ETRO FALL WINTER 2017-18 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK

Etro Paisley Tribe

Take a walk into a colorful winter with Etro Paisley Tribe, a fearless group of exploring women who lead the way to this season’s adventure playground. Bright, feisty, active and energized, these women congregate, celebrate, and share freely as if in an altitude festival. Whether on a remote mountain top, pensive retreat,
or bustling city street, the mood is buoyant and free, igniting a color explosion and pattern collision. Codes are unwound, rules are broken, and mystery cultures materialize around an air of spirituality, energy, and positivity.

The new look is rooted in a functional sportiness but has bursts of Etro’s traditional femininity and its mastery of mixing. Oversized outerwear, including giant tweed parkas and patchwork jacquard puffer jackets, creates cozy bulky upper halves with long plissè printed paisley dresses fluttering beneath.
The robe is reimagined this season as an almost regal wrap, with kimono sleeves, striped trims, and ribbon borders. Dresses are either goddess long or hyper cropped in wrapped or rouched drapings. The pant this season is quilted and printed, creating a Judo-like pajama.

The new mood synthesizes, as always, in the world of print. This season Veronica Etro has mixed worlds, plucking her family’s famous paisley and punching it with psychedelic colors. Winter’s traditional palette of pine, mud, bordeaux, and black is shot with hot pink, revived cobalt, emerald green, and acid yellow. Spinning mandalas, tie prints, and tree of life florals, are refracted into kaleidoscopes of new patterns. Bold stripes and accentuated angles break up the decorative veil, while a touch of leopard print adds a new exoticism.

The visual mélange is made sumptuous with Etro’s rich fabrics. Intricate brocades are trimmed with colorful ribbons or borders recalling the colorful ethnic saddles used on yaks. Jacquards are boldly slashed with opulent gold and trimmed in colorful micro threading that recalls Tibetan flags. Lotus flowers, dragons, and geometrics fly across these noble materials in the form of patches bearing messages and claiming identity. Tweeds, on overcoats, parkas and dresses, unfold like blankets while metal ribbon embroidery clusters on an armor-like dress. Knitwear, meanwhile, has been elevated to artistic status with its elaborate patterned jacquards on beefy cardigans and reversible kimono coats.

The extras allow for in nite personalizing, customizing, and keep the collection’s balance between folk and the street. Madras scarves, colorful thread, and metal charm necklaces wrap around the neck. Colored stones jingle at the neck and wrist while patchwork bras and beaded halter tops add a layer of utility on evening dresses. Bags are big enough to carry one’s necessities on adventure, but showered in luxe: a postman’s bag is reinvented in jacquard with velvet lacing while embroidered carpet bags come in messenger versions. The look is finished off with trek read footwear, sealing the funky nomad vibe: Himalayan-like colored felt or suede flat boots and heeled booties feature shearling linings and ribbons that wrap up.