For several years now Rei Kawakubo, in Comme des Garçons art, has exclusively dedicated to clues, atmospheres and evocation her own representation of the ongoing collection. Emancipated of any kind of obligation towards the expectations of the global audience, the Japanese designer delights with her exhibitions that are closer to the art world rather than the sector of belonging.  The runway is not dedicated to garments but to textile provocations, architectonic structures that surround the sacrificed bodies of models lend to carry oversized sculptures, deliberately cumbersome and disproportionate compared to the available space.

Impossible not to ask yourself why or what is the plausible message content in this artistic drift. Maybe a self-granted freedom of expression, against the monotonous limits forced by the reality of the female body, or a subtle provocation versus a star-system hat becomes increasingly uncritical and exhibitionist. Certainly the dialog has not the purpose of selling. The pared garments are indeed extraordinary pieces of contemporary art that belong in museums or wealthy collectors. The runway show is an idea, a suggestion of the inspiring motif of the season which will be found later translated and much wearable in the development in the show-room. For Autumn/Winter 2016-2017 we witness then poetic collage of antique fabrics, floral tapestries that catapult the public in the XVIII century, the Age of Enlightenment, the rematch of reason over ignorance and superstition.

Rei Kawakubo, however, is not nostalgic and well-mannered, the collage is held together by metal snap buttons, by cuts and raw seams, diagonals that fragment the decorative harmony of time, implying elements defined by herself  as Punk, in the most provocative meaning of the term.

Synthetic leather, studs, constant asymmetries  and details that can be observed in the motives sewed on skirts, in the curvatures of the nodal points of the joints, reinforced as if they were textile armatures. And extensions, adjustable connecting rings, a flexibility in disassembling and reassembling, a continuously adjustable area in lengths and a delicate balance between order and disorder. It is not said that we can return to the original reconstruction, that many the alternatives are. Modernity and tradition, they also alternate in the processing, the ancient Japanese knowing collaborates with the most daring experimentations of the multi-layerd polyester cloth with rayon, cupro and cotton panels, in an encounter that observes how the material determinants and imposes the final shape of the piece, whether is a jacket, skirt or coat.

Needless to assume how Rei Kawakubo, in preparing an original and personal temporal syncretism, punk and Enlightenment, thinks of women determined to stay in their own time with the vigor and exuberance of who has a critical and imaginative independency

In the middle of the new Fall season, it’s a pleasure to return and to guide you in the discovery of the collections that gives form to our seasonal catalog. Returning to the good practice of introducing the new arrivals, we are starting with a new entry, the Swiss-Italian designer:

Elisa Wild

In absolute world preview, her work is hosted inside of our two places of belonging: online and in the Padua shop.

Elisa Wild stands out not only in the textile production, she also involves us in a detailed narration of her work and in the path that led her to be make clothes. With her own words…

“This adventure began, as is often the case, with a passion: a passion for textiles and the chance to work and shape them in the same way as sculpting a raw material. It was essential to make the materials and techniques in the project compatible, since every fabric responds to handling in a different way.

For many years, I have worked continuously on researching, studying and experimenting, in order to stimulate and inspire the design departments of the stars of the fashion world with sophisticated ways of working with textiles. But only now, with these dresses, has the dream that I have always harbored throughout my career come true: managing the entire creative, conceptual and technical process myself, right through to the finished product.

The project has therefore become a system in which the chosen fabric, the specific production methods and the entire process of constructing the object/garment merge to produce unusual, wearable effects. Finally, the ‘textile constructions’ for which we are known in the fashion world have become the dresses I have always dreamed of, as if the thoughts, ideas, whims and sketches in my myriad of notebooks found the right moment and means to take shape. Our workshop has left no stone unturned in researching and testing artisan techniques in its quest to achieve special effects with fabrics.

The BOLLE DRESS (bubble) owes its shape to a specific, extremely irregular hand-drawn design, which takes into account how the fabric will move as its form is reshaped by elastic. It is entirely handmade, and to a certain extent it is an empirical work… mass producing a process like this would certainly be a complex challenge to any manufacturer.

Those admiring the final garment may not appreciate how delicate the balance is between the effect produced by the shape of the dress and how it is made. This equilibrium stems from a careful study of the designs, proportions and procedures to create an item that epitomizes haute couture.

In the ORIGAMI DRESS, the concept underpinning the production — strips of fabric assembled three-dimensionally — and the cut of the garment were designed in parallel, and as a result the front of the dress is a compact modular system in which all parts are interconnected. In addition, the very dry and lightweight wool/linen canvas fabric chosen specifically for the dress can be doubled up, making it ideal for the origami-style folds. The resulting strength is an intrinsic part of the garment, within a simple yet sculptural shape.

For the NODI DRESS, a special design was created with a structure that runs vertically through the dress: a sort of comb with teeth made of small strips of fabric. Only when the sewing is done and everything is completely finished are these strips tied by hand, and the dress slowly takes shape, taking on its final appearance thanks to a spine of knots and bows that gather the fabric in at the sides. Truly a captivating design!”

A made in Italy learned, who knows to confront the most daring challenges of the great Japanese school, knowing, however, to defend and define its own creative authenticity.