“More tears have been shared for the granted prayers than for the unheard ones,” reads the opening remarks of Magliano’s SS24 show notes. It’s a quote from Teresa d’Avila, a Spanish Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic and religious reformer of the 1500s, and in the context of the collection, it translates into prayers, epigraphs and thanksgivings printed onto decrepit clothes.
Staged at Palamagliano in the beating heart of Milan, models promenaded in hybridised ensembles that imbued menswear fundamentals with a dark, off-beat and dishevelled attitude that verged on androgyne. Deconstructed bombers, trousers, working overalls and wind-breakers were engineered in a style that the designer called “a wretched couture”, true to his neo-realist, libertarian identity. Held together by uncomplicated knots, a combat style beret and coiled cotton headgear was paired with intentionally stained denim, burned in some places and disassembling at the seams. As for the iconic monster shoe, it lost its heaviness, coming in new feathery shapes for men and women alike.
What remained the same were Magliano’s signature protective and technical features, but here they were shredded and torn to pieces, turning the clothes into talismans or sartorial mementos.
It was the atelier’s first actual catwalk, but, transpiring just weeks after Magliano won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize via LVMH, it was a fashion rhapsody. After all, in the eyes of Luca Magliano, “clothes are looking for holiness, never for bliss”.
Photography courtesy of Magliano.
