Dear Diane and Shaded Viewers,
Eugene Rabkin already published his expertly chosen ‘Pitti Picks', so this post is sort of a Part B of ASVOF's Pitti highlights.
Jam Sutton is the creative brainchild of This Is Not Clothing, his ‘luxury brand and consumerist art movement’. Finding inspiration in modern day protestors and classical Greek sculpture, his wearable digital art-pieces are quite beautiful and something I find wholeheartedly relevant. They are the best example of fashion integrating with digital technology that I’ve seen, where the tech doesn’t take over, but it’s the groundwork and bonus feature of sorts, leaving the t-shirts to be completely wearable and the augmented reality as a take-it or leave-it benefit. A perfect balance.
Omogene is the Monaco-based menswear brand by Alexis Giannotti, who was intrigued by truck driving for his S/S 2016 collection this season. Truck driving + Monaco = interesting, no? Showing in the Who Is On Next? competition, Omogene was a standout for it’s clean cuts and simple ideas, that were all very well executed. The knitwear depicting tyre-marks was especially strong, finding a sort of stylised repetition in an unlikely place; ‘the poetry of asphalt’.
L72 was also in the Who Is On Next? competition. Designed by Lee Wood, the collection felt fundamental with its loyalty to boxed shapes and primary colours. There were elements of military uniform in there, but for sporty, mostly gender-fluid streetwear. It makes me wonder when it might be relevant for Pitti Uomo to just become Pitti. Everyone already uses this reduced name anyway…
I can’t have a roundup of Pitti without mentioning Norwegian Rain. It’s always a pleasure to see what T Michael and Alexander are up to, evolving their outerwear each collection without haste nor contrived reason. The green this season was unexpected though welcomed, inspired by the mountains surrounding the small Norwegian city of Bergen, where they’re based. It was a hit of freshness, even in the context of this season’s theme, Pitticolor!
Happy Monday,
Sophie
