Published on
22 Feb 2023
Intelligent collections, designed to subtly renovate the female wardrobe. This was revealed on Wednesday by the Milanese catwalks at the opening of Fashion Week dedicated to fall-winter 2023/24. In particular, at N°21 and Etro, an interesting research on constructions, materials and games of contrasts was put forward. The first playing on a certain subversive chic, the second on a nonchalant romanticism.
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie… in the depths of the Italian province. It’s not the famous Louis Buñuel film, which inspired Alessandro Dell’Acqua for next winter’s N°21 collection. The Neapolitan designer preferred to let himself be influenced by the masterpieces of Michelangelo Antonioni, The night et The Red Deserttaking as their muses their two stars, Monica Vitti and Jeanne Moreau.
The locker room was designed for a femme fatale who hides her game, caught in the twists and turns of a small provincial town, between jealousies, betrayals, boredom, sex and incommunicability. The suit, the little black dress, the cardigan, the pearl necklace, the brooch… All the symbols of the bourgeois are present, but diverted one by one and re-proposed through a new, more subversive and contemporary silhouette.
At N°21, it’s all regarding attitude, as often with Alessandro Dell’Acqua, a past master in the art of telling stories by creating the right tension and atmosphere. The classic herringbone coat is zipped at the top of the back, which widens the neckline for a dress-coat effect. The pearl necklace wraps pell-mell around the neck and the hair, to slip on the bare skin under the jacket of a tweed suit. With its side pockets and sleeves adorned with a white stripe, the camel mohair cardigan turns into a track jacket.
The cardigans are buttoned askew or put on inside out, tied in the back with a silver scorpion-shaped brooch. Light chiffon dresses are superimposed on babydolls. Elsewhere, jumpsuits with thin straps fall over a skirt or are superimposed with a ” sagging original (the boxer shorts that protrude from the trousers are replaced here by a petticoat protruding at the waist from another petticoat), while a classic striped shirt extends into points under a jacket, like the bottom of a cotton bodysuit. white lace going to land on a leather skirt. “I wanted to shake up all the clichés to reinvent a modern dressing room”, sums up the designer.
Change of register at Etro, where the woman displays a simpler and more authentic approach in a Seventies spirit, without giving up a certain elegance with her silk shirts with Lavallière knots and her velvet suits. As he did for menswear in January, Marco De Vincenzo is focusing on fabrics, which have made the house famous. In particular, on tartans, which were the first textiles marketed by the Italian house from 1968.
Superb Scottish cashmere stoles, available in all colors, gently encircle the models, overlapping woolen polo dresses with large fringes, leaving plainly visible “longish” leather thigh-high boots with studded wooden soles. Knitwear takes pride of place, via wide openwork cardigans with pagoda sleeves, small cardigans embroidered with flowers, long diamond knit dresses dotted with flowers in wool yarn, or mid-length twisted models.
Chic checked tweeds are used to tailor jackets, coats and waistcoats with extra wide collars reaching down to the navel. They are paired with matching mini-skirts or loose denim or corduroy trousers. Paisley, Etro’s iconic motif appears discreetly here and there, printed on silk blouses or ruffled dresses. These long vaporous and twirling tunics in light muslin also decorated with flowers or polka dots complete the somewhat bohemian look.
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