ALBINO SPRING SUMMER 2012 WOMEN – MILANO FASHION WEEK

The collection’s silhouettes take shape from the 1958 painting of surrealist Max Ernst: “33 fillettes partant a la chasse d’un papillon blanc”. They are similar, yet at the same time different patterns, which underline the different personality of each one. Fil rouge of this collection is surrealism and its expressive techniques, the research, the play on architectural volumes and an innocent feminine figure, a constant of Albino’s style.
The antique technique of frottage, re-discovered in modern times by Ernst himself, has been applied to the fabrics: toiles a patronage used to cut the first canvasses are printed with enamels and lamé or, more simply, thickened to make them more full-bodied. Collage and ripping in surrealist paintings are translated into a research for three-dimension as well as also in the pure lines and measured volumes and in the matching of coarse cotton crepe to silk, of lamé to the acetate mikado double, all this in a contrast between organic and techno.
…the lightness of butterflies and their presence-absence…
So, as in Ernst’s painting, the butterfly is not represented but perceived by the irregular brush stokes, it’s the techniques used in the collection that convey the presence of the butterfly: petal embroideries (either degrade or brush painted), appliqués in airbrushed organza and georgette and prints with the wings’ graphics in animalier.
The research and neatness of the lines translates into essential constructions, where stitching and cuts are reduced to the minimum: Kimono sleeves, skirts and dresses made with a single fabric panel and cocoon capes and dust coats, or the contrast between rounded and squared lines, wheels and rectangles. Everything is finalised to making even the garments made with the heavier and technical fabrics look light and aerial.
The colour palette is natural and soft: ecru, coarse, tobacco, pine green with strokes of black and white, distanced by touches of shiny colour, yellow, cold, peach, cognac, brass and bluette.