Hello,
A while ago I was writing, and mostly reflecting, on how the return of a vintage aesthetic, and thus the revival of certain stylistic codes, was not too good a thing.
Reasoning also about what surrounds me, I realized how many comebacks are happening within the fashion world-of certain codes, many items and precise styles that have influenced past eras-but also in environments outside the fashion world.
Take the world of cinema as an example. How many sequels or readaptations have there been in recent years? So many.
Within a previous article, I explained that the card of vintage and taking back a specific aesthetic is often dictated by having an almost assured return, or even a lack of ideas...
We are nostalgic, that “Balorda nostalgia” which Olly sings, and with which he won this year's Sanremo festival, is how much more intimate we are left and binds us to an aesthetic that makes us feel safe and secure.
But is it good to stick to it? I don't know, I can't give myself an answer.
I tried to look for one within this fashion week, but I found there only nostalgia and distressed spirits, also dictated by what is happening on our planet.
Nothing is lost though, there were surprises and clear messages of hope.
Here is for you a selection, in a small, friendly way, of the shows that impressed me the most.
MARCO RAMBALDI – Future Memory
“ Sometimes you crochet, you skip a stitch, you have to undo everything and you feel like you can hear your grandmother's laughter. Sometimes you don't like that dress very much, but you remember who you bought it with and as you wear it you smile in the mirror. Sometimes you feel like no one understands how you feel, except for that person whose number you can recite by heart....”
Marco Rambaldi, FW25-26 fashion show press release.
Looking up the meaning of memory in the Treccani brings up the following << Ability, common to many organisms, to retain more or less complete and lasting records of experienced external stimuli and their responses >>.
On this very concept, Marco Rambaldi, builds the fall winter 2025-26 collection named Future Memory.
A collection that brings to the stage the collective memory of everyone who looks at it.
It all starts by going back to the origin: to the role of the mother, not only the biological one, but also the spiritual or symbolic one.
The inspiration is also that of the mothers told within the book “The Mother's Body” written by Michela Murgia and Chiara Tagliaferri, who on this occasion also participates in the fashion show as a model, reinforcing the message conveyed.
The role of the mother is accompanied by the almost exaggerated use of crochet - a trademark that characterizes the Bologna-based brand - which has the characteristic of adapting to different body types. The memory is also that of Filippo Giuliani's aunt, co-founder and art director of the brand, who often crocheted.
“Crochet is for rebel” is the message above the first look of the show, from here crochet comes to life in a thousand different ways: through skirts, maxi-pulls and bomber jackets.
The classic squares that we all used to see crocheted by children and nonchildren now become rhombuses, and are mixed and matched on a thousand different types of clothing.
The new label introduced, “Out of closet”, brings the theme of upcycling, dear to the brand's heart, back to the table, making clothes kept inside closets now enjoy a new life.
The bodies mentioned above are also at the center of the parade.
The so-called “Forgotten Bodies”.
Especially by the current fashion system.
FENDI – 100 years of matriarchy
Do you remember the saying. “One looks far for what one has near.” ? I strongly believe that it suits Fendi.
In a setting reminiscent of the historic boutique on Via Borgognona in Rome, where the five historic Fendi sisters (Alda, Anna, Carla, Franca and Paola) worked and made the name of the Roman brand great, the FW25-26 collection is presented.
Starting from the beginning, the show is opened by two children who open wide a large doorway, which will then be the entrance of the models on the catwalk. These two children are Tazio and Dardo, the grandsons of Silvia Venturini Fendi.
The look chosen for the two, is no accident; rather, it is a throwback to the look Silvia Venturini Fendi herself wore in 1967, when Karl Lagerfeld asked her to model and pose for the collection Cavallerizza freshly introduced.
One hundred years later, Silvia Venturini Fendi, presents a co-ed collection - more women's than men's - which takes all the pivotal elements of the Roman maison, inserting them not in a vintage key but readapting them to the contemporary. From here comes the whole discourse related to the world of furs, which today are produced in sheepskin, but thanks to a great mastery on the part of the artisans, it is as if it were not.
The maison's most iconic accessories are also revisited, such as the Peekaboo, La Fendi Mamma, the Spy Bag-which returns to the runway 20 years after its creation-and finally the ever-present Baguette. And when it comes to Baguette can Carrie Bradshaw ever be missing? Absolutely not. Present in the front row.
There was also the introduction of a new bag, the Fendi Giano, formed by the intersection of two crescents that make up a figure very similar to the one that reminds many of us of the famous video game Pacman.
Recalling the introduction made to this article, where nostalgia is mentioned, here one cannot help but think of her as well. If the whole story and details of the parade do not already create a feeling of nostalgia for you, just take back the invitation to the parade: an accordion-folded handbag photo album finished with the typical details of Selleria Cuoio Romano. The pictures inside, taken between 1964 and 1977 depict Silvia Venturini Fendi as a child, but also the first images of the sketches of the first collection designed by Karl Lagerfeld.
After years in the shadow of Kim Jones, who alas brought nothing good to the Roman maison, and a brief collection between Lagerfeld's death and Jones' arrival in 2019, Silvia Venturini Fendi takes the two-handed reins of HER brand and shows her identity.
Picking up on the sentence that opens the chapter...often the best purchase you can make is the one you already have in your closet.
Those who want to understand, understand.
PRADA – What is the definition of femininity?
Spoiler. There is no definition. It is a concept that has a relative sensitivity.
For this season, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, Prada's creative directors, wondered about this very concept: what is femininity? And what is its definition?
This reflection gave rise to the looks that have been debating, and continue to debate, the fashion system for days.
We saw on stage 60' style silhouettes, floral print dresses in acid colors or simply bright ones like green or yellow, to sartorial details and constructions of a precision worthy of an architect.
There is thus this juxtaposition between clothes that have been defined as "ugly" from common taste, with a refined and meticulously perfect aesthetic given by the accessories and cuts; contrast that questions what is beautiful or ugly, or right and wrong.
A very interesting detail present is the use of hairstyles “thrilled”, a style that Prada has been introducing for some time now. The message is precisely to play on the role of defining the neat and canonical femininity that we feel every day.
Regarding the looks, I have one more thought in mind to propose: for those who were new to the fashion world, and therefore did not know this detail, Miuccia Prada is also the founder and exclusive designer of Miu Miu. Within this brand, Miuccia Prada brings her playful and free version, so we see a style different from the institutional style and from "sciura" by Prada
However, FW 25-26 is a collection that, in my view, travels on the line that divides the two brands.
If the use of hairstyles "messy" was not already a small wake-up call - remember that the same style was used in the Miu Miu's FW23-24 both in Prada's SS25 - the styling and layering of some of the looks suggests and mentally refers us back to Miu Miu's aesthetic.
The show was presented inside a Prada Foundation hall, contrasting raw and refined. The mason's scaffolding that appears inside the room is juxtaposed with a rug, made by Catherine Martin, a well-known set designer, designer, and friend of the brand.
The collection, as mentioned earlier, has shaken the spirits of the fashion system. From those who said that it is not Prada, that this collection sucks - a strong and brave term when talking about Prada - and that the definition of women given is not a fair definition.
Everyone can think as they like and want, we are in a free country, for now....
But I have one reflection, yet another, to submit to you.
We are going through a time of crisis, especially in the fashion world. So many brands have seen their sales and revenues plummet over the past few years, and the air we breathe, as witnessed by many, is so heavy.
But in all this crisis, the only group that continues to grow undisturbed and at the speed of a frecciarossa, is precisely the Prada Group. According to the study made public by the Group itself, it can be seen that all points examined - such as retail sales, revenues and growth in new markets - are all super positive.
Finally, if you want to take a broader look, compared to other groups, such as Kering and LVMH, the Prada Group is the only one growing.
It seems that the more Prada and Miu Miu bring out collections. "ugly" and that no one would put in, the more the revenues would go up.
In conclusion, what if that was exactly the intention of the two creative directors, to confuse minds and question everything?
There is no universal concept of femininity, so Prada can afford to play around and make these more provocative collections, partly because of its heritage and history.
VERSACE – Is this goodbye?
News has been circulating in the air for some time that the Prada Group, is in talks to acquire Versace, currently owned by the american Capri Holdings group.
The news could actually shake up the setup we currently have. From the moment this negotiation turns out to be real, and the sale defined and processed, I highly doubt that the role of creative director could remain in the hands of Donatella Versace.
And this collection gives us quite a few alarm bells in this regard.
The collection presented, like all those of recent years, references the past: To ballet costumes designed by Gianni Versace, to V-neck dresses that take us back to the golden age of the brand, to Versace Home quilts that become mini-dresses with pouf skirts - small fan fact, the quilts worn were already immortalized by Richard Avedon in 1995 on Nadja Auermann and Claudia Schiffer for one of the Versace Home campaigns - to velvet dresses with silver details, which take us back into Gianni Versace's head and his memories of seeing his mother sewing.
Also unveiled was a new bag model, the Virtus, which bears a new logo of the fashion house, a metallic V, on it.
They certainly could not miss the usual big stars, from Elodie to Marco Mengoni to Cillian Murphy, but also the beloved nepo babies like Lila Moss, with the addition this time of Brooklyn Beckham's runway debut.
Donatella Versace is a master of celebrities and the music world, her career and history testifies to that, so could an iconic remix have been missing? Of course not. And here is My name is by Eminem and Abracadabra by Lady Gaga to close the show.
A choice made perhaps to remark on the importance of his name after the chatter of the fashion world?
If in other brands, such as Prada, the designer comes after the clothes - it is hard to think of Prada without Miuccia Prada, but the advent of Raf Simons opens up several glimmers of how important clothes are as opposed to designers in the brand - within Versace, the figure of Donatella Versace is perhaps everything, it all revolves around her, and she is in every dress and accessory presented.
It comes naturally to me to ask, can a brand like Versace survive without its designer? Especially if it bears his name?
AVAV – A mix of Rei Kawakubo's ideas and Demna Gvasalia's style
Have you ever imagined what it would be like if Demna Gvasalia and Rei Kawakubo did a collection together? I do, it's one of my roman empires because they are two of my favorite designers.
It is something that is still possible to be accessed. Who knows.
In FW25-26, Beate Karlsson, creative director of Avavav, metaphorically stages the death of fashion - of the fashion system specifically - and how it comes back to life in the form of zombies and then monstrous creatures.
We see the models re-emerging from the ground before walking down the catwalk.
Their looks are confused and messed up: we see exoskeletons, confused tailoring, and sportswear elements, all distorted and deteriorated.
Why did we come to talk about Kawakubo and Gvasalia though? In the first case because Rei Kawakubo had also wondered about the death of fashion, in the early 2000s, theorizing its death and creating three collections to reconstruct it. In the second case because everything speaks of Demna within this show, everything seems to have been birthed by him and put together in a Lotta Volkova-style styling, Balenciaga's own stylist.
Tha walk "evil", the padded shoulders, the outsider attitude, the models coming out of the ground - I remember that for the Balenciaga's SS23 models paraded in the mud - everything reminds us of the classic aesthetic of the Georgian designer.
Citation or plagiarism?
MOSCHINO – For the fourth time, yes
If at the beginning of his creative direction Adrian Appiolaza, had made many lovers of the brand and the fashion system doubt, after this collection I think everyone's doubts are gone.
The overall conception of the fashion show is dictated by one dress, which can be considered the common thread linking Franco Moschino, founder of the brand, and Adrian Appiolaza: the 1992 mannequin dress, designed for the purpose of appearing to be sewn onto the body of the model - the mannequin - and not finished.
The dresses on the runway are not all perfect, they are not all finished, and they are not all placed just right. The reinterpretations, not to be confused with quotes, go from Rei Kawakubo to Martin Margiela, of whom I remember Appiolaza is a lover and collector. Clothes of antiform construction with an attached hat-which is actually a pillow-mix with clothes of more tailored and classic construction, with stitching and tacking and sight.
And clothes formed from garbage bags are not to be forgotten. As if to say that luxury can be formed from anything.
There is no lack of irony, which characterized Franco Moschino, and now Appiolaza. The pins become polaroids of the pins that were meant to be applied, the bows get bigger, and the lettering appears to throw us signals.
L’ultimo look presentato vede protagonista Alex Consani, nota modella, con in mano due borse sacco della spazzatura e una t-.shirt con la scritta SOS, Save Our Sphere. Messaggio che oggi più che mai risulta attuale.
Everything is chaos, a general confusion. And that's really the meeting point between the two designers, the language spoken by both of them, chaos.
Appiolaza brings us back, nostalgically, to Moschino's golden era, the one with Franco, erasing the Jeremy Scott interlude almost for good.
SUSAN FANG – Finally new air
I find it quite unnecessary to explain how difficult it can be to open a brand in 2025. Even the big names in fashion over the years have had to give in to the court of big groups like Kering or LVMH to get ahead.
There is an obvious underlying problem.
Thanks to the support of Dolce&Gabbana, which for the second time chose to support the brand, Susan Fan presented the FW25-26 collection, inspired by the works created by her mother, who only after retiring, began painting as a self-taught artist.
The collection is an explosion of colors, sequins and pleats.
We find jeans designed with ballpoint pens, sequined sneakers, a long jacket on which a painting depicting her hometown - a creative idea suggested by the brand's stylist Katie Grand - was made by her mother, pleated dresses that light up the room and make us dream and transfer over other worlds, and finally floral patterns reminiscent of the decorations of the imperial palace in Beijing.
In a landscape where we struggle to take even the slightest step, Susan Fan presents us with a collection about love, her homeland and her mother, a role at the center of the show.
As is the case with Marco Rambaldi.
The summary of this just passed fashion week is a still too strong look at what was in the past, and what created the problems we experience in the present.
The figure of womanhood is still an open discussion; womanhood can only be what does not seem canonical, but ultimately is.
We hope September will bring us good things, because February did not shine too brightly.
Thanks
Kisses, Alisia <3
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