MANIFESTO

#63

CHANGE OF SPACE

Pushing boundaries of reality

2022.10.03

Text by Guia Ortolani

Refining, moderating, thinking ahead. Between physical and digital, real and surreal, through a constant tension and extreme rigor.

An exploration of the fake in nature, in a direct reference to Anderson’s last show. A focus on line, color, form.  At the centre of the show setting there is a giant anthurium flower, that is readapted as clothing throughout the show: a product of nature that seems to be a design element, and is used as such. The creative director is pushing boundaries again, through a dynamic experimentation between shapes, reducing, tightening and redesigning the silhouette. Minidresses are very short: miniature style, in enameled metal painted with flowers or compact, twisted knit. The actress Taylor Russell (protagonist of the acclaimed “Bones and all” by Luca Guadagnino) opens the show wearing a strapless black velvet dress, recalling the silhouette of the Baroque period via the 1920s robe de style. There is another quartet of strange dresses whose fronts were swagged and suspended from triangular wire peaks that reached up toward the face. Even leather and hunting jackets are petit in size, almost to look like miniatures.

The normality of T-shirts, shirts and chinos is distorted, padded, stretched and reproportioned. The concept of draping is crystallized at its apex. Maxi shirt and sweatshirt dresses are the symbol of the brand’s know-how with leather. Light plays with different textures: absorbed by velvet and waxed cotton, reflected by enamel and leather. Occasionally, a few pixelated details surface, defined by Anderson as “…odd illusion that suddenly breaks the pattern”. Stiletto-heeled pumps, ballet flats,

“rubber décolletés,” pumps with deflated balloon heels. The bags have a precise shape designed ad hoc; the Puffer Goya continues its play on volume, and the new Paseo has an elongated, streamlined silhouette. Braided silver bracelets add a touch of sophistication to a collection that is nothing less than a style statement, accentuated by the creative act of reducing shapes.

“Are we falling into the screen? Are we becoming our phones? Is it to do with where we are in society?”.

 

– J.W. Anderson

EXHIBITION

TESTAMENT TO YOUTH

2024.04.29

After studying at the Academy of the Antwerp Six, Willy Vanderperre embarked on his career as a photographer. From Raf Simons and Dior to Jil Sander and Prada, the Belgian photographer has built upon a strict religious upbringing and adolescent solitude as the driving force behind his creative sphere.

CHALLENGERS

2024.04.24

In Guadagnino’s new film, tennis is a metaphor for the brutal juxtaposition between love and desire, comfort and recklessness, eventually taking on an almost theatrical, dramatic connotation. Set against the backdrop of Back Bay, Challengers brings to the screen a magnificently complex love triangle.

FASHION

BORN IN OASI ZEGNA

2024.04.24

Born in Oasi Zegna, ZEGNA’s new collectible volume, is a written and visual narrative that aims to bring the ethos of the maison everywhere. Just like the Oasis born among the Biellese Alps, the book itself is conceived as a true living organism.

PHOTOGRAPHY

FULFILL THE DREAM

2024.04.23

Capturing the essence of skate culture alongside personal evolution. In the new photographic book Fulfill The Dream, Magdalena Wosinska commits an unfiltered journey to paper.

BIENNALE

THE NAUMACHIA BALL

2024.04.22

On Saturday, April 20th, Dior’s Naumachia Ball took place in Venice, marking a third chapter following the great success of the Tiepolo Ball at Palazzo Labia in 2019 and the Opera Ball at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in 2022.