Luxe. Ferragamo SS23

September 26, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Maximilian Davis‘ energetic collection for Ferragamo was the best debut we’ve seen this Milan Fashion Week. It was the right balance of luxe and contemporary – something both old and new clients of the brand will appreciate. The 27-year-old, London-based designer seems to be just what this lately conservative, sleepy Italian house needed. The signifying grande geste of Davis’s new beginning included dropping the “Salvatore,” switching from a cursive font to something much more in line with contemporary design consensus, and laying claim to a new house color: a specific tone of arresting red. This was unmissable, dyed into the damp, rain-spattered sand that floored the courtyard and painted on the boards that backdropped the arcaded arches of this 17th-century Milanese seminary venue. The spot is currently being transformed into a hotel by the Ferragamo family’s Lungarno group. The red represented Davis’s own (now on hold) eponymous label, where it had echoed the flag of Trinidad and Tobago and his heritage. It also speaks to the heritage of Ferragamo, one of whose many famous archival shoes is a beaded red pump made for Marilyn Monroe by the founder in the 1950s. How about the clothes? Said Davis, “I’m developing new fabrications and introducing new silhouettes to the brand, and trying to understand what the younger client needs to make it a success.” There was a strong play for top-to-toe color in athletic-inspired bodysuits and technical field jackets and pants for men. One full look in red, a five-pocket pant and turtleneck, was beaded in homage to Monroe’s pumps. Inspired by the founder’s early incarnation as shoemaker to Hollywood, Davis riffed on sunset and sunrise via dégradé, bleeding-print fabrics that were themselves inspired by artist Rachel Harrison’s Sunset Series. Tailoring was presented in chunky, stolid shapes given twist and movement through the addition of sash details or the removal of sleeves. It was often realized in a delicately finished double-bonded crepe. There was a “playful and slightly perverse energy,” Davis suggested, in leather and suede short shorts. Accessory-wise, the house Gancini hardware was reflected in the heel of a handsome new strappy sandal and the bracelet-like hardware of a small clutch bag. It was also traced in the neckline of a regal charcoal evening dress. Davis spoke of “reenergizing” Ferragamo. The applause that greeted this first installment of his tenure suggested he’s on a good path.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Utilitarian Glamour. Jil Sander SS23

September 26, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

“We asked ourselves what feels modern,” Lucie Meier said, while discussing her and Luke Meier‘s spring-summer 2023 collection for Jil Sander. All of Milan has gone sexy, but the Meiers have a different take on modernity. “We looked at clashing glamour into very simple workwear, our fundamental very simple pattern cutting and then doing things that are more eccentric,” Luke added. That might mean something as straightforward as cutting cargo pants in silk satin or as extravagant as pairing a strapless confetti sequined evening dress with sneakers. The Meiers have always incorporated craft into their work, but whereas in the past macramé and crochet gave their clothes an earthy sensibility, this collection had a shiny gloss – the glam factor. A tank top and midi-kilt were embellished with cloud-shaped mirrors, and the lineup’s single print was lifted from the L.A. street grid after dark, the turned-on lights making a graphic pattern. A knit dress was made using thick yarn with baked-in sequins, and there were feathers galore: peeking from the hem of a sleeveless cotton dress, wrapped around the neck, decorating the large clutch that was one of their bags of the season. Most luscious was the group of finale looks, whose excesses of sequined knit fringe bounced like jellyfish as the models padded down the gravel runway that was actually a chic garden. The only thing that didn’t feel right was the abrupt rain.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Goth Diva. Versace SS23

September 25, 2022September 24, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Versace turned up the heat in the middle of very mild-looking Milan Fashion Week. A steady stream of Prince hits pumped through the speakers as the crowd assembled at the spring-summer 2023 show, and in the middle of the runway, scores of black candles glowed behind walls of glass. Reading the signs, it looked like Donatella Versace was going goth for spring. The first four models, who emerged together, seemed to confirm it. They slithered out in clingy black jersey with slash cutouts and multi-strap platform Mary Janes. Up next were another 10 black looks, from Adut Akecg in a fringed leather motorcycle jacket and micromini, to Binx Walton in a matching bustier and hip-slung jeans. “I have always loved a rebel, a woman who is confident, smart, and a little bit of a diva,” the designer said via press release. She might as well have been talking about herself. Then came monochrome color: electric fuchsia and Princely purple, cut into a liquid jersey number or a sheer dress over satin flares, and teeny party dresses in many variations—strapless with more fringe at the hips or slinky with a cowl hood. A leather teddy was laser-cut like lace and embellished with thousands of little metal studs. This season’s prints combined tropical flowers, zebra stripes, and the label’s all-caps logo on repeat. This section included a couple pairs of jeans. Shredded in precise diamond patterns, this was not your average denim, but it was a whole lot more casual than anything Versace has put on the runway lately, a sign of Donatella’s ambition to expand and diversify her offering. Before the end, the collection moved through the black-to-bright cycle again. Mariacarla Boscono’s black suit and sheer shirtdress mid-layer were sharp. The baby dolls, garters, and lace veils in pink, purple, and acid yellow looked torn from Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”–era playbook via Stephanie Seymour in “November Rain.” For the finale, Versace had another pop-culture blast from the past, none other than Paris Hilton in pink chain mail. Rebels of all kinds welcome here.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Twins. Gucci SS23

September 25, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

In the minutes before Gucci’s spring-summer 2023 show, an email came in. “Welcome to Twinsburg,” read the subject line. Alessandro Michele’s concept this season was a reflection on identity and otherness. Michele, it turns out, is the child of an identical twin. “I am the son of two mothers,” the show notes began. Mum Eralda and Mum Giuliana “shared a genetic solidarity but, above all, they shared an intimacy which was inaccessible to others.” There’s something captivating, even uncanny, about twins – we’ve all seen the photo of Michele and his friend Jared Leto, tuxedoed doppelgängers at the 2022 Met Gala. The Gucci creative director played up the intrigue here, dividing the audience in two via a partition lined floor to ceiling with portraits of twins and look-alikes by Mark Peckmezian and staging two simultaneous shows without either half understanding until the last models made their way down the runway. Then the wall of photos lifted, revealing another set of bleachers and another set of models wearing identical looks. For the finale, the twins emerged from opposite sides of the set, stretched their arms across the runway, and joined hands.

In true Michele fashion, the collection’s 68 looks didn’t need doubles to make an impact. He worked his way through strict tailoring, souped-up activewear, Hollywood Boulevard glitz, embroidered chinoiserie, red carpet glam, and country quilting, among other motifs. The sequined jacket that announced FUORI!!! was Michele’s nod to an early 1970s magazine produced by the Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano, and the stuffed animal handbags were Gremlins, stars of the 1980s black comedy of the same name. A helpful fellow journo pointed out that the Gremlins had a propensity for multiplying, which gets back to Michele’s explorations around identity. He pointed out another twinning detail in the men’s garter pants that revealed a bare expanse of upper thigh. Garters are historically associated with women’s hosiery; we aren’t used to seeing that part of a man’s anatomy. Highly eclectic visual allure and conceptual interpretations aside, it’s the solidarity of twins that Michele was really tapped into. In his post-show press conference, he seemed troubled by the climate crisis, growing anti-gay sentiment, and the renewed threat of nuclear war. “Clothes are not enough,” he said, adding that the filial atmosphere backstage was “therapeutic” for him and his team. “When we are many, we are much stronger,” he argued. This show made you believe it.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Identity Crisis. Missoni + Etro SS23

September 24, 2022September 24, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s this tricky thing about Italian brands that used to be family-owned. Once a new designer, who never worked with that family, takes over the steers, a hard identity crisis begins for good. This Milan Fashion Week, on the same day, there were two such debuts: Filippo Grazioli at Missoni and Marco De Vincenzo at Etro. Both delivered highly uninventive collections that were strangled with some familiar style codes of the brands, but lacking any fresh perspective of what these two idiosyncratic Italian houses could be in 2022. Grazioli’s take on Missoni felt like yet another failed attempt of the brand to rejuvenate itself since the family no longer does the creative direction. The designer, who cut his teeth at Givenchy and Hermès in the past, offered a tight palate-cleanser collection which was a very plain interpretation of Missoni’s timeless zig zag and fiammato patterns. Most of the looks orbited between sleek minimalism and uninspired, 1960s retro. It would d be interesting to see Grazioli playing with the house’s codes with a freer, more daring approach, expanding his creative reach. Because if you are planning to design just good clothes, then don’t even bother – or at least, don’t show during fashion week. A range of similar problems appeared on Etro’s runway. De Vincenzo is a well-known designer in Milan, but when I heard the news of his appointment, I scratched my head. Etro’s most recognizable repertoire – the eternal paisley pattern, the fringed gypsy look, the romantic sweeping gowns – was nowhere to be seen in his debut. “I don’t really like fluid fabrications; I like structure and compact materials,” De Vincenzo explained. “I’m not really familiar with the boho world. It doesn’t mean that in the future I cannot interpret it my way, but for now I’ve been given this position to express my point of view. That’s why I’m here.” I really don’t understand his mission then. There’s no need for Etro to be something else than Etro. And definitely not a bunch of shallow designs, featuring lazy-looking dresses and silly crop-tops. The collection tried hard to appeal to a younger audience, but I guess it was forgotten by that very same audience the minute the show ended. Missoni and Etro are brands that truly deserve better. Either their new creative directors quickly find balance between their personal aesthetics and the houses’ style ethos, or they will simply fall into oblivion, just like many other Italian brands that never could find their way again without their charismatic founders (and their descendants).

Missoni spring-summer 2023: