March 26, 2015 |
If Milan was about anything this season, it was about two. Sex and geometry. As though someone had found some seventies Playboy somewhere and stumbled across a centrefold posing in seductive fashion with a protractor, or just a full blown geometry set. Which they probably didn’t, but they could have.
Can we take a moment for the Birds of Paradise popping out of the bags at Fendi? Don’t you love how their colours reflect those in the collection? How their graphic lines are echoed in the graphic geometric prints? The whole collection focused on geometry, with panels of glossy leathers and soft furs used to create both linear and more voluminous silhouettes. And as much as we love a Bag Bug, there’s something even more decadent about walking around with a single fresh flower in your bag.
Roberto Cavalli turned this season, to the East. The Orient. Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love. Apparently this looking to the East was in part inspired by the news that Cavalli’s ‘Ming Vase’ dress is to be included in the Met Museum’s summer exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass. And so there were pagoda buttons, ‘opium garden’ embroidery and tiger prints, as well as a coat of silk shredded to look almost furry. And while the detailing and inspiration felt oriental, this is Cavalli after all, and you can’t have a Cavalli collection without some sort of mash up of a bohemian seventies, rock n roll groupie, a Jackie Collins heroine and a riff on Cher from Clueless.
We’re going to call Peter Dundas’s swan song collection for Emilio Pucci, and ode to all things Emilio Pucci. A sort of essence. Everything you would associate with the house, chiffon gowns in the intricate swirls that make up Pucci’s signature print, also recreated in beading on vampy mini dresses, sheer blouses and flowing velvets, was here. You really have to admit that when it comes to a sort of bohemian, rock n roll sex goddess vibe, Dundas gives good.
Prada was sweet. Super sweet. So much so you could be tempted to pre fix sweet with sickly, but then this being Prada, it took you right up to the point of sickly, but managed to steer clear of any nausea inducing sweetness. Think of a sort of sweeter than sweet 60’s baby doll in shrunken tweed jackets and matching cropped and slightly flared trousers, as well as an array of camisole and shift mini dresses made from a springy double faced jersey in an array of sugar almond pastels. Pastels that were, we would just like to point out were, well in the cases of the pink and green at least, very reminiscent of the colour of the Prada shoe boxes and shop interiors.
It is, to sort of quote Ted, the dawning of a new day at Gucci. An age of androgyny. An age of, to once again misquote Ted as well as Blur, girls who are boys who are boys who are girls. You could say that Alessandro Michele has turned the Gucci aesthetic on it’s head. It’s a bit more relaxed, a little floaty, feminine in a sort of seventies, slightly batty ingenue way. Think berets, blouses, flared trousers, chiffon floral printed layers and furry brogues.
The man responsible for redefining suiting back in the 1980′s had decided to turn his hand to reinventing another clothing staple. The trousers at Giorgio Armani came with skirts. A sort of handkerchief hem draped over the thigh. Not that reinventing trousers should really come as a surprise. Trousers are what Giorgio Armani does best. As well as jackets. And these trousers came with a myriad of jacket options. Ever wondered how you can reinterpret a jacket a hundred different ways? Well look no further. That question has finally been answered.
Jil Sander was all about a longer line. A celebration of the mid calf if you will, and rather graphic. A sort of very elegant lady spy from the seventies in a rather restrained palette of navy with bright hits of green, orange and yellow. Trenches were belted and trousers wide legged and elegantly flared, and were worn over polo necks covered in wide stripes or an almost bathroom tile like print that covered the torso in diagonal lines.
Versace, or should that be VERSACE, spelt out across chests in larger than life letters, and V appliquéd on hips, explained Donatella was “my Versace for today, and forever.” And what is Donatella’s Versace? Souped up and sexed up, but somehow brighter, more wearable even, almost daywear, but this being Versace, not very daywear by your average person’s standards. Think capes, little shift dresses and flared trousers, skintight on the thigh in brighter than bright primary shades. And of course Medusa’s. But with a twist this time. It’s all about a hashtag, an emoji. “#GREEK symbolizes everything: the traditions of craftsmanship and the Greek key, the emoji of the future.”
There’s an aerodynamic quality to Iceberg. It was streamlined. Apparently Alexis Martial looked at aeroplanes for his inspiration, and flight wear. But don’t think that looking at aeroplanes and flight wear equals some sort of Amelia Earhart rehash. This was more a reinterpretation of flying motifs as graphic prints across sweaters, and bold lines down the legs of form fitting, high waisted trousers. In fact, the clothes themselves in their elongated and cinched in cuts were rather graphic too, almost as if the lines of the print were echoing the lines of the clothes.
Think of MSGM as a patchwork furs, ruffles, lace and the usual winter fabric suspects in an array of eye watering colours. Long and sleeveless coats came either tied at the waist with contrasting belts or patch pockets. Bold chevrons ran across shoulders and covered will v-neck vests, which when worn with the high waisted flared trousers gave a slight seventies feel to the collection. Furs came in a little patchwork of fluffy pelts, creating a super bright and super soft grid to keep you warm in the colder months.
From left to right: Fendi, Roberto Cavalli, Emilio Pucci, Prada, Gucci, Emporio Armani, Jil Sander, Versace, Iceberg, MSGM
Photographer: Jason Lloyd-Evans
By Natalie Dembinska
