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133

Collections —Woman / Accessories

Spring / Summer — 2004

Press Release

Prêt-à-porter Collection

“Simplicity is the primary value. Aim of a research process that for me means total rejection of the obvious, intent exploration of innovative and coherent paths, enthusiastic concession to impulses, experimentation…

Precisely to give my new collection impetus while underlining its identity, I chose to award it a sole decorative theme. An ever recurring motif that refers to the aesthetic experience of Vittorio Zecchin, extraordinary Italian who absorbed the Secession lesson in utterly personal forms. His graphic-pictorial modules have a wholly today charge, the charge of serial reproduction, reiteration bordering on the obsessive, with clear, overwhelming chromaticism heightening the impact…

I sought to reread these modules in different sizes and proportions. Through various means I recaptured the concept to animate shapes and materials, playing with geometric elements (circle and rectangle mostly) and accurate constructions. All in pure natural fabrics or in keen tech versions, one perfectly equal to the other as for beauty and appeal…

Thus the same ‘mark’ sparks the colorful allover prints of both chiffon poncho-shirts and ultralight synthetic georgette dresses. It also defines inlays on leather, granting the little stitched blouson a graphic elegance. Then in the form of laser perforation, it makes special the inside-out-leather skirt and the full-textured chintz one that rises in front to reveal legs. Tone on tone or in contrast, it fashions the embroidery or jet beading on stretch double georgette or satin rectangular dresses with exquisitely easy draping. It’s there in the edging on asymmetric minidresses. And it shows up in the mother-of-pearl ornamenting accessories too…

I let myself be won over by the intensity of color, red mainly in a great many nuances: flame, rust, brick, maroon, orange. I brightened black with an ivory contrast. I gave khaki, navy, and wine the sheen of satin. Even gray – that of the ‘well-bred’ suit in stretch georgette and denim or in iridescent diagonal silk – has a pearly ethereal luster. Along the way, I rethought the masculine/feminine balance, also through unprecedented inflections and mixes: the mannish pullover contradicts the gazar skirt quite nicely; the light oxford shirt, white or sky blue, loses buttons yet keeps the holes for a lovely graceful ‘edging’…

For evening, the immediacy of a certain geometricism takes on unique emphasis, a delicate festive spirit. Exuberant, vaguely Mexican, kaleidoscopic. In skirts the circle drops to the floor in hints of a train, it enhances volumes, excites an undulating richness. In bodices, instead, the circle turns upside down, opens in fan, swirl effects, stands stunningly high. Over the black openwork skirt, the organza blouse is short, skinny, yet features a playful notching reminiscent of tissue paper cut by pinking shears at the shoulders. In these creations the body assumes the seductive manner of a new Dolores Del Rio, at once sophisticated and passionate…

Lofty and joyous, this woman walks tall on sturdy platform sandals, zapateros from Leon mode with tooled-leather toecap, strappy at the ankles. Whether black or brown, always the same. She dawdles along, in hand a black calf tote-bag with silver or bamboo handle, ornamentation in mother-of-pearl. She opts for crochet swimsuits, simple bone clasps on the side, and on top she sports embroidered rectangles of cloth skimming naturally over shoulders. She wears big wrap-around glasses that conceal her eyes. And she lowers her hat – a wide-brim panama in black or red – down over her forehead. That’s because she enjoys playing a cross between the pure-irony and the mystery woman…”.

Gianfranco Ferré