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133

Collections —Woman / Prêt-à-Porter

Spring / Summer — 1981

Press Release

“I looked for essential fabrics. In a suit? Gabardine or poplin as an alternative to linen. For a blouse? Striped gauze, solid crêpe in navy or white. With a summer halter top and skirt? Feathery light Flanders silk.
I favored the basic colors that are always elegant: navy, natural white, khaki. Adding the suggestion to wear them with a “red rock” brown or tabacco hue.
I focused on construction, not constriction: flat pleats, roulot seams, gold or colored topstitching, caftan-cut sleeves, asymmetrical inserts at hips for blouses as well as leather blousons.

I wished for Spring/Summer 1981 to have a sole possible solution: reclaim a dimension of comfort, amusement, vitality; in other words, fulfill the primeval purpose of clothes.  No mere throwing on blankets or rags for warmth. No mere dressing for reasons of status either.

My idea of “chic-to-chic” comes from the spontaneity of elegant women: for example, navy or white cabans with billowy folded-pleat sleeves, worn with vaguely Moroccan pantskirts in tobacco colored leather.

I wanted to give back to the suit the neatness of collarless jackets, burberry style buttons, and flat thin wrap pleats (one at the back, another along the lapel), pockets and slits.

I looked for essential fabrics. In a suit? Gabardine or poplin as an alternative to linen. For a blouse? Striped gauze, solid crepe in navy or white. With a summer halter top and skirt? Feathery light Flanders silk.

I favored the basic colors that are always elegant: navy, natural white, khaki. Adding the suggestion to wear them with a “red rock” brown or tabacco hue. I focused on construction, not constriction: flat pleats, roulot seams, gold or colored topstitching, caftan-cut sleeves, asymmetrical inserts at hips for blouses as well as leather blousons.

I transformed pants: to keep them as an irreplaceable part of the wardrobe but at the same time take them out of a “classic” dimension, I reinvented Moroccan pants – over the ankle, under the knee. Not even a hint of folk look.

I challenged the banality of the jumpsuit, trying to think of it with clean square cuts, like cut-out dresses for paper dolls.

I surrendered to a touch of undulation: long navy crepe dresses, straight and sexy, falling softly down to gathered hems, legs in sight, V-neck collars opening into two long lapels.”

Gianfranco Ferré