Prêt-à-porter Donna
Spring/Summer
“I feel a need for naturalness, for a spontaneous and profound approach, as if I were searching for the truth from which dreams are born, the substance that nourishes the imagination. Thus, straw remains straw yet becomes pliable and soft. Organza is pushed to the extreme of lightness – a whisper printed with clouds and sky. Blue is intense and mutable, like the sea among rocks and beaches. Paired with the powerful colours of exotic gardens, yet always suggesting a broad, flexible reading, able to respond to different types of women”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1992
Logic and function. Fabrics underline the intrinsic qualities of each garment: ultra-light crêpe, naturally elastic silk crêpe, gabardine, rustic canvas, featherweight python stitched onto organza, pearly and silvery reflections for laminated textiles, raw silk.
The taste for colour. In the sky, on the sand. Among woods, shells and flowers. Between straw and bamboo. Near the water, within the water, at the bottom of the water. Among the broken shells left on the shore by the tide, white and black, translucent. Mother-of-pearl everywhere. And on a dreamlike evening, gold for the coral beads on the skirt, gold to embroider the romantic cadet-style jacket. And sleeves, or pockets, or scarves in fuchsia and lemon-yellow set against shocking pink, on a rigorously white jacket.
The sense of proportions. With a long jacket, the skirt no longer has reason to exist. Instead, a clean, bare halter-style dress, open at the side, reaches the ankle. A dancing step with flat shoes. A flowing, sinuous step balanced on heels.
Excerpt from the collection press release
Prêt-à-porter Donna
Fall/Winter
“As if on a journey around myself, with each collection I define ideas and sensations more precisely. I immerse myself in memory to draw out cues, references, images that flash by like lightning… whether seen or dreamt, I can scarcely tell, because memory interweaves them and makes them real. Certain portraits of eccentric, formidable women – true dandies of the early twentieth century – overlap with the splendours of chinoiserie, romanticism and exoticism, in a synthesis of sumptuous clarity and magnificent severity. Because only opposites coexist in harmony”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1992
A vague anglophile inflection of grey evokes natural tones, tobacco and red – the magical red of Chinese lacquers. Red-and-black checks mingle with Oriental decorations. The colours of amber, cornelian and gold unfold in every possible shade.
From a purified sense of luxury there naturally emerges a modern, feminine cut. A silhouette that raises the waistline in an upward thrust suggesting lightness, with the jacket neatly fitted at the back, fuller at the front, cinched by a belt; with an elemental, collarless suit, almost without buttons.
The soft volume of quilted fabrics provides warmth without weight: in the parachute-silk coat fastened with a zip and cut in a swallowtail line; in red and orange jackets of jersey and velvet. Illusions and allusions intertwine. Ultra-light lacquered nylon gives rise to a jacket that appears opulent, trimmed with fur.
Crushed froissé velvets merge with the rugged volume of marmot fur; the pleated white shirt transforms into a jacket. Gold blends with crinkled leather that resembles lambskin; brocades meet the molten gold of a pleated skirt.
EXCERPT FROM THE COLLECTION PRESS RELEASE
