Author: Design & Culture by Ed

Remix. Etro AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

“The question I asked myself is: How can I deal with the prints in a totally new way? I wanted to go out of my body and see things from a completely different angle,” Veronica Etro explained backstage of her autumn-winter 2022 fashion show. “So I imagined aliens coming across our archive in 200 years and looking at them with micro-lenses that are sort of zooming in and blowing everything up. So it’s like zoomed heritage!” With Etro’s heritage looping back via its family-founded roots in Italy during the hippie late 1960s, to a style of shawl named after a Scottish mill town that made a massive 19th-century British Colonial fashion business out of appropriating a precious fabric whose culture belongs to Kashmir, on the border of India and Pakistan – the paisley pattern is always the given medium. Veronica Etro’s conundrum has been to contemporize and reconfigure all of that, expanding the range of what her brand can be without losing its character. “You know, Etro was a lifestyle brand,” she observed backstage. “I think the strength is that it has a strong identity, but at the same time it leaves women open to interpret and to be individual and to personalize. It’s about how we can embrace different personalities – I never wanted to make it homogeneous, to make uniforms.” This time she traveled through boho, arty-crafty knitwear to ’80s puffy-silhouetted patchwork bomber jackets to end up with suave, ’70s crushed-velvet trouser suits and slinky bias-cut black satin dresses. Some of it looked like an Italian version of Isabel Marant – and this isn’t something bad. The paisley registered in various graphic forms – super enlarged to look like an animal-print lining on a shearling aviator jacket, or deconstructed down to its “harlequin” elements, stamped in repeat on a vibrant pink velvet jacket and a semisheer, diaphanous chiffon dress.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Do You Even Care? Gucci AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

It’s infuriating how huge brands that preach values of “inclusivity”, “love” and “peace” choose to stay silent in case of Russian invasion of Ukraine. I had a different attitude towards labels that showed their collections and decided to stay silent on the first day of the conflict (like Prada) – everybody was confused. But now is the high time to act, and most of the Western European fashion companies and insiders still pretend to be asleep. Gucci‘s silence is telling – not a single social media post in plain sight that would acknowledge the disheartening situation. Why is that? Kering and other luxury conglomerates are just too scared they won’t sell another pair of shoes to its major customer target, largely located in Russia, which supports Putin’s war crime towards Ukraine. As simple as that.

Alessandro Michele‘s autumn-winter 2022 fashion show failed to share any gesture of solidarity with Ukrainians, even though I thought he would be the first to do that in the industry. Possibly, his good intentions might have been tamed by the upper company structures. The distaste caused by the tone-deafness is one thing. In general, this line-up was one of the most mediocre collections coming from the designer in a while. The message for this collection, entitled “Exquisite Gucci“, was suits for all, with male and female models wearing versions of the Gucci sartorial two-piece. Alongside this focus on tailoring was a collaboration with Addidas Originals, which saw the sportswear brand’s iconic three stripes splashed over sharp cut suits, on leather gloves and baseball caps, or forming a dramatic V down the front of a corset dress. To be honest, most of the looks felt uninspiring, and I feel like we’ve seen enough of fashion collabs with Adidas in the last couple of years.

Back to really important stuff. If you want to spread awareness or help and support Ukraine, here are some useful links:

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ways-to-help-ukraine-conflict/

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/countries/ukraine

https://www.rescue.org/article/how-can-i-help-ukraine

https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina-en

Also, big love to independent, small and medium-sized brands like Magda Butrym, Collina Strada and MISBHV that will donate 100% of its profits to aid humanitarian crisis in Ukraine in the following days. Any action counts, big or small!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Sensual Allure. Blumarine AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

Helmut Newton’s spirit hovered over the Blumarine show. “Always loved his work, how can you not? Always been one of my heroes,” said Nicola Brognano backstage. Newton lensed memorable advertising campaigns for Blumarine; one of the best was shot in 1995, with a young Eva Herzigova clad in a skintight black satin number, slit high to reveal her fabulous legs. Brognano had Herzigova, still breathtakingly gorgeous at 48, close today’s show, nicely coming full circle. You cannot reference Helmut Newton without conjuring dark, sultry atmospheres of intrigue. Brognano is prodding the girly Blumarine ingénue to enter grown-up territory. “She’s more femme and sexual,” he said. His co-conspirator, über-stylist Lotta Volkova, chimed in: “She isn’t so pretty and girly anymore – or at least not only. She has grown into a strong, sexy woman, in command of her body, and powerful. She is a glamorous vamp.” Nocturnal and provocative, the collection was paraded by a cast diverse in age and body type, reflecting the image shift. Lila Moss, Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry, and Mini Anden were among various beautiful curvy figures and willowy, slender silhouettes: all looked equally alluring, clad in a series of skintight, draped micro dresses, each one slinkier, sexier, and skimpier than the other. A bold palette of black, red and purple signaled an erotic detour from the candy pinks and powdery baby blues favored by Blumarine’s teen incarnation. Sweeping long black coats, shapely and nipped at the waist, looked dramatic; in Newton-esque style, faces were sometimes veiled, eyes hidden behind dark glasses. A catsuit in black patent leather with a built-in bustier had an obvious fetish allure; the see-through top with breast-hiding velvet hearts worn by Herzigova in the Newton campaign was remade, as an homage to the Blumarine’s heyday.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.