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133

Collections —Man / Prêt-à-Porter

Spring / Summer — 2002

Press Release

“The entire collection captures a wish for simplification, for getting down to basics. Contemporaneously, it answers an urge for sunniness now distinguishing the conservative formulary of male dress. All with slim shapes, in no way excessive dimensions, soft moderate colors in addition to austere black.

In interpreting typical elements of the men’s wardrobe, I left room for niches of quietness and naturalness. Thus I did a military look purposely free of any army emphasis, preferring to express myself through calibrated touches: the khaki shirt over byssus pants; the extrawide pants with indigo linen blazer; the pants and shirts in an amazing blue tussah denim, ragged and spotted.

Marking every step with the imprint of quality and luxury, I sought to reread the toughness and energy of the biker bomber in lived-in, aged, mud-stained mode. And yet it’s ultraprecious too, for made from anaconda, alligator, soft leather in remarkably gentle shades of pink, beige, camel, gray. Similarly, I toned down the severe practicality of the race-car pilot jacket through parachute silk doubled in jersey, ultralight soft leather paired with viscose and silk. Then to free the cashmere sportjacket from its seasonal context, I put it over a simple T-shirt.

But I also felt and accented a desire – better still, a need – for a colorful escape, from Manhattan to Hermosillo. With the white tropical linen shirt Edward Weston would have liked, ribbed and decorated with endless graphic stitching. With the guru jacket pajama in Sierra Madre hues, Mexican caftans and robes (“chapans”) in kaleidoscopic patterns seemingly right out Diego Rivera murals casually thrown on top.

In the play between order and disorder, I moved with incisiveness and sense of counterpoint. I reacted to the absoluteness of the black turtleneck pullover with the affectedness of a shirt in embroidered linen and organza bands. I contrasted the properness of the suit with white&black microcheck vest in two keen ways: the eccentricity of a duster in rosy-putty shades over matching suit and then black shirt; the nonchalant spirit intrinsic to a pink linen suit. I set off the practical spontaneity of gym shoes with a refinement of color and material. Lastly, in the logic of references and allusions, the globe-trotter desert boot – apparently worn-out from many adventures – reveals a way of being, an elegant and passionate approach to life…”

Gianfranco Ferré