Prêt-à-porter Donna
Spring/Summer
“A blend of urbanity and wild spirit. A sense of freedom that, within a civil, Mediterranean setting, is conveyed by décontracté materials… here and there, reminiscences of the early twentieth century, animated by the pleasure of boldly mixing traditional elements. To concreteness – to what I call elementarity – I wished to give the enchanted nuances of dream, a halo of lightness. Like a fragrance, the memory hovers of a vaguely Chaplinesque silhouette: wide trousers cropped at the ankle, a short jacket with naturally broad shoulders, black and white as in ‘Modern Time’. And a wholly modern energy, an irony of our time, blends preciousness and roughness, aggressiveness and tenderness”.
Gianfranco Ferré
1994
Colours. In a summer landscape scorched by the sun, nuances melt, run, lighten into pure light. Cream, sepia, hemp, white. A dusting of sand, pearly clouds. An explosion of peony red, poppy red, geranium red for shirts as free as foulards. A wave of blue, fresh and transparent like the sea of Santorini.
Materials. Substance, thickness, lightness, contrasts… rope from boat rigging to decorate a long waistcoat edged with herringbone braid. Compact, matte écru lace lined with georgette for the mannish suit. Gauze and tulle, stretch or with a playful mosquito-net effect. Washed suede and shantung for safari jackets. A cotton pullover with hints of red for the almost cadet-style jacket worn in the evening. Alchemies of linen, raw on one side, silver-coated on the other. Python or elephant leather cut into strips and applied to tulle or georgette sleeves which, when rolled up, form an imaginary skein. Masculine fabrics in soft silk or crêpe silk, pinstriped with a thread of ajour.
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Prêt-à-porter Donna
Fall/Winter
“A new sense of freedom. An intense, forceful taste that unites the natural with the elementary, pushing artifice to its utmost limits, elaborating masculine details on wholly feminine shapes and figures… in this collection I arrived at a different awareness of dressing, one that considers history already assimilated and absorbed, and invents a present full of energy, without complacency or upheaval. I uphold the necessity of an order that is giving, not obligation or constraint. An order born of freedom, which reshuffles everything. Each garment regains its deepest identity.”
Gianfranco Ferrè
1994
Material and form. Through mysterious alchemies, material lends its body to form, reaching surprising solutions and sculptural effects. New volumes arise from cascades of silkiness: taffeta, tubular silk velvets, silk-and-viscose velvets. Certain softnesses are achieved by pairing velvet with cashmere. As in a Wunderkammer, nothing is what it seems: a marbled animal skin resembling light otter reveals itself as softened, lightened velvet. Wide-weave chenille, lined in georgette and quilted, becomes a skirt of interlaced thread. Passementerie and tapestry cords – enlarged, loosened, in chenille yarn – turn into sumptuous cabans and shawls. Fur that appears to be ostrich or feathers is in fact a mass of wool worked into tufts on canvas.
Colours. A light splendour settles on absolute whites and blacks. A soft dust veils the neutrals, descending into the tenderness of pink. The institutional strength of grey flannel takes on an opaque, sanded light, like that of an ancient helmet. Sand thickens into the tones of dry branches, mixed with the wildness of printed silk camouflage used as linings for military coats. A bouquet of shades from pink to violet, like drying peonies, casts a dense, vibrant note.
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