2011 | IVO MILAN - Radical Fashion Blog

Oyuna’s cashmere!

By: Soili Milan

17-11-2011

Detail sweater Oyuna

The strength of globalization is at work here!

From clothing to home accessories, the British designer brand Oyuna, has had the genial idea of combining the finest cashmere from its native country of Mongolia, with its most established manufacturing tradition from Scotland.

If Mongolia is among the top producers in the world and without equal for quality, the chemical properties of the water in British streams have enhanced the luxurious softness of this noblest of yarns for centuries.

The rareness of the material limits distribution of the product to a small circle of select boutiques around the world and makes it difficult to find and, paradoxically, to learn of its reputation. A strange by-product of marketing products of superior quality nowadays is that they are often not granted the attention that they deserve. And so it is that this obscure label’s elegant sweaters remain, for the most part, unknown.

knit cashmere reversible jacket

Despite all of this, it would be quite wrong to expect to find the reassuringly traditional styles that are so usual in cashmere sweaters. Oyuna knitwear blends the basic simplicity of its lines with additional key themes,

using overlapping

and double weaves

and asymmetric panels, revealing a design sensitivity that is decidedly modern and open to the influences of the most daring fashion designers in the industry.

Gauze, flannel, and jerseys, are perhaps the most remarkable transformations of this noble raw material, which are decisive in determining its final shape.

Silhouettes and cuts make each piece completely functional and part of the sophisticated collections, which are at times complex though certainly never obvious, that make up the all-new Ivo Milan store collection.

This is a collection to be touched and admired but especially, one that should needs to be worn to appreciate its proportions and unpredictable characteristics.

cashmere knit long top

Luz y color: with Pleats Please-Issey Miyake, Luis Barragàn’s Mexico sees a revival

By: Soili Milan

09-11-2011

Abbigliamento, Accessori, Architettura, Arte, Design, Marchi, Moda, Various

The title chosen for the Pleats Please winter collection is a tribute to the work of the most prominent Mexican architect, Luis Barragàn.

Abstract shapes and lively multicoloured designs on bags, trousers, dresses and sweaters strongly recall that lush and surreal Mexico interpreted by the architecture of the master from Jalisco. The vast wall surfaces painted with bright colors, often crossed by unexpected cracks that offer glimpses of fountains of crystal clear water, are echoed by Issey Miyake’s most famous pleats.

The designer has always personally designed Pleats Please, a range which has always been the subject of his most joyous fantasies. Every season it is devolped by following a guiding theme. If, in the past, the most representative paintings of the Italian Renaissance embraced the entire silhouette in the form of dresses and t-shirts, now the inspiration is clearly Barragàn’s Mexico.

The deep pink of flourishing tropical bougainvillea, the yellow gold of the earth and the bright local houses, or the crisp blue of the cloudless sky and the sparkling blue of the clear waters, dissolve in the volumes of clothing and accessories in high-tech textiles.

In fact, each garment is initially cut and sewn on flat fabric, it is only later, thanks to the extremely advanced techniques that have been patented by the well-known Japanese Maison, that it undergoes the pleating process. In addition to allowing extreme volumetric plasticity, this unique pleating remains intact over time. It is so practical that it can be machine washed and transported anywhere, as it always keeps its shape.

A timeless, poetic product, Pleats Please gives its best when mixed with other suppliers, by completing them with surprising harmony.

Below, a sequence of outfits, from the Ivo Milan‘s shop, worn by Sari and Elena.

First outfit: ‘blue/grey’ hat Nafi; ‘musk green’ overcoat and ‘olive’ scarf Volga Volga; ‘blue pink’ t-shirt Cauliflower; ‘cornflower’ skirt Pleats Please; ‘black’ boot Trippen

Second outfit: ‘orange’ padded hooded gilet Pleats Please; ‘musk green’ overcoat Volga Volga; ‘blue pink’ t-shirt Cauliflower; ‘cornflower’ skirt Pleats Please; ‘black’ boot Trippen

Third outfit: ‘beige’ hat Scha; ‘blue’ asymmetric sweater Oyuna; ‘beige’ pants Pleats Please; ‘black/white’ Marsèll “goccia”

Fourth outfit: ‘light grey’ sweater Cosmic Wonder; ‘beige’ pants Pleats Please; ‘black/white’ boot Marsèll “goccia”

Fifth outfit: ‘black’ hat Nafi; ‘cornflower’ cardigan and ‘black/nut’ scarf Daniela Gregis; ‘beige’ pants Pleats Please; ‘black/white’ boot Marsèll “goccia”

Sixth outfit: ‘burgundy’ hat Scha; ‘black’ blouson Sacai; ‘chestnut’ pants Pleats Please; ‘burgundy’ boot Trippen

Seventh outfit: ‘navy’ hat Scha; ‘indigo’ jacket Junya Watanabe; ‘green’ scarf Cauliflower; ‘multicolor’ pants Pleats Please; ‘blue’ boot Trippen

From Paris showroom, Pleats Please-Issey Miyake F/W 2011-2012, order of Ivo Milan

Souvenirs from Paris Fashion Week, Sept 29 – Oct 6 2011….faces, sights, shops and showrooms

By: Soili Milan

21-10-2011

Various

Sacai, spring-summer 2012 fashion show, Salle des Tirages – Hôtel d’Evreux, Place Vendôme

Orlando Milan of IVO MILAN, Padua, with Rosy Biffi of BIFFI and Carla Sozzani of 10 CORSO COMO, Milan

Photographers in action

Overview of the Esplanade des Invalides

Showroom Rick Owens, 7 bis, Place du Palais Bourbon

Trading Museum Comme des Garçons, 54 Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré

Boutique Issey Miyake, 11, Rue Royale

Photographs by Sari Milan

Y’s by Yohji Yamamoto

By: Soili Milan

15-10-2011

Various

The apostrophe in the name stands for the strong paternal feeling that Yohji Yamamoto has for the Y’s line. This line is only second to his first line of clothing, the one which bears his whole name, in the sense that is yet “another” line. The product makes use of recurring themes, like asymmetries and cross cuts and the quality fabrics draw upon the erudite Japanese textile culture.

With the Y’s line, Yohji translates his daring poetic projects into the everyday more freely than in the first line. In fact, these are reworked in a less austere, more usable and practical way.

Re-dimensioning the abstract stylistic forms that have made him famous, Yamamoto makes space for colour, so frequently avoided in favour of strong monochromatic themes like black, white and red, which enhance and metabolize more complex tailoring work. These are also present in Y’s, but simplified and with volumes sensibly contained, creating attractive silhouettes for a younger audience, yet always mature enough to incorporate refined exoticism.

Yamamoto never presents the Orient in a quaint or traditional style, but rather as a mental place where Western clothing styles are fused and transfigured through edge-to-edge cuts, textile weaves and the imbalances of Japanese aesthetics.