Recycling Beauty. Prada AW23

February 24, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Finally, my heart skipped a beat for the first time this fashion month. Prada‘s autumn-winter 2023 collection – entitled “Recycling Beauty” – was a strikingly powerful take on simplicity and the idea of uniform, with a twist of much-needed optimism. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have reached full synthesis, as this collection takes the unmistakable Prada look to a new dimension. The white lily pin, folded origami style from humble cotton, that came with Prada’s invitation looked like hope for the future. That notion seemed to be confirmed backstage, where Miuccia and Raf talked about the act of caring. “Mainly what I care about now is to give importance to what is modest, to value modest jobs, simple jobs, and not only extreme beauty or glamour,” Prada said. Nurses’ whites got a thorough consideration, transformed into long-line shirt dresses complete with short trains, and a trio of capes could’ve been lifted off a World War II era recruitment poster for the army nurse corps. Military uniforms proved ripe for elevation by reinterpretation, too. Parkas – never seen such gracious and refined interpretation of this type of jacket – came with elegant Watteau backs or were puffed into couture-like cocoons. Army shirts and ties tucked into high-fitting tapered trousers looked definitive; the pants are apt to make women who’ve embraced the full-leg shape on so many other runways seriously rethink their closets. On the skirt front, there was much more variety: minis, pencils, and voluminous swing 1950s skirts all made appearances, some accentuated with more of those origami fabric flowers. This was the flipside of the concept, Simons explained backstage: turning the embellishments you see on wedding dresses, which are another sort of uniform of care, into everyday attire. The simple crewneck sweaters in camel and charcoal gray they were paired with were effective partners in that regard. The shirtless blazers with detachable dickey-style collars and the pillowy white down-stuffed puffers and miniskirts were evolutions of ideas they proposed in their menswear show a month ago. There too the project was to enhance reality, rather than to indulge in runway theatrics. This persuasive, deeply moving collection provided much food for thought, and a heaping serving of new things to want to wear.

Collages by Edward Kanarecki.
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In Search for Bohemian Flair. Etro AW23

February 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Marco De Vincenzo made some progress at Etro, but it’s still a long way to go. His menswear collection from January felt like the right direction. The designer, however, chose a different and very questionable approach for his autumn womenswear. He’s mining the archives, and “trying,” he said, “to get to the roots of my research.” That means coming to terms with the label’s heritage of pattern-mixing and boho-dressing, an aesthetic that looks to 1970s bohemia rather than the structured, geometrical precision and the rhythmic repetition of quirky patterns he favors. That’s clear he has a hard time with connecting these two worlds. The designer attempted his luck with lightness of the flou – which he never worked with – letting in some breezy construction of flounced, ruffled dresses, the imaginative clashing of patterns so inherent to Etro’s house-codes. The bohemian flair is, after all, the synonym of the brand. In the new collection, it felt overworked. Especially when styled with the thick plaid shawls. Some of these outfits looked simply… wrong. And not in an ironic way. For De Vincenzo, enhancing the cultivated textile expertise of Etro “is a duty.” To that end, he interspersed airy chiffon numbers with slim-fitted pantsuits featuring elongated tailcoats, cut in rich 18th century brocades, or with slightly oversized boxy jackets or coatdresses made in malleable multicolored knitted textures and featuring lapel-less round-shaped, double-breasted fronts. “I haven’t changed,” he said. “I’m still the one who takes risks and doesn’t compromise.” Hopefully after all the errors, he finds a method to his vision of Etro.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Wild Spirit. Roberto Cavalli AW23

February 23, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Fashion in Milan doesn’t look forward, but resorts to the past in search for inspiration. It’s either about going Y2k-heavy, which gradually becomes quite nauseous, or channeling something more retro. Fausto Puglisi is in the latter camp with his autumn-winter 2023 collection for Roberto Cavalli – and it’s surprisingly good. I can’t remember a decent Cavalli collection since the founder of the brand exited the creative role. Puglisi’s first offerings for the brand were hard to digest, and thankfully he toned it down. The new season vibe is hedonistic, with patchwork leather trimmed in crystals, animalia motifs of many kinds, and piles and piles of faux fur. Denim was another focal point. Jeans are how Cavalli got his start; backstage Puglisi talked about the house founder’s early days, when he tooled around Italy scrounging for denim scraps that he collaged into hippie treasures. They were the inspiration for some of the most hands-on, highly embellished pieces Puglisi has made yet at the label. A pair of bell bottoms were so shredded and shaggy they almost looked like fur, too. A 2022 trip through the American Southwest is still reverberating with Puglisi, and he conjured the aesthetic with tooled leather, silver studding, and turquoise beads. This collection lived up to Roberto Cavalli’s reputation for excess, but in a pleasing way.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Great Outdoors. Burberry AW23

February 21, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

There’s a lot of debating going on whether Daniel Lee‘s debut collection for Burberry was fashion-forward enough. In this patchwork of signature Burberry plaids, outdoor-perfect blanket coats, cozy knits and floor-sweeping English Rose dresses (yawn), it’s hard to seek real fashion novelties – or even witty styling tricks that made Lee’s take on Bottega Veneta so appealing. The new direction at Burberry reminds of the one that Christopher Bailey had for 17 years, in the pre-Riccardo Tisci times. Bailey delivered proper collections that were sometimes cool, sometimes naff variations on the notion of Britishness. No co-incidence that today, Bailey has a mentor-like role for Lee. To be frank, I had no expectations regarding this debut, so I can’t say I’m disappointed. The collection is better than about 80% of Tisci’s work for the brand, but in defense of the Italian designer, he took creative risks that attempted to stimulate Burberry into something more than a brand with classy outerwear.

“I think that the brand is about functionality,” Lee told the press after the show. His men’s plaid trousers, with their horizontal zippered pockets, echoed the shape of technical hiking gear; women’s kilts had the casual air of wrapped-around picnic blankets. You might even really be able to go for a walk on the Yorkshire moors in his heavy-duty climbing boots or cropped wellies. The designer well knows the worldwide fashion appeal of the exaggerated accessory. It showed up in a giant trapper hat, in satchels and saddlebags fastened with a “B” clip and dangling multiple fake-fur tails. One of the models wore a hilarious hand-knitted bonnet in the shape of a duck, complete with a beak and dangling red legs. This sort of bonkers English eccentricity is something Lee should definitely expand on. The designer is very serious about branding and exactly how it can radiate fashion appeal far beyond the mere stamping of logos on everything. The evidence is in the message he delivered at this show on the back of his redesign of the Burberry Prorsum medieval knight on a charger. It was blown up like a flag on a white dress. But the main point about it is the color. It’s a vibrant blue. So is the type that Burberry now uses. After Lee’s success-story of Bottega green, is Burberry blue the new “it” colour? Time will tell.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Not A Man’s Territory. Dilara Findikoglu AW23

February 21, 2023 | Design & Culture by Ed

Dilara Fındıkoğlu plays with your emotions like no other designer in London right now: she pulls on your heartstrings, makes you feel her pain, and conjures an intensity that makes you feel what she’s portraying in front of you. For autumn-winter 2023, the designer took her guests to a chapel in East London to display her latest collection, and it was a divine experience. While so much of the “Not A Man’s Territory” collection explored sexual tensions (and a pain related to this), there was also Fındıkoğlu’s usual amount of fetishization on display. Latex tights clashed with leather bursting at the seams, tightened together with clips and metal fastenings that intended to make us feel awkward. Likewise, models dropping their demure coverings revealed boned corsets and lingerie dripping in crystals, subverting opulence with the idea of something voyeuristic. Fındıkoğlu’s collections are impossible to not become fixated upon. Models stare into the eyes of the crowd, the heels hit the stone with a sharp sensuality, and performances of others clinging to walls or having a moment to themselves once again draw you in, but in a way that implies we shouldn’t be looking. This is Fındıkoğlu’s power, expressed through looks that also give her power. The most exceptional was the eveningwear. A dress made from black feathers à la Black Swan was powerful. A black satin gown covered in butter knives that curved around the breast and sculpted the hips alluded to finding one’s strength, as if the dress was Fındıkoğlu’s shield. Bravo.