This weekend in Milan, one could catch up on everything from masterful Milanese accessories to super-calm luxury and young foreign hopefuls. We did it with Valextra, Loro Piana and Salinas.
Valextra: tapping into a broader culture
Few brands are as in tune with their local artistic culture as Valextra, which revealed multiple new ideas inside a store on Via Manzoni, flourishing amid the best of mid-century Italian designs.
The house presented its new and stylized Hobo, a shoulder bag made in a new leather, 'Millepunti Morbido', which means a thousand soft points, a more malleable version of its classic grained leather. He is shown alongside futuristic retro patterned lamps and a perfectly restored gunmetal gray Lambretta scooter. Oh, to be a mod again!
Under the direction of its super-innovative CEO Xavier Rougeaux, Valextra also recently opened a very innovative store in Kyoto, which functions as a gallery of the brand's history and the dialogue between the creative arts in Milan and Japan. Called 'Casa Valextra', the new boutique is located inside a traditional house, whose exterior was left completely intact. Inside, however, the brand interacts with local artisans on skillfully dyed tatami mats and tapestries, alongside bohemian armchairs by Gabriele Crespi and padded chairs by Gianfranco Frattini.
At the opening, Rougeaux met a local artisan, recognized him by his indigo-stained fingers, which began a project to create Valextra bags from indigo-dyed cotton. Finished with surgical precision hardware, in a classic Iside bag and a small clutch. Both presented between an indigo ceramic sculpture of a braying horse by Gio Ponti and a dark psychedelic resin urn by Gaetano Pesce. Nearby, new black and white variations of the Iside bag suggested the geometric graphics for which Italian art directors are famous.
Rougeaux also partnered Valextra with a local metal artisan to create a gold-varnished steel Iside mini bag. A beautifully grained object in an impeccable presentation.
J. Salinas: Andean attitude
It's good to see Milan's fashion scene being renewed with new blood, such as J Salinas, a Peruvian brand that held a comeback show on Saturday at lunchtime.
A revealing spectacle regarding the tremendous wool weavings, ironically staged within the Istituto dei Ciechi, or Institute for the Blind.
What worked best were the braided wool coats and cardigans supplied by the Andean textile committees. Highly sustainable fabrics handcrafted by local artisans from the provinces of Huancayo, Puno and Huancavelica. Founder Jorge Luis Salinas clearly understands these materials and ships jackets and sweaters with peak shoulders and tulip sleeves; or mini cocktails mixed with layers that were very impressive.
She also broke new ground with chiffon blouses with ruffles and fans and a series of potato flower floral prints seen on pantsuits and cut with faux sheaths.
An original vision of fashion, adding to the melting pot that Milan has increasingly become, as designers who might previously have walked in the UK before Brexit now arrive in a more welcoming Italy.
Loro Piana: Everything in the family
It felt like they were all with family at Loro Piana, at the brand's first presentation within its new headquarters, an imminent palace on via della Moscova.
With the house about to begin celebrating the centenary of the founding of its weaving factory, Loro Piana celebrated the personal style of its founding family in this season's collection. A large facility within the palace courtyard also had extensive fabric archives and hundreds of spools of thread.
Along with very fine fashion. Like a delightfully elegant jacket in chardon or thistle (a fabric that is a combination of herringbone and window check) that was the picture of gentlemanly elegance. Playing on the family custom of raising the lapels of jackets when they were hung up at night, to better protect their shape, the jacket had its lapels raised and was fastened with a gold chardon.
The brand also had an intriguing new marketing idea. This weekend, Loro Piana set up shop in a former Milanese newsstand in the city center, turning it into an advertising billboard for his latest campaign and a boutique offering carefully arranged bouquets of thistles.
A robust and long-lived flower, like Loro Piana, a very quiet luxury brand that is doing surprisingly well. In fact, without making much of a fuss, it is one of the fastest growing brands at LVMH.
Sometimes it pays a little discretion.
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