intensità. Etro AW24

February 22, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

The first day of Milan Fashion Week was hard to watch: messy and silly-looking Diesel where the Y2k-mania starts to feel stale; Kim Jones’ Fendi that left you with no impression (a worst feeling a collection can give); lots of Prada knock-offs and a couple of emerging Italian designers that literally have no direction.

A light of hope was seen at Etro – metaphorically, as the venue was bathed in darkness. Marco De Vincenzo‘s vision for the Italian label is taking shape. Sometimes, designers really need time to find the right balance at a brand. The autumn-winter 2024 show had huge, slightly disquieting effigies of masks inspired by Greek tragedies placed in the middle of the runway. The collection was called Act. “It’s that in my role as Etro’s creative director, I feel torn between authorship and interpretation. It’s a constant struggle that sometimes takes an emotional toll, yet it’s deeply generative. The masks are a symbolic manifestation of this inner turmoil.” The co-ed collection had an almost somber undertone, as if De Vincenzo had tried to unearth a darker, unknown side of Etro, bringing the brand along on an unmapped journey of self-discovery. Colors were muted, progressing from sensuous earthy tones to the intriguing depths of pitch black – a first for Etro, a brand which is usually affiliated with chromatic exuberance. But De Vincenzo is keen to experiment, and he feels confident and mature enough to chart new paths. His penchant for quirk can be both disconcerting and surprisingly fresh. De Vincenzo’s take on the brand is also much more radical and unapologetic rather than romantic. Silhouettes were kept fluid and unstructured, yet draping and plays on asymmetries read as a bold statement, counterpointed by oversized tailoring that had presence and charisma. “I’ve felt the need to raise the bar,” said De Vincenzo. “I sense around me the desire for more intensity in fashion, for a creativity that doesn’t have to justify itself but can just be, that doesn’t seek perfection, but rather emotional expression.”

Here are couple of my favourite Etro pieces you can shop right now!

ED’s DISPATCH:

Off-the-shoulder Fringed Floral-brocade Midi Wrap Dress

Oversized Wool-blend Jacquard Cardigan

Printed High-rise Flared Jeans

Leather-trimmed Embroidered Printed Canvas Belt

Printed Silk-twill Blazer

Pleated Checked Woven Wide-leg Pants

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Perfetto. Zegna AW24

January 16, 2024January 17, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Zegna‘s autumn-winter 2024 collection is probably my favorite of the entire Milan Fashion Week. It’s just perfetto. Collectively made in a beyond color palette of butter, burnt orange, asphalt and the inkiest of blues, Alessandro Sartori‘s latest line-up was about the greatest coats – from a sweeping raglan sleeved number to a padded cashmere coat with an almost suede-like hand, I’m drooling over each of them. “I wanted everything in natural materials: washed cashmere, treated cashmere, quilted cashmere, beaver cashmere and upcycled cashmere,” explained the designer. These cashmere knits look heavenly on the screen, so I just can’t imagine how good are they IRL. Sartori’s standout idea this season were the work jackets and outer shirts – all cut with patch pockets, wide sleeves and generous proportions. The designer offered many looks with detachable collars, or collar choices, in either rawhide or stiff felt, giving a sharp finish to the jawline. And his trousers are simply the best of the sartorial power of “Made in Italy” (did you get my Ed’s Dispatch newsletter on “Italianity”?).

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Prim And Perverse. JW Anderson AW24

January 15, 2024January 17, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

Jonathan Anderson said in his autumn-winter 2024 preview: “Eyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite films, and I actually think it’s a great Christmas film.” It was, however, two viewings last summer that led to this JW Anderson collection. “I’ve never made anything about a film before,” said Anderson. “This is also the sexiest we’ve ever gone – as far as I can go.” Fashion world has a great affection for this Stanley Kubrick fim. Lately, Puppets & Puppets had an entire collection dedicated to this spicy romance-thriller. In case of Anderson, the result was a diverse design range, spanning from prim to perverse: both in menswear and women’s pre-fall, at moments in a Prada-ist manner (fun fact: in the 2000s, the Irish designer used to work around Prada at Brown Thomas in Dublin; there he met Manuela Pavesi, Miuccia’s right-hand, where she consulted the brand’s merchandising). For the collection’s hero print, Anderson contacted Christiane, Kubrick’s widow, regarding her paintings that the director used in his films (including A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut). These paintings were what spanned the triptych knit jersey dresses: other pieces featured a portrait of a family cat, a pot plant with a barcode still on its tub, and a car interior. Said Anderson: “I thought what was interesting is the psychology of this idea of bringing someone from the background to the foreground.” This was about as literal as Anderson got. The collection contained neither Christmas trees nor masks – although Nicole Kidman was on the soundtrack, delivering the near-to-last line of dialogue – however a palpable spirit of twisted bourgeois eroticism ran through the darkened runway as fil rouge. Red, with all its implications, headlined in an oversized velvet evening jacket for men. The jacket’s womenswear counterpoint was a red velvet jumpsuit with one disordered, asymmetrically cut leg that seemed at the intersection of sleepwear and evening wear. Anderson’s own recurring predilection for shorts was satisfied afresh via some wonderful rib knit pieces – sometimes partnered with cardigans, sometimes not – from whose edges oozed suggestive, unsettlingly domestic whorls of satin. Dressing his female and male models in tights over panties gave a less figure-skating aspect to the trophy underwear trend.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Synthetic Environments. Prada AW24

January 15, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

“In this moment you can’t avoid talking about subjects that are relevant. For instance, nature.” As Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons jointly explained, the thinking behind their Prada autumn-winter 2024 menswear collection was intimately entangled with the notion of our natural environment – how we are insulated from it, and how to go back to it. Simons addeded: “Most people’s screensavers are nature but then at the end we sit in this very synthetic human made environment.” A menacing tension felt palpable once the models, dressed as corporate commuters, walked on the raised glass floor with a stream running through a meadow beneath. The patches of highland greens contrasted with the synthetic green of the wool caps worn on the runway. The collection itself consisted of ultimate classics of menswear, as Simons listed for “the businessman, the working man, the thinking man.” Most wore ties. The Prada twist was touches that subverted these safe spaces of identity, enticing the wearer to surround himself with nature. Narrow-fit raincoats, tweed chore jackets, three-button gray topcoats, and gold buttoned naval outerwear all offered a route outdoors. This was a Prada outing that offered safeness and quintessence, clothes-wise.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Dirty Glam. DsQuared2 AW24

January 13, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

No one does a show in Milan like Dean and Dan Caten. Their autumn-winter 2024 DsQuared2 show was about the idea of twins. Who better than the Canadian brothers should have a say in the representation of “the two sides of the coin,” as they said backstage? Drawing upon their own reality of being a sort of day-and-night double version of each other offered the Catens the occasion for an entertaining show – fun, uplifting, with the right amount of camp and lots of maximalist mashed-up styling. The cast was obviously made of sets of twins, one of which was dressed in Dsquared2’s typical grungy daywear; upon entering a “makeover machine,” the other twin emerged glammed up in the evening version of what the first was wearing. The set, a shiny white box, served as glossy backdrop for the finale coup-de-théâtre, with the Catens taking their bow – Dan looking macho in fitted black jeans and an alluring see-through glittery chiffon shirt, and Dean playing the diva in a flame-red hairdo and black corset dress slashed at the front revealing a great pair of legs, teetering with consummate confidence on ultra-high stilettos. They brought the house down. As for the clothes in the co-ed show, there was great outerwear of the outdoorsy, furry, and fringed variety; fabulous distressed and patched denim; fair isle knits, cargos, destroyed tees, trapper hats, and sequined chaps, all jumbled together and styled with slinky abandon. For evening, black dominated, with body-skimming and plunging necklines for the girls, and sultry slim tuxes with femme undertones for the boys. Haley Wollens’ styling makes DsQuared2 look hotter than ever. Fashion for the Catens is going in just one direction: sexy, sassy, with humor to spare, and entirely guilt-free.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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