Prêt-à-porter Uomo
Spring/Summer
“In designing this collection, I narrated an imaginary journey through memory, among books and images from the past. Within that culture which has by now become acquired behaviour, a profound knowledge of what it means to be Italian. I called it the ‘style of the hundred cities’ to underline the diversity of inspiration.
A seafaring spirit expressed through navy blue, ecru and black, and through a rejection of formality – a formality that here corresponds to imaginative rules and to a Neapolitan reworking of British style. The Roman nonchalance of red jackets worn with ecru silk trousers and turtleneck pullovers. Rope, sand and dry straw tones, the parched, calcinated hues of Sicilian heat”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1994
Proceeding by assonances and similarities, through associations of ideas and language. The softness of washed, crushed linens mixed with silk; of bourettes lined with taffeta and of gauzes corresponds to fluid forms, deconstructed suits and weightless dusters that can be folded into a pocket or the palm of a hand. The pullover, light and airy, wrinkles into a rhinoceros-skin texture.
A liquid fluidity of colours that blend, fade and flow into one another until they become non-colour. The ease of maritime cultures, with pinstriped trousers in crêpon voile, seersucker shirts, raw tones and the virility of cord hues.
Sicilian suggestions. Dry whites and beiges, wind-scorched and sun-baked. Jackets in limp fabrics, cut slim and worn almost without a shirt, longer yet always centred on comfort. Iconography drawn from Sicilian plants and shrubs, sections and cross-sections of volcanoes and eruptions. Roman colours in the blazing jackets: twenty shades of red, from heraldic red to poppy. Ecru trousers and turtleneck pullovers, in a true Dolce Vita mood.
EXCERPT FROM THE COLLECTION PRESS RELEASE
Prêt-à-porter Uomo
Fall/Winter
“Rethinking roots, reflecting on the origins of a wardrobe whose model and rhythm are to be found in early twentieth-century forms, after the Industrial Revolution. Immersing oneself in a solid, sober atmosphere, vibrant with energy. Rediscovering the severe austerity of the North, of the Baltic coasts, of England. The determined elegance of the men who built modern industry”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1994
Thus, within the collection, strong colours give way to nuances of sepia, neutral tones, bluish shades reminiscent of old photographs and archival documents. The nylon blouson is at times replaced by a sports jacket in full-bodied fabrics, with pockets featuring extremely fine bellows. Because sportswear here represents an alternative way of dressing, a sign of the distinction between formal and informal life.
Warmth and substance characterise fabrics that play on a double-weave effect: chevron and cheviot in two-tone mélange flannel. Uneven textiles follow one another, from crepeline with côtelé workmanship, loosely structured and recalling knitwear, to an unprecedented mix of cotton and knit. This extends to ribbed knit trousers, which lend the black suit an easy, deconstructed appearance. Voluminous jaspé yarns are used for mélange dusters, cabans and pullovers.
Once one’s manner of dress has been determined – with a softer, more deconstructed jacket and more comfortable trousers – it is then adapted to city or countryside. As a demonstration of coherence.
EXCERPT FROM THE COLLECTION PRESS RELEASE
