The normality of grey or blue city suits, finished with hand workmanship that makes them impeccable and precise. In this collection they are light and fluid, like every other item in the wardrobe, thanks to the use of ultra-light, flat, unstructured textures. A preference for the finest qualities of traditional materials – wool, linen, silk – while cotton provides a new interpretation of richness, avoiding its being an attribute reserved solely for cashmere or silk. According to a similar logic, leathers are lightened and deprived of weight, paired with nylon to create blousons without bulk, which can be crumpled up and easily slipped into a bag. 

Norm and exception also confront one another in the chromatic and graphic rhythm. Alongside urban grey, deep blue and calmly neutral tones, there is the almost sky-blue of lapis lazuli and many shades of coral red, which ignite the embroideries on flesh-coloured georgette shirts and, above all, the evening jackets, sensual and flamboyant. These too are embroidered, constructed from countless impalpable fragments of silk joined in patchwork, and brought back to severity by the slim, essential black tuxedo trousers. 

Winter blue can only be intense. It is the blue of Nordic nights, which enhances the substance of heavy cottons, felt and flat textures set against each other in plays of gloss and matt, of compact and weighty cloth even when made of cashmere, with a performance that becomes even more technical than nylon. 

The lighter, restrained modulations of wax accentuate the relaxed ease of cabans, duffel coats and winter safari jackets in washed, aged and distressed satin, or in nylon cordura, or in wool matting, with extremely warm interiors in Argentine fox or summer ermine. The suppleness of the softest cashmere makes it possible to create new blazers with perfect aplomb: realised in jacquard knit with motifs recalling John Aldridge’s “Hexagon” tapestries and revealing linings animated by barely perceptible shadows printed on silk, evoking the bronzes of Paul Manship. 

Evening takes on the dense shades of a thousand oxidised and rusted metals – bronze, copper, ruthenium, titanium – which, together with black and white, suggest an intention of sophisticated nonchalance. A conscious inclination towards elegance that cannot do without Ferré’s masculine must-haves: from immaculate white shirts made of innumerable gros-grain ribbons joined together, to the alchemical flourish of the “masquerade” tuxedos, where printed silk and damask, lived-in velvet and embroidery come together in a kaleidoscopic triumph of gleams and reflections.