Minimalists, it’s time to rip up your reductionist rule book. Cease your streamlining, restrict your restraint and press pause on a pared-back aesthetic. Moderation has no place this season. Instead, optimism is expressed in ostentatious embellishment and kaleidoscopic colour, and excess is a signal of aesthetic excellence.
Anything goes as long as it is exuberant. This was symbolised sublimely at Prada, where co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons layered up looks with shimmering sequins, retro intarsia knits and vivid Crayola colours. The most extravagant silhouette was a wrap jacket that cocooned the body in a double layer of protective paillettes and tactile fake fur. Emilio Pucci, a label that’s synonymous with glamorous getaway locations – be it sun-drenched Capri or snow-topped Gstaad – was also in the mood for extravagance. Its feather-trimmed transparent strap dress makes an exquisite party piece for jet-set style, whatever your location.
Roaring Twenties fashion: rip up your reductionist rule book
Stole, £1,100; dress, £7,500; gloves, £650, Prada
Meanwhile, Salvatore Ferragamo was more fascinated by space travel, drawing on interstellar references for its fashionable vision of the future, which spanned Gattaca and Blade Runner. For his final collection for the house, Paul Andrew drew on the ‘Rainbow’ wedge shoe that the Florentine brand’s founder designed for Judy Garland in 1938, presenting its spectrum of colours as a symbol of hope. The collection abounded in ebullient hues, with whole ensembles imagined in monochromatic shades, including cerulean, space-age silver and lilac.
Saint Laurent, likewise, offered a nod to the past as the brand’s artistic director Anthony Vaccarello fused 1960s silhouettes, including fur-trimmed tweed miniskirts, with bright 1980s tones, like fuschia and gold. Looks were layered up with lashings of mismatched costume jewellery, like rows of rhinestones cascading from ears and chokers blooming with twinkling flowers.
Dress, £1,835; bag, £550; shoes, £535, Salvatore Ferragamo. ‘875’ Armchair, by Ico Parisi, for Cassina
Dress, price on request, Emilio Pucci. Shoes, £660, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Tights, £15, Falke
INFORMATION
This article appears in the September 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*269), now on newsstands and available for free download