Enlightenment. Max Mara AW23

February 24, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Who would have thought that in 2023, Max Mara would feel so relevant and desirable. It’s ironic especially since Ian Griffiths looked back a couple of centuries in search for this season’s inspiration. “What’s the relevance of the 18th century to today?” To find the answer, Griffiths engaged his tried and tested creative protocol of fixing upon one historically sidelined but contemporaneously central female creative from the period he was scrutinizing to act as a personification of his thesis. In this case it was Émilie du Châtelet, a burningly intelligent French marquess mathematician who translated Isaac Newton into French – correcting a few of Newton’s errors on the way – and was for years passionately beloved by Voltaire. Griffiths seized upon du Châtelet as emblematic of a period of enlightenment in which female intelligence was increasingly acknowledged by the patriarchy, even as the female wardrobe remained constricting, apotropaic, and controlled. He said: “the fashion at the time was completely not enlightened. So I was imagining how she might have dressed if she had freedom to and how that would translate into today.” That meticulous scene-setting translated into a Max Mara collection that was newly romantic. It either adapted 18th century menswear pieces, like the opening teddy banyan coat, or modernized 18th century womenswear – like look six’s miniaturized pannier skirt in camel brocade with a fishtail detail at the back hem. A long rib knit dress coat and a trio of teddy coats were worn slung over the right shoulder courtesy of an inbuilt strap, which Griffiths said was a contemporary military styling trick, but for men only. Pannier pockets were also used to bolster a double-fronted gray cashmere tunic dress and a black brocade skirt worn over a patent corset belt and a sheer top. Evening pieces came with detachable Watteau backs. Griffifths offered Max Mara versions of contemporary paradigm garments that included a dreamy camel parka, a full length liner coat, and a velvet bomber with frogging. Some models teamed their lug-soled boots with shorts. This was not a wardrobe Émilie du Châtelet would have recognized, but she would, you suspect, have been into it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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In Search for Bohemian Flair. Etro AW23

February 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marco De Vincenzo made some progress at Etro, but it’s still a long way to go. His menswear collection from January felt like the right direction. The designer, however, chose a different and very questionable approach for his autumn womenswear. He’s mining the archives, and “trying,” he said, “to get to the roots of my research.” That means coming to terms with the label’s heritage of pattern-mixing and boho-dressing, an aesthetic that looks to 1970s bohemia rather than the structured, geometrical precision and the rhythmic repetition of quirky patterns he favors. That’s clear he has a hard time with connecting these two worlds. The designer attempted his luck with lightness of the flou – which he never worked with – letting in some breezy construction of flounced, ruffled dresses, the imaginative clashing of patterns so inherent to Etro’s house-codes. The bohemian flair is, after all, the synonym of the brand. In the new collection, it felt overworked. Especially when styled with the thick plaid shawls. Some of these outfits looked simply… wrong. And not in an ironic way. For De Vincenzo, enhancing the cultivated textile expertise of Etro “is a duty.” To that end, he interspersed airy chiffon numbers with slim-fitted pantsuits featuring elongated tailcoats, cut in rich 18th century brocades, or with slightly oversized boxy jackets or coatdresses made in malleable multicolored knitted textures and featuring lapel-less round-shaped, double-breasted fronts. “I haven’t changed,” he said. “I’m still the one who takes risks and doesn’t compromise.” Hopefully after all the errors, he finds a method to his vision of Etro.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Wild Spirit. Roberto Cavalli AW23

February 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Fashion in Milan doesn’t look forward, but resorts to the past in search for inspiration. It’s either about going Y2k-heavy, which gradually becomes quite nauseous, or channeling something more retro. Fausto Puglisi is in the latter camp with his autumn-winter 2023 collection for Roberto Cavalli – and it’s surprisingly good. I can’t remember a decent Cavalli collection since the founder of the brand exited the creative role. Puglisi’s first offerings for the brand were hard to digest, and thankfully he toned it down. The new season vibe is hedonistic, with patchwork leather trimmed in crystals, animalia motifs of many kinds, and piles and piles of faux fur. Denim was another focal point. Jeans are how Cavalli got his start; backstage Puglisi talked about the house founder’s early days, when he tooled around Italy scrounging for denim scraps that he collaged into hippie treasures. They were the inspiration for some of the most hands-on, highly embellished pieces Puglisi has made yet at the label. A pair of bell bottoms were so shredded and shaggy they almost looked like fur, too. A 2022 trip through the American Southwest is still reverberating with Puglisi, and he conjured the aesthetic with tooled leather, silver studding, and turquoise beads. This collection lived up to Roberto Cavalli’s reputation for excess, but in a pleasing way.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Sex Positive. Diesel AW23

February 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Ecstatic moaning on the soundtrack and 200,000 boxes of Durex condoms on the runway both suggested that Glenn Martens will deliver a sex-positive Diesel collection. Before the autumn-winter 2023 show, the designer stated that in April the brand would be handing out half a million free company-branded Durex prophylactics in its stores around the world, promoting fun and safety. “We are a very cheeky, straightforward brand”, the designer added. Also cheeky were the first look’s Y2k-inspired low-low rise jeans – whose moto styling accelerated us into this collection. As is de rigueur at this house, denim innovation was front and center. But in overall, the line-up had nothing new to offer, as most of the ideas were recycled from Martens’ first offerings for the brand. Nomadically shaped knitwear had been finely plucked by laser into wild, but cool disrepair. Two cleverly tufted knitwear pieces – one pink on black, the other gray on black – were there to reflect Marten’s stylistic penchant for grown-out hair dye. Painted and over-layered utility wear in a subtly wild paint-splash camo contrasted with double layered jersey pieces from which the outer sometimes was peeled back to reveal the inner. Digitally distorted pictures of over-toothed smiles were used as close up prints on the phase of near-climax fits. The most intriguing pieces of all were from the hand-fashioned artisanal section; these included a long jacket of layered lining and a moto jacket that referred back to the opener artistically melted and then layered with another skin – accidentally vaguely condom-like in consistency – of membrane. Martens said rightly that he believes his Diesel design language is becoming ever more distinctly identifiable.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Strong & Sexy. Blumarine Pre-Fall 2023

January 30, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

“For this season I was thinking about punk rock, something strong and sexy, something provocative,” Nicola Brognano said regarding his pre-fall 2023 line-up for Blumarine. So far, Brognano’s instincts haven’t failed him. He has put Blumarine on the map, creating a certain hype and some commercial blockbusters. He wants to keep the momentum going. The new item he’s resurrected from the Y2K-era that he was one of the first to champion are cargos cropped below the knee, the infamous knickerbockers that we all have happily pushed to the back of our wardrobes. But no, they’re back, and Brognano is responsible for saving them from oblivion. Proposed in délavé denim washed “with a dirty effect,” as Brognano pointed out. As an alternative to the sure-to-be-a-hit proposition, humongous flares made a reappearance, as did liquid mermaid dresses in viscose, this time worn under ultra-cropped, round-shaped piuminos, or with enveloping knitted coats mimicking a furry effect. Ruching replaced embellishments as a decoration, inserted in seams on denim fitted shirts or on denim trousers worn inside-out, and extended into sort of trailing ribbons dangling from hems or from voluminous knitted draped jumpers. Colors were kept moody, a far cry from the macaron coyness of candy pinks and nursery blues of the label’s beginnings. “She’s sexier, dirtier, her look is almost wrong,” said the designer. “A bit grungier, more grown up, more real.”