At Bally, a quiet revolution is upon. Simone Bellotti is the new design director at the Swiss brand, replacing the brief stint of Rhuigi Villaseñor, who left abruptly in May. An experienced designer, Bellotti spent 16 years at Gucci under Frida Giannini and Alessandro Michele, and is now tasked with bringing the dusty brand into new territory. His debut is promising, and much more convincing than the other Milanese debut – Sabato De Sarno at Gucci – this season. For his spring-summer 2024, Simone mined the label’s rich archive “that holds incredible treasures of made in Switzerland craftsmanship”. Bellotti was drawn to explore a mysterious, expressive and subversive flip side of the spirit of the country’s culture. He came across the story of Monte Verità, a utopian community of free, creative souls founded in Ascona at the turn of the 20th century. A haven for spiritual regeneration and artistic and mystical practices, it was visited by famous intellectuals and artists – Carl Jung, Herman Hesse, Rudolf Steiner, Paul Klee and many others sojourned in the retreat, basking in the healing atmosphere of the alpine landscape. The collection he sent out was a fine, sensible exercise in balancing the contradictions between practicality and imagination, elegant design and subtly humorous details. The result: A.P.C., but luxe. A niche that was unfilled in Milan for years.

For both genders, outerwear was the collection’s core, cut with soft precision mostly in high-quality leather. Elongated straight-line or boxy blazers paired with matching shorts, pencil skirts or relaxed trousers were offered alongside A-line dusters and sleeveless zippered bombers and treated with a fresh, youthful approach. Eccentricity and the “out-of-control element,” as Bellotti put out, came by way of taffeta minicrinis, poufy ultra-short ballerina skirts or minuscule tutus made from swirls of rosettes and girandoles, peeking out from masculine trench hcoats in shiny black leather, or paired with a short-sleeved, square-cut office shirt in crisp Swiss poplin. Adding a note of witty homage to Swiss traditions, a strawberry print gracing both a pretty one-piece bathing suit and a small rectangular handbag recalling a kid’s miniature travel bag was drawn from a picnic tablecloth. ‘Appenzeller’ talismans in the shape of tiny cow bells were rendered into bags’ charms, hanging from the straps of trapeze crossbody bags in bright, cheerful colors. Finally, after all these years of uncertainty, Bally found its person.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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