Milan (AFP)
If the mask will have been the essential accessory of Fashion Week in Milan which ends on Sunday, the Italian fashion houses have imagined a Spring-Summer 2021 released, comfortable, colorful, and inspired by the beauties of the peninsula.
After London and New York, Milan fashion week had to adapt to the rules of physical distancing imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, even if more than twenty houses, including Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Ferragamo or Max Mara, have made the bet to physically invite their customers.
And for the next season, the creators are resolutely in optimism mode.
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An italian summer
Whether or not we can physically travel to Italy next summer, it will at least be possible to do so through the collections offered this week in Milan.
We will go to Sicily thanks to the patchwork collection by Dolce and Gabbana which takes up the motifs dear to the house evoking the warmth, the colors, the richness of the island.
At Etro we are transported to the Amalfi Coast: "I started the collection during the lockdown", says Veronica Etro.
Like everyone else, I was at home cleaning.
And my mom and I restored an old record player and started listening to old Neapolitan songs, and we were bewitched by the serenity, timelessness, and elegance.
Then I started to think about a trip I took in 2019 to Ischia, Capri, Naples and Positano, and - maybe because we were so patriotic during that time - I thought, of Ok, let's do the collection on Italy, ”said the designer at the start of the show.
The sorbet colors, the lightness of the shapes, the caftans are all promises for beautiful walks on the beaches of the Riviera.
At Pucci, Capri, the island of "Contempt", glamor and the arts is in the spotlight with archival prints from local high places, "Piazzetta di Capri", the upscale club "La Canzone del Mare", and Villa Conchiglia reinterpreted in pastel colors.
At Max Mara, the reference is artistic, the collection pays homage to the Italian Renaissance with here and there the application of hexagonal patterns evoking the mosaic floors of the most beautiful Italian "duomi" (cathedrals).
Reinterpret the past
The confinement was also an opportunity for Italian houses to return to their archives to offer the reinterpretation of key pieces.
Like Versace, which put the Trésor de la Mer motif invented by Gianni Versace in the 1990s at the heart of its collection: underwater motifs that have served as a common thread for the entire collection.
At Fendi, the collection takes its inspiration from the finely embroidered linens of the Silvia Venturini Fendi family.
At Marni a collection of coats made from pieces from previous collections were then painted with the words sent by the friends of the designer Francesco Risso in epistolary exchanges during the confinement.
Dolce and Gabbana used fabrics they already had for their entire collection to avoid producing new ones.
Embroidery, lace and crochet
Embroidery, lace, crochet also flooded the Milan collections.
The red thread of the entire Fendi collection, applied to dresses, coats, accessories, it is also found at Armani, precious and sparkling, but also at Alberta Ferretti on small capes, mini-dresses with puffed sleeves, overalls or large caftan dresses.
At Ferragamo, floral embroidery adorns a beautiful men's coat.
At Prada, the perforations in the undershirts make up a grunge version of the English embroidery.
Chic home fashion
Silk pajama pants at Armani, slippers worn with suits at Fendi, nightgown kaftans at Etro, but also hooded sweatshirts at Max Mara, all reminiscent of confinement and time spent at home.
Italian fashion ennobled the trend, using precious materials and keeping in mind the importance of the comfort that clothes represented during this period of confinement.
© 2020 AFP