I See Angels. Blumarine SS24

September 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

This week, angels (and swarms of butterflies) landed on the Blumarine spring-summer 2024 runway, which itself was surprisingly a white box setting. This is minimal according to Nicola Brognano, who this season leaves behind the bold pinks and indulges in shades of neutrals and… nakedness. “I just felt it was time for more light, more lightness, more butterflies”. Butterflies, which in a previous collection were emblazoned on a skimpy top, came out in force this season, together with a parade of feathered wings. Butterflies are synonymous with frivolity. And angels, well, they’re angels. Blumarine’s were languid, lanky, handsome winged Adonises strutting down the catwalk in low-rise gold-leather trousers from which emerged smooth, naked torsos dusted with glitter. Brognano’s singular idea of purity and airy luminosity expanded into other literal translations: colors were pale, jerseys were flimsy like hosiery, ribbons and trains trailed breezily on the back of ultra-short sexy numbers. Bustiers and pencil skirts in clear PVC, studded with an abundance of rhinestones and crystals, were the pinnacle of Blumarine’s ode to very naked lightness. They didn’t leave anything to the imagination.To make the waters even murkier, models walked to the beat of The Idol’s Lily-Rose Depp’s World Class Sinner/I’m A Freak.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Butterfly. Blumarine Resort 2024

July 25, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

For resort 2024, Blumarine emerges from the armored chrysalis of the Joan D’Arc-themed autumn show and pops out as a butterfly in shining colors. Turquoise. Hot pink. Golden yellow. “The look isn’t as dirty as in the last few seasons,” Nicola Brognano elucidated. The designer said he wanted something more elevated and sensual, “a different energy, more joie de vivre, a more summer feel“. From the label’s archive he excavated a calmer color palette – nudes, pale pink, light blue, white – that he amplified into brighter vibrations. “There are no concepts, just sensations,” he said matter-of-factly. The look was ultrashort, body skimming and slinky, with viscose jersey providing a smooth, liquid surface malleable enough for wrapping, draping, and sash-knotting. Matching the barely-there minidresses’ colors, stretchy leggings that covered the needle heels of strappy sandals elongated the figure into a lean monochrome silhouette. Brognano unearthed a Blumarine lingerie look from years past, steering its once flirty, seductive attitude towards the overtly provocative. A tight-fitting bustier and leggings combo in stretch jersey with lace inserts was the season’s “new suit proposition.” Roses, another of Blumarine’s emblems, were also given the Brognano treatment. More thorny bush than manicured garden, they were laser-cut and appliquéd on a white minidress, or printed on a hot-pink mesh tube dress. The brand’s ubiquitous cargos came in a simplified evening version. In black canvas with a satin intarsia, they signaled a slight shift in the approach to Y2K that put Brognano’s Blumarine on the map in the first place. Asked how he feels about the in-your-face bare-midriff look that has ignited copycats by every high street brand, he was rather adamant. “Y2K? Honestly, I think it’s a bit passé.”

Joan of Arc. Blumarine AW23

February 24, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

For autumn-winter 2023, Nicolas Brognano reinterpreted the Helmut Newton-esque Blumarine girl through the lens of courageous Joan Of Arc. No sugary hues in sight – rather badass heroines in leathers, shearlings and form-fitting jerseys. Dusting off Luc Besson’s movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, shot in 1999 and starring Milla Jovovich in the epic role of the pucelle d’Orléans, made Brognano feel “transfixed“. Some models even had similar bowl-cuts à la Jovovich. The designer introduced liquid, sexy shine of slinky silver armor, steering Blumarine towards eroticism, intensity, and danger. Tight-fitting draped minidresses were cut in silver or gold metallic jersey, elongated into leggings covering the curved heels of sharp-pointed shoes. Floor-sweeping shearling greatcoats looked imposing, almost majestic, while slender see-through tunics in metallic net suggested a sort of monastic sexiness. Chunky buckles abounded; knickerbockers were tucked into high-heeled laced shearling boots. Evening options included a rather spectacular bustier gown in flame-red georgette with asymmetrical frayed-hem skirts. It’s good to see that Brognano is exiting his Y2k-inspired comfort zone.

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.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Gothic Mermaids. Blumarine SS23

September 24, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Blumarine‘s Nicola Brognano keeps on digging deep into the 2000s nostalgia, but for spring-summer 2023, the designer switched the attitude: from girly to femme, from roses to crosses, from flimsy Lolita-esque dresses to tight-fitting, liquid silhouettes. Also, the Blumarine woman went underwater, becoming an IRL mermaid. In his childhood, Brognano was obsessed with The Little Mermaid cartoon. “I watched it on repeat so many times that the VHS got destroyed,” he said. But what is it about the Little Mermaid that so enthralled Brognano? “She was a redhead like my mother, and I loved the way she was dressed, all those eye-popping colors. I remember a minidress that was exactly a cartoon version of a Versace metal mesh number.” The glamorous mermaid look evidently stuck, but for spring, Brognano turned it into a darker, gothic representation, “intriguing and sexier, less pop, much dirtier.” The image of the Blumarine girl seems to be submitted to a constant process of mutation into ever-evolving versions of herself. A plethora of sexy numbers in luscious jersey contoured every curve, flaring into extra-long trains trailing on the sandy floor of the show’s set, which was scattered with shells and bathed in aquarium-blue light. With similar conviction, the Blumarine mermaid was provided with endless variations of True-Religion-esque denim trousers and cargos, whose hems opened into flares so wide or into undulating ruffles so humongous they almost seemed to crawl behind the models. Midriff-baring was de rigueur; being the ubiquitous trend’s instigator, Brognano just owned it with nonchalance, offering shell-shaped bras in oxidized metal paired with extremely low-slung denim flares or cargo-skirt hybrids. In the Blumarine seasonal mutation into gothic marine creature, the crystal-studded cross replaced the rose, one of the label’s symbols of voluptuous sensuality, here reduced to a few timid rosettes gathering the draping of figure-hugging minidresses. In Brognano’s ongoing identity shaping, drama takes the place of innocent flirting, and romanticism has darker, erotic undertones.