On the last day of Fashion Week, designers used their collections as a prompt for a celebration of a future post-pandemic
Text by: Elisa Carassai
On the last day of Fashion Week, designers used their collections as a prompt for a celebration of the future.
Ports 1961
The last day of Milan Fashion Week opened with Ports 1961, a collection that celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Maison. “It’s a journey back to dressing again, with more of a focus on the essential rather than the frivolous,” creative director Karl Templer said in an official statement. “There’s a sense of warmth, but also a strong attitude, and silhouette.” This season, the focus was on textures, as Templer presented a collection that heavily focused on well-crafted thick knits on sweaters and bomber jackets. Faux fur details accentuated the collars, while warm, soft coats cocooned the body in a palette of light cream and baby blue. Leather-covered the body, featuring heavily on thigh-high boots and sculptural leather coats. Overall, the collection itself had potential, it was full of covetable pieces, however, it lacked a cohesive spirit that Temper’s previous collections for Ports had demonstrated.
MSGM
Like so many of his peers this week, it is evident Massimo Giorgetti misses clubbing. This is why for his digital presentation of the week, at MSGM, Giorgetti presented a so-called digital manifesto celebrating the uniqueness of Milan and its nightlife, a project involving Flash Art’s publisher Gea Politi, visual artist Alessandro Calabrese, movie director Francesco Coppola, and Club Domani’s DJ Sergio Tavelli and Andrea Ratti. “Milano is alive, is shallow, is individualism, is dishonesty”, read Politi out loud in the video, while models strutted backwards inside Milan’s Teatro Manzoni. In the video, models, dancers and performers danced wearing a bold selection of garments, which represented a sort of duality between daywear and nightwear built with silhouettes defined by large trench coats, leather suits and painted knitwear garments, contrasted with shiny fabrics such as latex and vinyl. A selection of contemporary outerwear showcased trench coats, down jackets, wool coats and eco-furs, in acrylic tones of cyclamen, ‘green screen’, amethyst, red, accents of saturated blue that were all contrasted with black and white. Making up the experimental look of MSGM were the new craquelé effects, coated varnishes, meshed knits, holographic prints placed on jersey in repetition and reflective materials juxtaposed with satin ones. Overall, it was a fun, bold collection dedicated to the youth of tomorrow. “Milano is today, Milano Domani”, concluded Politi in the video. Indeed, Milan can’t wait to start living again.
Valentino
“Reopening a theatre, even if only for the time of a show, is a strong sign. Punk, almost: an invitation to aggregation and sharing when these are denied,” said Pierpaolo Piccioli in an official statement from the Maison. Indeed it is with this statement, that Piccioli celebrates the world of culture, in particular, theatres, which have been closed for so long. It is with this love letter to the city of Milan that Piccioli celebrates a new identity for the brand, a new punkish identity which is completed by a shortened silhouette, hoisted on very high heels or big boots. The punkish identity is not only celebrated through the reinterpretation of Valentino Garavani Rockstud bags and the shoes which multiply on the tips of pumps but also throughout the new collection, entitled ‘Act Collection’, mostly made up of a palette of black and white. An uncompromising vision of a wardrobe shared between men and women where lacy sensual dresses are alternated to men’s pants cleanly cut above the ankle. Pleated reach skirts to new proportions, peacoats and jackets are transformed into small capes, evening dresses are reduced to flying panels held together by ribbons. Pierpaolo Piccioli thus takes subversive anarchist cues and combines them with the couture codes of the Maison, using romantic-bourgeois elements such as worked surfaces (embroidery, inlays and carvings), artfully cut garments and the fluid lines of precious fabrics.
Dolce & Gabbana
At Dolce & Gabbana, the duo reflected on the awareness of opening up to a new world that is coming’ and the adherence to ‘a new cultural concept’ in which technology is an aid to humanity. An open observatory of a world in the making, which aims at inviting a new generation to bring their sense of freedom into fashion. A collection which traces back the history of the Maison, re-proposing cult items such as Prince’s corset in Cream, Madonna’s and Naomi’s leotards, guepières and garters, but also citations such as jackets with oversized shoulders, leopard-print maxi down jackets, tight-fitting jumpsuits, T-shirts with the words ’90’s fashion’ or ‘I love supermodels’. And that then leaves to experiment in the name of technology and freedom, such as cardigans and pullovers of wool woven with cellophane or the wool and nylon jacket wrapped in cellophane or silk satin pants shiny and “coated like a Ferrari”, all between metallic glows and fluorescent colours.
