Dada-Chic. Bally SS25

September 23, 2024 | 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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Jet-Set at Gucci? Groundbreaking. Gucci SS25

September 22, 2024 | 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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Honest Minimalism. Tod’s SS25

September 21, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

At Tod’s, Matteo Tamburini offers honest, minimalist, yet lively clothes you want to buy into. The spring-summer 2025 collection was inspired with Cycladic sculptures, but the designer treated the reference lightly. Crafted mostly from leather, the line-up explored the play between structure and fluidity. The pleated bottle-green dress was sublime, just as the canary-yellow t-shirt, and the smoothness of their leather textures looks (and feels) truly striking. Tamburini doesn’t try to be the next The Row with his vision of Tod’s, and isn’t doing minimalism that has a generic, Toteme-like feel. His “less is more” is bold and captivating. And investment-worthy.

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

September 20, 2024 | 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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Essential Beauty Routine. Marni SS25

September 20, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s Francesco Risso‘s ninth year at Marni. His work at the brand took different turns, from being avant-garde-sketchy to raw and crude (like last season). Spring-summer 2025 was a pursuit after beauty. “Beauty is a white rabbit,” said Risso backstage. “You chase it, though you fall short in capturing it.” But he actually took grasp of it, especially in closing part of the collection, inspired with bygone era of fashion shows and 1950s haute couture, through a lens of “Funny Face“. Slender silhouettes in soft hues, small hourglass dresses shaped by vertical pleats, tight siren skirts with stiff ruched hems – this is Marni that will certainly attract the clients to the stores. But this wouldn’t be Risso’s Marni if it was all pretty and prim. The collection was made of humble cotton, being a “thread that mends relationships and wounds, guiding us back to the right path after we’ve strayed and leading us toward what I call the essential beauty routine“. The seemingly rough, canvas texture of broad-shouldered jackets, pleated trousers and cut-out skirts gave the collection a sense of “work in progress“. In Risso’s world, beauty isn’t a constant. It’s something you look out for with patience and perseverance.