Prêt-à-porter Donna
Spring/Summer
“Impressions, fleeting notes… a lazy, carefree summer in Capri. I thought about menswear with humour and reinterpreted it with the utmost irony for a deeply feminine woman. Manipulating and deconstructing canonical forms to design sleeveless jackets and double-breasted pieces that will never be fastened, flaunting buttons purely as decoration; yet I also worked to achieve a natural abundance of volume, with shapes that flare spontaneously at the hem. A Neapolitan echo vibrates through this collection, with its fantasy and freedom to invent, adapt and mix. Because I was searching for the Mediterranean – its relaxed spirit, without distant journeys, without exoticism”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1990
All the canons of menswear are pushed to extremes in order to distil a supremely feminine essence.
Materials: cady grisaille, linen fil-à-fil, organza grisaille, silk sablé, large-scale python, lacquered tricot imitating python, iridescent gabardine, iridescent silk voile, marabou lined with iridescent quilted georgette, openwork weaves – straw-like – in leather and viscose tricot, cotton and sheer nylon “hosiery” naturally draped with intersecting strips, encrustations and ribbon-threading, macramé lace intertwined with tulle and white snake, cut-outs in organza and tulle, gold-twisted fil-à-fil linen, layered positive/negative prints.
And the colours are unmistakably ultra-feminine… Capri air, bright and fragrant hues. Pale coral, ultramarine blue, seabed green, wave blue, bougainvillea pink. And dazzling white. The colours of Salerno ceramics for precious fabrics embroidered with talismanic symbols: moon, cupid, stars, coral, scarab.
Excerpt from the collection press release
Prêt-à-porter Donna
Fall/Winter
“Memories of books, recollections of travels, fairy tales and fantastic narratives… the dragon of the Orient devouring the Baroque scroll, the lands of the Rising Sun and China seen from a European viewpoint, observed through the glass of a magic lantern. I blended emotions, images and culture to arrive at this Oriental softness, at this felicitous synthesis between elementary elements and opulence – blossoming like a luxuriant flowering”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1990
The material. A sense of fullness and movement. An intrinsic plasticity animates grey: printed on flannel like galuchat, edged with soutage, then transformed once again into an unexpected flannel by quilting white-and-black georgette. Lambswool tricot, lightly rubberised, reveals a rich, lustrous substance. A note of tenderness and soft abandon sweetens beige: uneven, worked, creamy – obtained by fusing Spanish shearling and bouclé into a single garment. Or by combining flat peluche, typical of sportswear, with marbled, iridescent rat.
The rhythm. Typical of a play of oppositions, it underscores the choice of colours, dense or daring. The blue and gem-like greens of Chinese lacquers accompany wide, supple forms. Magical brocades, doubled and quilted, lend a blazing splendour to the trench, the duffle coat, the kimono. Full-bodied shades melt like precious minerals into noble materials: cashmere drap, python, satin, duchesse, double alpaca cloth quilted with iridescent taffeta.
The accent. Gold fever. Gold mixed with tweed, jacquards scaled with gold, gold tulle jersey, lace over gold lace. A flow of molten gold across lacquered knit. Spirals of gold-plated cord for pullovers. Substantial, weighty jewellery. Bracelets that emerge like gloves from the sleeves of jackets.
Excerpt from the collection press release
