style

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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Fashion Cliques. Moschino SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Adrian Appioloza’s third collection for Moschino was a subcultural grand tour, a study of fashion cliques from a guy with an obsessive eye for detail (and vintage). From breezy milkmaids to Perry-Ellis-by-Marc-Jacobs grunge, from subtle punks to sciura glam, this was a line-up that showed the designer’s range – and ability to translate Franco Moschino’s tongue-in-cheek style to contemporary audience. Most ambitious were the deconstructed LBDs, little T-shirt tube dresses (tubinos in Italian, Appiolaza said) that from the back were cut in the more expressive shapes of the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. These felt like a brainchild of Moschino’s humour and slightly tougher, Margiela-ist sensitivity.  “Fun and optimism are important for me,” Appioloza summed up. 

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Ugly Chic, Extreme. Prada SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Back in the 90s, Miuccia Prada introduced “ugly chic“, a style so wildly anti-fashion it polarized the entire fashion industry. Yesterday, together with her creative partner Raf Simons, Prada presented a collection so notorious, bizarre and “wrong” that one can either hate-hate it or hate-love it. I’m grateful to both of them for showing a collection that sparked true dismay and confusion – finally, fashion that doesn’t just deliver momentary visual satisfaction or, at worse, lack of any impression. Like a remix of Prada’s greatest hits seen through the lens of a teen who’s living a “Brat” summer 365 days in a year (and probably loves acid), the tackiness, ill-fittingness and clumsiness of this collection reaches perverse levels. So perverse, you feel a kinky affection to it. Yes, contemporary fashion can still make waves, edge the internet so sharply it will spill venomous hate in response, and leave the viewers electrified – with unhinged ecstasy or absolute frustration. Prada and Simons are still capable of shaking the status quo of aesthetics. This is “ugly chic, extreme“.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Toned-Down. Fendi SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

This year, Fendi celebrates its 100 years. Maybe that was the reason for Kim Jones to finally deliver a good collection for the brand. What kept it cohesive was the combination of house craft, toned-down color palette, and an attitude that stemmed from the jazz-age modernism of the 1920s. The embroidered flapper-dresses worked nicely with all the streamlined minimalism. Still, looking at the taupe shirt-dress, one just wonders what differs Fendi from Max Mara? Except for Baguette, pretty much nothing. It would be great to see some fun back at the brand, a Karl Lagerfeld-ian wit.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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High & Low. Burberry SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

While Burberry‘s financial performance is under scrutiny, it seems to me that Daniel Lee has found his ground at the brand. His last collection already had that “something”; spring-summer 2025 is a further exploration of Britishness (through a London lens) meeting modernity. A spirit of late 2000’s London style was palpable, especially in the imaginative clash of high and low: maxi-skirts worn with polos, utilitarian parkas with dazzling, embellished dresses. A cropped trench jacket styled with cargo pants was another highlight, just like Maya Wigram’s faded-green denim look. The storm flap, epaulettes, shoulder vent, Napoleon collar and belt of the house-archetype trench were intelligently applied across multiple garments including open-backed dresses, a popper-peppered twinset, and abbreviated, feather-collared jackets. This was a good show with good clothes.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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