Rhapsody in Blue
Interior, night. For the first time, Armani/Silos is hosting a runway show in the setting that encapsulates and summarises the work of Giorgio Armani. Feminine figures, slim and slender like pencil strokes, move throughout the rooms together with strong yet graceful men.
In what they wear, they are complementary expressions of the same vision, united through the colour blue: deep and vibrant, the Armani shade par excellence pervades everything, defining a timeless, velvety elegance that is perfectly balanced. The female silhouette is elongated and curvaceous, sketched with short jackets close-fitting at the bust, trousers with curved edging, pencil coats and draped blousons.
Collars disappear, and asymmetrical markings sweep over the pieces like brush strokes, adding a sense of motion to the figure, along with an interplay of inlay work. The effect of movement is also suggested on the surfaces, which are covered in photographic prints of knots and drapery, enlarged to the point of becoming abstract.
The eveningwear is lengthened, dazzling and sleek with its sparkling garments, featuring styles as simple as t-shirts or velvet jumpsuits that make a statement with their textural, agile flair. Soft tailoring dominates the men’s collection, while midnight blue velvet adds a sense of depth: the material of choice features in short, compact double- breasted blazers, parkas and coats that are comfortable and enveloping and suggest movement.
The stylistic narrative unfolds, alternating between subdued formality that anticipates the surprise return of the tie, and an equally understated athleticism, where jackets and anoraks are paired with tailored, flowing trousers. Conscious nonchalance is the distinguishing feature – the expression of a vision of masculinity that finds power in elegance.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, GIORGIO ARMANI, GIORGIO ARMANI FW 2019-20
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
NEUROEROTIK – fantaerotic escape game.
It is time to play, no holds barred, with a free body and free thoughts. This game is all in the head. Will you be able to escape? You have twenty-four hours of time. Being here, reading these instructions makes you all participants to the game, no matter what. The strip game consists of cheerful and solicitous counter-censorship exercises: the more you avoid and deploy it, the easier it will be to run away from the borderless escape room.
Watch out for the women who walk around the space: they are wardens – hand-welded, wrapped in chains and fornicating scarves, in crazy kilts, diamonds like chastity belts and men’s jackets affected by acute femininity.
Engage with them a neuronal hand-to-hand match, activate the erogenous zones and map the new pleasurescapes: the scattered folds will open like curtains, indicating the way. Move. Do not let yourself be deceived: what appears from a distance, is something else up close. Follow what the hormones suggest to you, sabotage every behavior and misdirect respectability. The most frivolous of them all wins. Time to start.
The meeting between two imponderables: the eroticism of body language and the mysterious plan of neuroconnections. An exploration of sensuality, looking, doing away with respectability and censorship. Nothing is as it appears, everything keeps moving. Folds and pleats twist and open on dresses and skirts, or run along scarves that are cutouts of dresses, wrapped around the neck.
Men’s jackets and coats get broken. Engagement rings hold liquid tunics together, while pixelated prints create hypnotic patterns. Fluid languors alternate with martial steadfastness: work uniforms, draping. Endless chains like composite necklaces. Stovepipe boots. Lace-up booties with high plateaus. Capacious bags or small wallets.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, MARNI, MARNI FW 2019-20
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
Sportmax© Copyright 2019
MOOD | INSPIRATIONS
For its Fall/Winter 2019-20 collection, SPORTMAX introduces a vision of classicism projected into the future, working on the silhouette. The collection develops a new concept of dynamic feminine and futuristic tailoring, that is also interpreted in the new combination of suits created by mixing two joinable pieces, wearable in multiple ways to become the classicism of the future. Sunglasses, an important new category addition thanks to the exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Marcolin Group, are characterized by strong shapes, contrasting materials and asymmetrical lines. A new sneaker collection, marked by overlapping layers on the upper in suede, rubber- effect leather and 3-D concentric circles on the soles, delineates a new dynamic shape.
SHAPES | TECHNIQUES | KEY LOOKS
A sense of energy emanates from outwear pieces, from coats to bomber jackets, that defines new volumes through the shoulders, emphasizing the play on curves and contours. Building on the concept of classicism of the future, a part of the brand’s DNA, the collection proposes oversize double-face coats and those with placement stripes, blazers and skirts combine various patterns and materials, the cashmere shearling jacket with back seams and the transformable trench coat, which can be divided into two pieces, mixed and matched with the leather vest, a key garment which can be paired with RTW pieces and knitwear, interplaying and enriching the wardrobe combinations. The sportswear-inspired attitude of lightly padded nylon dresses and matelassé shirts with graphic effects styled with baseball caps complete the look.
COLOURS | MATERIALS
The collection plays on shades of grey with sartorial-inspired fabrics, like pinstripe wool, herringbone and stripes, and delicate colours of nature, which almost announce the arrival of spring: touches of white, beige, sand, light blue and caramel. Crossing materials with one another, wool is mixed with leather to create contrasts between matte and shiny effects. Bright colours on the padded nylon garments and on the printed and patterned knitwear vibrates in stronger hues of rust and bright blue, turquoise and green.
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, SPORTMAX, SPORTMAX FW 2019-20
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
Stepping into the blue of a chroma key. The color allows the change of the background however one prefers, teleporting characters across eras and places, in a flip.
It’s a stargate, if you like. The Missoni chroma key is a door that connects different moments in the history of a fashion house that’s been active for more than six decades and has endlessly explored every path of knitwear.
The blue door connects the present time with an instant placed on the cusp of the mid seventies, when volumes were long, lean and liquid, and fashion danced around the body.
A time of high waists and elegant elongation; of enveloping coats, flowing capes and hoods. A flip, and the fluctuating lines materialize here and now, into the blue, in a wardrobe of jacquard coats, capes, jumpsuits, suits and dresses, put together with enveloping moves.
The glitter, the shine and the sparkle so defining of that era return, just like the bonnets and the pierrot collars, which however are brought to decisive proportions. The sparkle of lamè carries in the mens wardrobe, where shine, suiting and wide pants rule.
The long élan of Missoni bridging its own present and with its own past follows a clarity that is a matter of line as it is one of surfaces. Color blocks and blown-up jacquards stimulate the gaze in strict yet gentle ways.
The chroma key allows everything to come back. As such, it knows no nostalgia.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, MISSONI, MISSONI FW 2019-20
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
The persistence of memory – how it shapes the present, how it forms the future – inspires the Fall/Winter 2019 Roberto Cavalli collection by creative director Paul Surridge. It evokes memories of Cavalli – not direct references, but reflections. Embracing, celebrating, evolving, it asserts the codes of the house: vibrant colour, a distinct print language, an artisanal touch. Alongside universal ideals of status, allure, beauty and confidence. These too are fundamentally Cavalli.
Clothes move with the body – freedom is confident. The clothes interplay between fitted and draped, a dynamic esprit. Plissé silks ebb and flow, sometimes interrupted with a twist in their precision, and knits cling to contours yet shift in motion. A modern ease. Joie de vivre.
Tailoring is rigorous, sculpting: it defines. A compact silhouette drawn from frock-coats references timeless notions of status, and the structure of tailoring offers dynamic rigour when combined with liquid silks. Menswear relaxes tailoring – here, ease equals power,translating a modern deformalised attitude into sartorial dressing. Mens and womens clothes interchange, exchange. They have a memory of each other.
Cavalli’s key code of animalier is here impressionistic, refracted into a stylised, Modernist tiger print, shadowed, in unexpected colours. It appears as prints across fluid silks, as embroideries that appear painted on the skin, and in intarsia shearlings – abstracted, but always with a memory of its origin. Python is recreated as a hand-drawn pattern in jacquard, or as sequin embroidery keyed close to the body, drawn from archival styles. These are reflected in Art Deco-inspired evening dresses, the memory of the 1920s, a source of inspiration for Cavalli past and present.
The colour palette is rich, embedding subdued tonality with glimmering jewels: midnight navy, black, fresco pastels, porcelain, alongside chartreuse, lagoon-mist blue and bougainvillea.
Accessories are founded in anchors, classics, archetypes. Bags become embellished status symbols carrying “Bold C” hardware; jewellery plays with crocodile scale motifs, like a modern armour. Shoes have strong chiselled toes, on both high-boots and evening mules, balanced on a finely-tooled bevelled gold heel. The same sharp, squared toe appears in menswear, on an elevated ankle-boot – shown alongside the iconic Roberto Cavalli V1PER sneaker.
Throughout, like a heartbeat, is the artisanal touch that defines Cavalli. Delicate embroideries, intricate fabrics, a memory of the human touch. Quintessentially Roberto Cavalli.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, Roberto Cavalli, ROBERTO CAVALLI FW 2019-20
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
Tue, February 26 2019 » Fashion Blog
Salvatore Ferragamo© Copyright 2019
“GENERATION”
Family, the cultural continuity between generations, and power – all have been central to the spirit of Salvatore Ferragamo. It is a quiet power that distinguishes the house, a power Paul Andrew and Guillaume Meilland explore for Autumn/Winter 2019 and figure into the zeitgeist as an antidote to its pervasive unrest. The revelation comes in a kaleidoscopic display of identity and all its nuance: impossible to characterize in one attitude or gesture, their men and women refuse easy definitions and instinctively embrace a politics of togetherness.
Patchworks of suede, nappa, snake and lizard in women’s accessories and ready-to-wear speak to this prevailing notion of multiplicity and allude to Mr. Ferragamo’s ubiquitous multicolor patchwork wedge of 1942. The same symbolic tactic is echoed in archival scarf prints in modern patchwork on silk twill. Fringed cashmere blanket coats, sensual leather robes, sportswear in Japanese technical wool and hand-knit textured sweaters convey a natural, unstudied luxury. The Gancini monogram jacquard, a new signature, visually locates the collection in a place and time without needing to tiredly assert a heritage.
Tailored garments imagined with an outdoor sensibility frame the menswear proposal. Deerskin, corduroy and technical wool gabardine give jackets and outerwear presence and gravitas. Engineered shapes and utilitarian trims are essential features both of design and end-use. The new suit is three-button, soft shouldered, the lapel widened, in traditional British and Italian cloths.
Shoes not only importantly anchor the collection looks; they are the fundamental ingredients of the Ferragamo formula. Sculptural heels appear in bright suedes, nipped-point toe stilettos in satin with hand encrusted rhinestone straps, and pull-on boots in butter calfskin. Nubuck trekking boots and a twist on the classic loafer for men further emphasize the tension between classic and rugged. Handbags in everyday styles are rendered soft and deconstructed in suede and tumbled deerskin or assume singularity as small, handheld objects.
A new creative horizon at Ferragamo begins to come into focus, with a renewed commitment to crafting innovative products for a generation that sees luxury everywhere and nowhere, and for whom inclusion and authenticity rise as beacons of possibility, hope.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2019-20, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, Salvatore Ferragamo, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO FW 2019-20
Mon, February 25 2019 » Fashion Blog
Sun, February 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
The Women’s Fall-Winter 2019 Collection explores the house’s codes through a new lens. The dichotomy of luxury and grunge is present on the runway, where rich fabrics feature unfinished hems and looks are adorned with signature Safety Pins. The collection is a celebration of Versace iconography, while contrasting styling elements, fabric innovation and an ode to photography deliver multi-dimensional impact.
Key runway looks pay tribute to Versace’s storied relationship with fashion photography, featuring portraits of Donatella Versace by Richard Avedon. These images are reprised in the Fall-Winter Collection thanks to the support of the Richard Avedon Foundation. The American photographer lensed more than 30 campaigns for Versace over the course of 20 years, beginning with the Spring-Summer 1980 Collection. For the launch of the fragrance Blonde, Avedon created portraits of Donatella Versace in his studio in New York on February 3rd, 1995.
The Blonde campaign, and in particular, the associated fragrance, lent further inspiration to the collection where new prints and embroideries showcase the house’s most distinctive perfume bottles. The print innovation continues in Versace’s colorful trademark style, mixing bold hues with house codes and references to art history. Monuments come to life in vivid tones on the Vittoria print through a bright representation of a statue from London’s National Gallery. An explosion of color celebrates the essence of Versace. Barocco-style V’s feature on silks, lurex jacquards and on the house’s new handbag line, Virtus. Taking its name from the Roman deity, Virtus symbolizes strength, courage, and character. A bold symbol of the brand’s aesthetic heritage, the central Barocco V characterizes the bag.
The conflicting natures of luxury and grunge are revealed in the styling and details of the collection. Quintessential Versace hardware elements like the Greek Key and newly embellished Safety Pins are at the core of this juxtaposition. Cashmere knits are destroyed while raw-cut edges on colorful tweeds are overlaid with top-stitched silk bondage straps. Stockings are paired with slip dresses, faux furs are worn with the gold chains, and leather boots are dramatized with hardware buckles.
“Bold women feel free to stay away from what is expected. With this collection, I wanted to show that side of a woman that isn’t afraid to step outside of her comfort zone because she knows that imperfection is the new perfection.”
– Donatella Versace –
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, VERSACE, VERSACE FW 2019-20
Sun, February 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
MY FAVOURITE THINGS
“One of my favorite things in the world is a little ceramic deer from the Forties that I found a few years ago in a small shop. I like it so much, I keep it in a glass case at home: even though it is not precious, it is very precious to me. It’s the same Bambi that I shaped into an invitation to this show. This collection feels very personal: it is filled it with my favorite things. I wanted to celebrate what I like as a designer, what triggers my creativity and makes me love my job. The idea that everything comes together, for instance, even when things are put one next to another for no particular reason but a creative urge. This fateful randomness, which in fact is not randomness, is completely my own, just like the love for lurex, waves, optical motifs; just like the proclivity for macramè, glitter, intensely psychedelic surfaces. I like riffs of the metallic and distorted ladylike. I like velvet and I like a womanly dress, or a very bourgeois ensemble that I twist and turn by way of color, texture or pattern. A touch of kitsch is something I am not afraid of at all. This collection is one hundred percent me, a recollection of the weird and wonderful alphabet of my label, which I launched exactly ten years ago. What is specific and exclusive of this moment is the ease of it all, the pervasive sense of spontaneity. I am feeling light right now. So does my work”.
Marco de Vincenzo
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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2019-20, MARCO DE VINCENZO, MARCO DE VINCENZO FW 2019-20
Sun, February 24 2019 » Fashion Blog
