MAX MARA FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK

Painters, poets and philosophers, composers, cartoonists and crooners from Shakespeare to Stevie Nicks, TS Eliot to Tracy Emin, Jeanette Winterson to Jean Genet; they have all felt the lure of the sea. Max Mara shares their fascination.

The ocean is a potent metaphor for the human condition; hazard and hope, love and longing, valour and vaingloriousness. Tales of ships and sailors are universal. “In civilisations without boats,” Michel Foucault observed, “dreams dry up.”

Ms Max Mara has been dreaming a lot of late. Daydreaming. A little tired of the hidebound conventions of corporate life, she sits at her desk and entertains fantasies of running away to sea. Her dreams cast her as the captain of her own ship, out to rule the waves and make her fortune.

Northward bound, from Morocco to Murmansk, she imagines majestic wintry seascapes. And whilst she’s charting her course with characteristic Max Mara levelheadedness, she detects a surprisingly romantic impulse stirring within her.

And what’s in this latter-day adventurer’s wardrobe? Well, the maritime theme yields a variety of silhouettes and a newer way to mix Max Mara’s signature camel, grey, white and, naturally, navy. There are coats of all kinds; officer class greatcoats, capes, cabans, and duffels with toggles and tassels. Luxuriant robe-de-chambres are tied at the waist with an elegant rope.

Ruffles and gathers lend debonair swagger to the shoulders and sleeves of camel hair classics, pinstripe jackets and a skirts with hemlines that dip dramatically on one side. A capacious Max Mara doudoune is perfect for the harshest inclemencies – its outer shell is resilient nylon, but its wadding is a cashmere fleece.

Of course, an epic sea adventure requires a fair amount of stowage. Hence Max Mara’s Marine bag capacious and soft but with structure like a ship’s keel.

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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020, MAX MARA, MAX MARA FW 2020

Mon, February 24 2020 » Fashion Blog

GUCCI FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK

A RITE THAT DOES NOT ADMIT REPLICAS

I have always thought the fashion show as a magical event capable of unleashing spells. A liturgical action that suspends the ordinary, charging it with a surplus of intensity. A procession of epiphanies and dilated thoughts that settle into one different partition of the sensitive.

In this party that feeds on expectation, my thought finds its shape and becomes public. Ties obsessions and anti-gravity thrusts. Stop on the improbable. Caress that human nostalgia that others call imperfection. Sews, with the precision of love, every little detail of the scene to offer it to a community of interpreters.

There is the enchantment of the gift, in this rite that does not allow replies. There is the promise of one precious delivery. The lights go out. The gatherers stand waiting with open hands. Everything is perfectly silent, to welcome my crooked beats and my vertigo. To this tribe of emancipated spectators I offer my poetry.

Let them question it deep. May they help me understand it. They can translate it or betray it. Use it to wake up dormant questions. Or simply reject it, in the absence of gates of compassion. The gift is living matter, a puzzle whose meaning belongs to no one.

Even today we will live this ritual, sacred to me. A procession of steps will draw the space, like chimes in the temple. Mysterious bastings will take their oath to light. A score of notes will magnify prophecies imprinted on moving bodies.

However, there is something that usually remains buried in this ceremony: the effort of parturient who accompanies the tremor of creation; the mother’s womb where poetry, from shape to shape, it blooms. So I decided to raise a veil on what he loves to hide. That miraculous of skilful hands and restrained breaths come out of the shadows.

Let it be done visible that collective intelligence that takes care of gestation, with rage that rages. That build a throne for that tattered and somewhat crazy beehive that I chose as home. Because that is the house that I venerate: the blessed passage through which beauty comes out of the shell.

Alessandro Michele

(Voice over) – Federico Fellini
A camera, some friends around willing to help me, a troupe, a troupe extraordinary. A troupe of circus performers. Of those who do the circus while doing show, they still do it while they take it apart and they are already leaving and also there departure becomes show.

It is, I said, perhaps a declaration of love in cinema, perhaps a a little too private, perhaps narcissistic, I repeat shameless, without limits. But, that’s what I did. The cinema that was just that, was hypnotic, ritualistic suggestion, that is, something religious.

We left the house, parked the car somewhere, then we went he lined all the rituals in processions: the ticket, the curtain that opened, the mask, look at the half-lit audience, recognize friends. Then this light that dims, the screen turns on and the revelation begins.

The message. An ancient ritual, always, in short, that changed shape and ways but it was always that: you are there to listen.

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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020, GUCCI, GUCCI FW 2020

Mon, February 24 2020 » Fashion Blog

N°21 FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – MILAN FASHION WEEK

OUT OF SCALE

Setting in motion a new, alternative point of view. Unlike the usual. Removing the constraint of rules and abolishing the imperative to meet common standards. Offering clothes utter freedom of expression, for the meaning they inherently hold, while in no way overshadowing the will of the individual wearer. Constructing a quirky silhouette, one beyond any control-center vision, yet using customary, familiar, normal shapes. The N21 collection for fall/winter 2020-21 utilizes the “out of scale” design method to signal a new and freer path for women. More autonomous, more remarkably interesting. Underlining differences and proposing new types of co-existence among elements and items.

Alessandro Dell’Acqua, N21 creative director. «I started from a men’s pinstripe shirt, preserving both cut and shape. On it, I drew the figure of a woman, one who has no use whatsoever for clichés, rules, determinate dimensions; but who, on the contrary, mixes, chooses, subverts the same. With in mind a woman who lives on her own terms, adopts an exquisitely personal viewpoint, I made use of an “out of scale” method making it possible to throw off/confuse references, in order to put together a collection that takes shape through apparently discordant elements. I liked the idea of accentuating and underscoring differences, so as to come up with surprising and often improbable combinations. The lead I dea for m e was a woman who does not let social roles oppress her, force her into stereotypes, and who by mixing proprtions and other aspects succeeds in living/expressing her own attitudes in a better, truer way.»

2010 – 2020. N21 is celebrating its tenth anniversary. With no sense of nostalgia or self-celebration, the history of the brand’s first ten years impacts the collection, one where the creative paths forging it are fully recognizable. The lace dress, macramé work, the masculine/feminine mix, a punk mood. In general, it’s the remix of a creative process free of any nostalgic inclination. The story unfolds through marks of recognizability, all while composing out of scale figures that enable a confusion of references.

The collection. A men’s-size stripe shirt to wear with everything, everywhere, on every occasion: under an ample sheer chiffon shirt complete with wide ostrich feather border hem, for example. And then jackets, melton coats with macramé along bottom, skirts, shirts: all with safety pin applications in flower corolla patterns. Plus coats mimicking giant shirts; chains forming straps on sexy sweetheart-neckline dresses or holding in place drapings on micro-holographic-sequin ones; body-hugging dresses in bouclé; fake fur coats with lining in leather; see-through lace dresses with outsized sleeves; matted loop-stitch knit cardigans with big feather borders; voluminous tops in ostrich and grouse feathers.

Accessories. High-heel pumps and sandals with chain details. Also, a chain defines the big buckle on the new Daft Bag, a medium-size leather shoulder bag capturing all of the collection’s out of scale aspirations.

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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020, N°21, N°21 FW 2020

Sat, February 22 2020 » Fashion Blog

RICHARD QUINN FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – LONDON FASHION WEEK

On the occasion of Autumn Winter 2020, Richard Quinn extends an invitation to the opening of his fashion dreamhouse.

Glamour, extravagance and optimism live behind the black-painted facade of this London address. Inside, its architect, decorator, designer and party-starter- in -chief has whipped up an interior populated with riotous colour and high fashion fantasy.

Draped and smothered in outsize roses, glinting with pearls and crystal, poufed, panniered corseted, the Quinn house style is an inclusive extravaganza which runs the gamut of volumes and silhouettes. The celebration of elaboration now offers a new welcome to entrance-making gentlemen as super-beaded super-flared wasp-waisted tailoring swaggers into fall in a subversive salute to Savile Row.

Richard Quinn couture fantasias are designed to with a mind to enhance good-time events on every continent. Nevertheless, the house of Quinn is a London enterprise to its foundations. Embedded in the line-up is a glorification of London working class couture: a procession of pearly kings and queens, their finery embroidered with the words GOD SAVE THE QUINN.

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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020, RICHARD QUINN, RICHARD QUINN FW 2020

Sat, February 22 2020 » Fashion Blog

MM6 MAISON MARGIELA FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – LONDON FASHION WEEK

In the exercise of documenting a generation, the call and repeat of appropriation and innovation becomes tangible. At a certain point, even the most recognizable tropes are subject to such interpretations that meaning is altered and new creative expressions are born. The MM6 collection for Autumn Winter 2020 considers this conceit, employing controlled methods to approach the zeitgeist whilst avoiding nostalgia itself. To wit: a Parisian maison, showing in London, inspired by New York.

Whilst delving into disparate eras of underground club culture and its glamorous protagonists, the MM6 collection subverts the expectations of myriad garments by applying the house concept of ‘circularity’. Draping exercises in the atelier have led to sculpted circle skirts and sweaters, whilst tailoring constructions see jacket sleeves displaced for a new posture.

A landmark collaboration with The North Face sees their iconic Expedition System outerwear transformed as padded circle coats, jackets, a top and dress. The urban connotation of colour-blocked all-weather gear permeates the collection, clashing with hound’s tooth, ribbed lurex, and Fair Isle knitting.

Offsetting the cape effect of curved tops, a series of detachable tailored sleeves tie behind the shoulders – furthering the effect of contrast layering through bright turtlenecks, lariat bodysuits and tabi gloves. MM6 reviews are shredded from fashion magazines and collaged into a custom ‘zebra’ motif applied on jacquard and satins pieces for a subversive take on this classic animalia print.

Across the MM6 accessories collection, the ‘circle’ concept is applied to conventionally geometric objects to create new forms such as the signature Japanese origami bag in stamped croc, circular bandanas, leather cardholders, and a round knitted hat. Musicality informs a percussive jewellery collection, from a tambourine choker to cymbal earrings and rings.

For a 1960 ́s East Village spirit revisited, a heavy chain-link bracelet is slung across biker boots with the cylinder ‘6’ stamp heel, finished in rough suede, mirrored silver, and thigh-high stretch leather. In collaboration with Mykita, textured Mylon bar frames eyewear styles merge high performance with an MM6 attitude.

Recorded by the MM6 studio, a custom vinyl recording played on the occasion of the AW20 presentation in London, England, consists of a six-channel track featuring isolated sonic expressions of the collection.

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Tags: FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020, MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, MM6 MAISON MARGIELA FW 2020

Sat, February 22 2020 » Fashion Blog

ERDEM FALL WINTER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – LONDON FASHION WEEK

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Tags: ERDEM, ERDEM FW 2020, FALL WINTER WOMEN 2020

Sat, February 22 2020 » Fashion Blog

BURBERRY FALL WINTER 2020 COLLECTION – LONDON FASHION WEEK

MEMORIES

‘Moving back to London recently – a city I first discovered as a young student – gave me a real sense of nostalgia. It was the place where I learnt to be myself and a city where I gained the confidence to be the man that I am today. I have this strong feeling of pride when I think about the early days of my career, when I was an emerging designer still learning my craft and taking inspiration wherever I could find it.

The memory of this special and formative time in my life is what has influenced this collection – from the places I visited and the people that surrounded me to the music that inspired me. It is this side of my personal journey that I wanted to blend with the codes and language that I have started to define here at Burberry.’
Riccardo Tisci, Burberry Chief Creative Officer

THE COLLECTION
Named Memories, Riccardo Tisci’s Autumn/Winter 2020 collection for Burberry takes inspiration from reflections of his early years as a young designer, whilst continuing to solidify key codes for the fashion house.

The collection captures Riccardo’s memories of the diverse places he visited, discovering who he was as a designer whilst developing his craft. From Italy where he was raised, to London where he studied, to India where he moved after graduating. The collection combines signature Burberry pieces – from trench coats, tailoring and duffle coats – with modern silhouettes, prints and fabrications.

WOMEN
The trench coat softened with off-the-shoulder silhouettes, exaggerated ties, curly shearling and faux fur. A car coat, blouson and blazer spliced with voluminous capes. Long collarless coats in double wool-cashmere and leather and equestrian-inspired quilted jackets.

Panelled tailoring, jodhpurs, fluted skirts and reconstructed shirt dresses in collaged check. Layered cricket stripes and prints, and cinched rugby-style dresses. Gathered details on dresses and blouses. Evening silhouettes in fluid chain mail, plaid and jersey – contoured with crystal fringing and ring-pierced cut outs.

MEN
Outerwear is explored through textural contrasts and updated check prints. The car coat combined with a field jacket. The duffle coat panelled in plaid wool and felted cashmere. Classic trench coats with attached hoodies, puffer jackets and double-lapel details.

English-fit jackets with reconstructed cuffs and lapels, styled with slim tailored trousers, silk-twill shirts and sweaters – all patchworked in plaid. Low-slung tapered trousers in tailored wool and plonge lambskin, reworked rugby shirts, and silk-chiffon tunic silhouettes.

ACCESSORIES
Introducing the Olympia bag collection, featuring a shoulder bag in three sizes and a crossbody bag. Fabrications include Monogram jacquard, star-appliquéd suede and smooth structured leather in rich saturated tones.

A supersized Pocket Bag, Society holdall and duffle bag in plaid. A metal paillette clutch for evening.

The Arthur sneaker is updated with a Cuban heel, a new hybrid style for men and women. Sculptural point-toe pumps, mules and boots with wraparound tie details. Men’s Derby shoes are reworked with a square toe and Cuban heel in polished leather and check cotton.

Transparent disc earrings with logoed studs, and earrings and rings with sculptural silhouettes.

KEY COLOURS
Burberry beige and grey with black, dark green, russet and metallic accents.

KEY PRINTS
Exploration of checks from Burberry House check and tartan to Prince of Wales plaid and muted shades of beige and red. The animal kingdom evolves through spotted monkey prints and elephant motifs.

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