Strange Encounter. Bottega Veneta AW23

February 26, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

The latest Bottega Veneta collection by Matthieu Blazy is a lot. He’s a “designer” with special emphasis put on the word “design”, and that shows in every single of the over 80 looks he presented yesterday in Milan. This season, Blazy focused on “the idea of the strange encounter – people that you meet in the street and they really amaze you. It’s a place where everyone belongs,” like a parade, or Carnevale, “where there is absolutely no hierarchy.” There’s security in a single message show – many designers resort to that concept this season – but Blazy and the team “decided not to edit the collection.” Instead, they kept adding characters and occasions for which to dress them, starting with a just-stepped-out-of-bed sheer dressing gown and house shoes. What does a Bottega Veneta house shoe look like? It’s a slipper sock, only the wool upper is not wool at all but knitted leather. We saw layered dresses with sweet flower embroideries that called to mind luxury long johns, deconstructed 1950s screen star dresses, and an exceptional LBD with a swooping neckline and a front slit not quite high enough to reveal the top of over-the-knee intrecciato boots. Materials-wise, Blazy was after light, unconstrained fabrics, even though the effect rather read as unflattering and cumbersome (especially some of the women’s coats and eveningwear). The silhouettes sometimes went to uncomfortable extremes. ‘Rolled’ waistband skirts were meant to conjure the fishtail bottom half of mermaids, fantastic creatures being part of Carnevale festivities. You could go on and on about the aesthetics of Blazy’s Bottega Veneta. It’s definitely not one thing. He said of Italian style that inspires him, “I always look at how women and men here layer. It’s very sophisticated, even when it doesn’t work, you know? It’s so personal.” Officially, this show marked the end of his Italian trilogy. Where to next?

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Technical Control. Ferragamo AW23

February 26, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maximilian Davis‘ take on Ferragamo is an ambitious work in progress. His sophomore runway collection, comparing to the loud debut from September, focused on streamlined silhouettes and timeless wardrobe building-blocks. Davis said he began by looking to the 1950s, a house sweet spot when clients included Audrey Hepburn and Marylin Monroe, who would order her favorite four-inch Filetia and Viatica pumps in bulk. Whether on screen or off, the worn vernacular of that time in Western cultures was pretty consistent; tailoring and first-wave Ivy League sportswear for men, and optimistic, post-war abundant full skirting and chastely sexualizing waists and necklines for women. Davis took these period features – focusing especially on circle skirts, nipped waists and sweetheart necklines for women – then effectively worked to add contemporary elements in fabrication or via delicate sportswear detailing. He simultaneously defined his tailoring template – a high-lapeled, one-and-a-half breasted, and as-nipped-as-womenswear jacket shape – and then expanded it equally across both genders. Some more off-duty looks (jeans and tank tops, trenches over shorts) acted as punctuation marks, as did cocoon-like hoodies double layered over flaring long-line skirts. Bags included handsome oversized daybags in lilac and natural lizard. This young designer showed a mature restraint by waiting for a third of the run before pushing the tone of red that Ferragamo is trying to claim as its own, hitting us with a precise red pantsuit and male-worn leather trench. The technical control, however, seemed to block Davis’ more daring, creative side. The lack of a so-called “hero look” made the collection somewhat too stiff.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Milanese Sciura. Trussardi AW23

February 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

One year in at Trussardi, and it seems it’s clear what Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik are up to with the Italian brand. The latest collection is an ode to the Milanese style that made Trussardi prominent between the 1970s and ’90s. It all started with the puffer jacket, taken to the extreme to become XXL, like a bathrobe, padded and super soft. The leather on men’s and women’s skirts was distressed, softened, while the duchesse silk and nylon imitated the leather on classic cut blouses and less classic skirts with diagonal zippers. Everything read “sciura,” a Milanese term for the typical city lady, who only wears black, hazel, ecru and bordeaux, as in this collection, allowing herself to wear a jacquard motive that is reminiscent of the tapestries in the palaces she frequents. Isik and Huseby played with these clichés without mockery, rather using them as a key to a brand story that would otherwise be left untold. The final look was a mermaid skirt paired with a jewel belt and a sober turtleneck, completely black. It was like a contemporary version of the Trussardi look for the Teatro alla Scala premiere, an unmissable event for the typical Milanese. However, is this (quite convincing) storytelling enough to turn new clients on to buying Trussardi?

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Switch It Up. Jil Sander AW23

February 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Five years since their appointment as creative directors of Jil Sander, Lucie and Luke Meier decided to switch it up. In their autumn-winter 2023 collection, you won’t find their signature soft minimalism and a regular palette of neutrals, pastels and creams. The first look – a leather motorcycle jacket – was a clear sign something’s different this season. “We kind of looked back at our formative years, the ’90s and 2000s,” said Lucie. “We were thinking about how the outlook was so positive and exciting, thinking about technology coming into our lives. Now the positivity about the future is more difficult to hold up.” Luke interjected: “It’s always a bit rose-tinted, the past, but the one resounding element here was that there was this openness to kind of cross contaminate things.” The original Jil Sander wouldn’t recognize much of the tailoring, but in a season of samey pantsuits, the Meiers’ streamlined, zip-front jackets and expandable trousers were a fresh take. Strangely, some of the looks had more to do with Consuelo Castiglioni’s (Marni’s founder) quirky sensibility than with the German designer’s impact. Bjork’s love song “All Neon Like” soundtracked the show, and her eccentricities sparked some of the ideas here, like the pretty degradé floral print dresses that were paired with nubby-soled sneaker boots. It was good to see he Meiers exercising their individuality, whether that was in the form of an airy, generously cut parachute dress embellished with crushed metal flowers or tunics and tees digitally printed and jacquarded with fruits and bonbons. Still, the overall effect felt try-hard and too inconsistent.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Something’s In The Air. Gucci AW23

February 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Gucci’s in the middle of a seismic change. Alessandro Michele’s aesthetic and visual impact is still all over the brand, while Sabato De Sarno, the recently appointed new creative director, will show his first collection in September. The Gucci design studio has a rare opportunity to go carte blanche. Like in case of their last indie-sleazy menswear collection, the in-house designers of the mega-brand are enamored with Tom Ford’s era, but revisit his slim-lined heritage through a quirky, Michele-lens. Heart-shaped faux-fur collars on coats and heart-shaped panniers on party dresses; crystal-trimmed portholes on a black shift and slip dresses constructed from see-through sequins; high-drama faux fur chubbies and low-key boyfriend jeans and button-downs; and on the accessories front: oversized double G buckles, a horsebit handbag revived from 2003, metal spike heels about half as high as their ’90s progenitors, and a couple pairs of mukluks. The casting told a story about heritage, too. Amy Wesson, Guinevere Van Seenus, and Liisa Winkler all walked vintage Tom Ford runways. At the end of the show, design team members by the dozen emerged on the green-carpeted show venue to take a group bow. The point was made: Gucci is far more than whomever occupies the creative director seat. Still, it’s a crucial role, the instinctive force that stitches a collection into a unified whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.