is characterized by a spadiceous inflorescence accompanied or enclosed in a large calicular or spatula bract (spathe). The leaves can vary considerably from species to species. One interesting characteristic of the Araceae is that many plants in this family are thermogenic (heat-producing), the high temperature attracts insects but also helps to convey the scent further.

Among the flowers of the Araceae family there is the Zantedeschia or calla lily that, consisting of a spadix that has a male upper part and a female lower part, is characterized by a cornet shape. The name "calla" comes from the Greek "καλός", meaning noble, beautiful or handsome.

"Kαλός" is the perfect adjective to describe a dress from the mid-'80s inspired by the calla flower and created by the late Italian designer Cinzia Ruggeri.

Part of Ruggeri's A/W 1985-86 collection, the silk and synthetic fiber dress in this post was entirely constructed with white fabric calla lilies, smaller for the bodice and with their heads towards the wearer as if they were a bouquet, and gradually larger for the full-skirt composed of flowers hanging upside down.

While you may not realise it if you superficially look at the dress, the gown is regulated by two principles – repetition and variation, as the fabric flowers are repeated, but they also vary in size. It is a joyous gown, in which you could easily picture yourself dancing all night long, but it could definitely be a wedding gown for a femme fleur bride in love with life, irony and camp impertinence.

Ruggeri also designed shoes inspired by the calla lily: manufactured in Italy by Linea Lidia, they featured the calla motif around the heel. The main difference between the dress and the shoes was the fact that the former was made with Zantedeschia aethiopica, that is the calla lily with a white spathe, while the shoes, in black leather, featured a white calla lily, or more unusual colour combinations, with a yellow spadix and a metallic green/black or cerulean blue/black lily.

After being part of a retrospective about the designer in Rome, these creations will be included in the exhibition "Cinzia says…" on from November at London's Goldsmiths CCA, so you may be able to see these designs in person if you happen to be in the UK later on this year.

Now let's move onto another flower belonging to the same family of the calla lily – the anthurium. Also in this case the name comes from the Greek and in particular from the terms ἄνϑος, "flower", and ουρά, "tail", referring to the spadix. The spadix of the anthurium is often elongated into a spike (even though it can also be globe-shaped or club-shaped). Beneath the spadix there is the spathe, a type of bract that varies in shape.

Often used in fashion for its beauty, the anthurium at times caused controversy: in September 1978, the Cultural Section of Cologne-based Photokina, the world's biggest trade fair for the photographic and imaging industries, refused to feature some images by Guy Bourdin, deeming them "in bad taste".

Among them there was also a picture of four naked women with a strategically placed anthurium flower (Vogue, 1977, View this photo), the spadixes of the flowers looking like erect penises, but also evoking hermaphroditism (the anthurium is also an hermaphrodite flower containing male and female flowers).

This season anthurium flowers also appeared during Paris Fashion Week, first as a decorative accessory on Ludovic de Saint Sernin's S/S 23 runway (View this photo), then they took centre stage at Loewe's.
 
The invitation to the runway show was a real anthurium, while a giant fiberglass anthurium flower grew from the floor over the runway set. Loewe's Jonathan Anderson was fascinated by this flower, that he described in the show notes as "a product of nature that looks like an object of design," but he was also interested in playing with the real/fake dichotomy.

In Ruggeri's case we looked at repetition and variation in the flower sizes composing her dress; in this collection Anderson also opted for size variation, but he often went for a supersized anthurium to create molded bodices that at times were wrapped around a model's torso, or used life-size enameled metal painted flowers as breast cups.

Anthurium andraeanum flowers have a wide range of spathe colours - white, rose, bright red and green - and Anderson also tried to recreate them.

We all love a dress that breaks the Internet and Jonathan Anderson satisfied the needs of many fashionistas with his Instagrammable magnified anthurium creations. The only problem was maybe the freedom of movement.

In Ruggeri's ingeniously constructed design, the softness of the fabric flowers still guaranteed freedom of movement to the wearer (the same thing could be said about the calla lily wrapped around the heel, rather than on the toe, of her pumps); Anderson opted instead for a more hyperreal interpretation of the flower, that was turned it into a rigid armour, while the life-size dimensions of the flower and the leaf on the sandals still caused some hindrance.

There were also some metaphorical hints in Loewe's collection: the spadixes of the anthuriums looked like erect phalli, but the inflorescence of anthurium produces bisexual flowers. This reference opens further meanings for this collection, in which maybe Anderson was playing with more than just the real/fake dichotomy and hinting at a fluid sexuality through his designs. Looks like flowers can therefore be more than just metaphors for beauty and elegance. So, which will be your favourite flowering plant family?

Return of the Spray-on Dress (But Now it’s Viral): Fabrican X Coperni S/S 23

It is often the case nowadays that, when you have a bizarre condition such as an autoimmune disease, you don't get taken seriously. In some cases, doctors are left puzzled by the symptoms, while your friends and family get tired of you sulking around moaning about mysterious pains and body mutations that may win you multiple roles in "The Good Doctor" and in "American Horror Story". Then a celebrity, prominent model or influencer, somebody certainly more famous and usually more beautiful than you, claims they have the same condition and, suddenly, it becomes a global issue. Rather than feeling vindicated, though, you feel even more alone as the attention is not reserved to the condition per se, but to the famous person who has it. So, you're left with that line from the Pet Shop Boy's track "Love etc" that says "Don't have to be beautiful, but it helps".

This line may have been resounding in the minds of some of us after seeing Coperni's S/S 23 show, that took place during Paris Fashion Week. The finale revolved around an idea launched 12 years ago, but at the time considered as rather nerdish - spray-on designs. Yet the public opinion seems to have shown much more interest now that the spray-on design is on Bella Hadid.

At the end of the runway, the model came out in a thong and stood on a platform with her arm across her bosom. Spanish Manel Torres, the inventor of Fabrican, a spray-on fabric, and a colleague, sprayed Hadid with a white substance that became white and instantly solidified.

Towards the end of the process that lasted several minutes and that many compared to the finale for Alexander McQueen's "No. 13" catwalk show (S/S 1999) with robotic arms spraying in black and yellow a white cotton muslin dress donned by Shalom Harlow (View this photo), while others thought it was an eureka moment akin to the spray on shoes (that can't come off once you've sprayed them on...) in the animated film "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", a collaborator of the Coperni duo came out, cut away at the hem, opened a slit in the dress and rearranged the shoulders. Then Hadid took to the runway in her newly sculpted body-con dress.

The moment went obviously viral, but it wasn't certainly new if you are a fashion/textile/technology researcher. Spanish fashion designer and scientist Manel Torres started developing the spray-on concept in the early 2000, winning multiple awards with it.

Twelve years ago, as an academic visiting London's Imperial College, Torres worked on the material with Paul Luckham, a professor of particle technology at the college.

The inspiration for this liquid mixture didn't actually come from technology but from felt, a dense, non-woven fabric without any warp or weft made from matted and compressed fibers.

Torres wanted to create a liquid mixture hoping to come up a futuristic and seamless material liquid and, while looking for a way to bind the fibers together, he started running experiments with short fibers (ranging from natural, such as wool and linen, to synthetic) mixed with polymers to bind them together and a solvent that delivered the fabric in liquid form.

He eventually came up with Fabrican, a spray-on fabric available in different colours that can be applied using a high-pressure spray gun or an aerosol can (the solvent evaporates when the spray touches the surface).

The fabric is formed by cross-linking fibers, which cling to one another to create the garment. The texture of the fabric changes according to the short fibers employed and to how the spray is layered on the body.

The principle behind this material is the same one behind kids' ribbon spray streamers, but the effect is very similar to those colloidal silver and hyaluronic acid sprays you use for wounds, the main difference being that the latter have a powdery consistency, while Torres' mixture is more elastic.

Originally the mixture was developed at London's Imperial College and designs made with this technique were showed in September 2010 at the Science in Style fashion show at the college.

The results were a bit nerdish, with some geometrical twists added, but, while Anna Wintour may have not appreciated the effort, the designs created by Torres showed potential especially considering the innovative uses of this non-flammable material not just in fashion and design, but in medicine (it is a sterile material because it comes out of an aerosol can, besides, the material may be infused with drugs and transformed into a medicated patch) or in the industrial field as well (Fabrican may be used to clean an oil spill in the sea, for example, as it can float and absorb the oil).

There are definitely some pros behind this material as the fabric can be peeled off, washed and worn again or returned to its liquid form and then reused to create another garment (among the cons there is the fact that most of us wouldn't have three people to spray us on and create a perfect dress...).

After a few shows and after being included in the 2011 exhibition "The Power of Making" at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, the spray-on material disappeared from the scene, maybe because Torres still had to finish developing it because it had a very pungent smell, something that the researcher may still want to work on as, according to people who were at the Coperni show, the synthetic smell filled the Musée des Arts et Métiers' Salle des Textiles.

Now, while the spray-on dress went viral, it also overshadowed the rest of the collection and that was a bit of a shame as there were a few technological twists in some of the designs as well.

Named Coperni Femme, the collection was an ode to femininity, with asymmetric lingerie dresses, tailored jackets combined with biker jackets evoking Trinity's look in "The Matrix", that also inspired a dress with a slashed neckline borrowed from Fiona Johnson's red glitch gown in the film.

Coperni's Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant also designed two dresses that incorporated thousands of glass pieces, a 1 kg 18-karat gold version of the designers' Swipe bag (made by Italian goldsmith Gabriele Veneri) intended to be melted down after the show and Frankenstein's dresses made of spiraling panels (a technique reminiscent of a 1974 Courrèges dress that unzipped in a spiral from hem to neck) that were linked with a metal thread akin to surgical staples.

There were more technological references in the collection (Meyer is the geek of the duo): the square shoulders on a cropped trench and bomber were inspired by the block-shaped avatars on game platform Roblox and designs with turquoise or fuchsia flowers on a black background were the result of a long process. To make them, the designers recorded a video of flowers blossoming and then printed the images on different layers to create a lenticular fabric integrating a hologram.

Time will tell if in future we will go around in spray-on clothes as researchers will probably need a few more years to turn the material into something more commercial.

So, what's the final lesson from this presentation? Oh no, it's not just the fact that this show proved that even a nerdish idea can go viral when the execution involves a famous supermodel.

The real lesson is that, if you think you may have created a genuinely innovative material but nobody seems to have noticed, keep on researching and improving it. One day, the rest of the world will eventually catch up with you, just as it happened with Torres.

Still Unhealed: Undercover S/S 23

Lucio Fontana slashed his canvases to explore the hidden dimensions beyond them, a microcosmic free space the artist was so fond of and about which he stated, "My discovery was the hole and that's it. I'm happy to go to my grave after such a discovery."

Fontana's slashes were often echoed in fashion collections and cuts returned in Undercover's S/S 23 designs. Yet, this collection was neither a tribute to Fontana nor a punk gesture.

Presented during Paris Fashion Week at the American Cathedral on Avenue George V, in a solemn atmosphere, the collection featured several slashed garments.

The designer left all the slashes open and didn't attempt to mend any of them: fluid pantsuits, crispy white or beige shirts, casual separates, and statement T-shirts emblazoned with one word - Dream, Sweet, Angel, Love - all looked as if they had been vandalised with a blade.

In some cases, the open wounds were lined with ruffled organza and lace or sprouted colourful fabric flowers; in others, gemstones were appliqued around the slashes, almost to elevate them to badges of honour.

There was a metaphor behind the slashes: Jun Takahashi has been away from the Paris runways since Covid-19 hit.

This show marked an emotional return and, through the slashes, the designer symbolized the unhealed pain we all went through. More metaphorical slashes have opened in our minds since Covid-19 started, more worries and anxieties clutter our minds, from adverse weather conditions all over the world caused by climate change to the war in Ukraine.

The collection also featured a selection of slip dresses with a second dress that seemed to protrude from the waist and the show closed with four demi-couture bulbous strapless constructions - a red slashed design, a sphere of green tin foil, a turquoise bubble and a beige cotton spherical gown ripped apart and blooming with neon-coloured flowers.

Lucio Fontana went beyond space with his slashes, but here there was a different meaning, the slash represented a wound that we all carry inside, maybe the pain suffered during the early months of Covid-19, an illness, the death of a dear one, fragments of life that have exploded leaving us shell shocked, hit by invisible shrapnel like Undercover's models who had tears in their eyes (that actually seemed almost real compared to the prosthetic teardrops trickling down the cheeks of some of the models in Gucci's A/W 19 collection).

A symbol of emotional turmoil, the tears were a reminder of our collective human condition and hinted at the fact that many of us (or maybe all of us...) are still hurting.

But there was a positive message as well on the runway: flowers blooming, creeping from the wounds, and the slashes in a bomber and a biker jacket that transformed the back of the designs into something new and elegant, almost a bow, reminded us that life goes on and that, if we move forward, we will see those vividly bright flowers bloom from the deepest recesses of our wounds and be healed. At least that's what we dream, hope and wish for.