SS25

Bonkers Glam. Vaquera SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Vaquera opened Paris Fashion Week with bonkers attitude – but one that is also commercially viable. “We’re still very punk in our roots,” said Bryn Taubensee, “but we’re asking ourselves, how can we also make it easy for people to understand and wear, and easy enough for us to survive?” Patric DiCaprio, the other half of Vaquera’s heart, put it more bluntly: “Shooting ourselves in the foot isn’t really where we see the future for our lives and this brand.” That’s why the spring-summer 2025 collection is all about Vaquera essentials – black bubble miniskirt with built-in bike shorts, bullet-bra tops and jersey tees with logos – with a provocateur twist. The XXL faux-fur coat is a joyous delight, just like the puffy ball-skirt in a kitschy, vintage-y chain print, styled with a monumental cloud-shaped. But there’s nothing whimsy about Vaquera, even their eveningwear as the New York-based duo styles it with over-sized rugby shirts and well-worn trainers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Idea of Wow. Bottega Veneta SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Bottega Veneta show was livid. It made you love living life! Matthieu Blazy really starts feeling the Italian air and flair of dolce vita. His spring-summer 2025 was a joyous, vibrant finale of Milan Fashion Week – and a reminder to let your inner child out from time to time. “I was interested in the idea of wow, the wonder you have as a kid when you try something – it’s almost like primal fashion, your first experience of fashion when you try your parents’ clothes,” the designer said. He showed too-big jackets and one-leg pants under asymmetrical wrap skirts, and pieces like a black tank dress and khaki and navy shirtdresses with built-in wrinkles like they’d been crushed at the bottom of a trunk waiting for a game of dress-up. The details were pure fun: frogs perching at the neckline of a dress and clinging to the heels of shoes, lapels in the shape of bunnies on leather coats, a scarf top printed with giant fish. Humor was all over the spiky wigs and flower bouquets made out of leather (of course, it’s Bottega!). Blazy’s enthusiasm is perceptible and catching. This is exactly what we need in 2024.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Dada-Chic. Bally SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

In my opinion, the silent revolution going on at Bally is the most exciting phenomenon in Milan. Simone Bellotti’s vision of the brand very smartly – and with lots of wit – references Switzerland, the homeland of Bally. On the spring-summer 2025 moodboard, he had an eclectic mix of imagery, but one portrait stood out, that of Hugo Ball, the sound-poetry author and founder of the Dada movement in 1916 Zürich. Surrounding Ball’s image were photos of rustic, oddly-shaped cowbells, rusted shoehorns, and Man Ray’s artwork The Gift – a flat iron with thumbtacks glued along its sole. What captivated Bellotti about Ball’s portrait was the striking costume: a tall cylindrical hat and a metallic cone-shaped cape, with a stiff high collar framing his face. “I like its simple precision,” Bellotti remarked. Bellotti revisited the mountain-like, sloped-shoulder silhouette throughout the collection, integrating it into the necklines of coats and blazers. In some ensembles, this shape was paired with curved lines inspired by cowbells, reinterpreted as rounded miniskirts – some of which were lifted at the front to reveal matching culottes beneath. The concept was great, but the effect looked ill-fitting most of the time. Still, there was a standout piece: a burgundy leather coat featuring a sloped collar and shoulders, with a cinched waist that flared into a poufy pannier skirt (very Prada autumn-winter 2009).

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Toi, Toi, Toi. Ferragamo SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Maximilian Davis‘ spring-summer 2025 collection for Ferragamo is dedicated to modern dance. Seen through a slightly sinister lens of Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” remake (the monotonous curtains of the show’s venue were very Tanz Akademie, very Madame Blanc), images of Nureyev (who apparently danced in the Ferragamo shoes) and ballet photographs by Hans van Manen, this was a tribute to rough-around-the-edges sort of dance. Loose trench coats with dropped-waist belting, field jackets and sectioned skirts were cut in metal-spiked nylon. The menswear emanated that ’80s off-duty ballet hunk vibe that Nureyev so powerfully emanated – this was further transmitted in a great, oversized black leather pea coat. Leggings, bodies, and ribboned pointed-toe pumps were worn with double wrapped tops that mirrored the classic ballet cardigan. It’s well-known fact that Ferragamo is having a hard time commercially, but Davis does everything he can to make the brand feel like a place to go back to – and investment in.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Jet-Set at Gucci? Groundbreaking. Gucci SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Sabato De Sarno can play the most uplifting Italian music, riff on Tom Ford and Frida Gianini’s archives, have all the models of the moment walk his runway and talk lots about big feelings, but I still don’t his Gucci. When you unpack the spring-summer 2025 collection from an envelope of good-looking marketing ploy, you end up with unimaginative, poorly edited and most of the time stiff-looking clothes that are neither desirable or anything close to jet-set style that seemed to be this season’s key inspiration.

P.s The neon-green bathrobe in Gucci monogram must be a joke. It’s 2024, come on!

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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