Andreas Kronthaler is ready to have fun again.
For fall 2024, he invited SunBengSitting x Sons of Sissy, a Vienna-based folk dance trio (Simon Mayer, Matteo Haitzmann, Simon Wehrli) for a mind-blowing performance in which they twirled, whipped, danced, sang, and sang. Even wood chopping and butt slapping were involved.
It was difficult to decide where to look. As the performance progressed, models appeared with fly-inspired straps worn outside the pants and looks with pronounced details on the chest plate.
Backstage, Kronthaler said he saw late Renaissance costumes at a Giovanni Battista Moroni exhibition in Milan, as well as sports protective equipment. What do the two have in common? Codpieces, a stable fashion that was in fashion for more than a century during the Renaissance in Italy. The designer said he wanted to get it back and post it for fun.
“Men's fashion in the Renaissance was quite interesting. There were all these laws against wearing clothes that were too revealing. In Florence they imprisoned you because at one point the men really gave up everything,” Kronthaler said.
He noted that Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion was a key reference source for constructing historically inspired pieces seen in this collection and before.
The use of black, especially in the evening dress section, was also a nod to the 17th century trend.
“You see a lot of black because it was very fashionable then. We love this color. “It is very comfortable but at the same time the most elegant of all the colors,” she added.
Essentially, the collection challenged the notion of elegance in today's culture. You can argue that Sam Smith's bottomless checkered look was pure chaos, but for Vivienne Westwood fans, elegance came from within, and Smith has plenty of it.
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