MFW-No.21

 

Alessandro Dell’Acqua had a nice take on two of the season’s trends: baroque decoration and sporty influences. On paper, the two notions really ought to be diametrically opposed, but Dell’Acqua’s No. 21 collection always strikes a balance that never loses the sense of his own personality and design signatures. “I wanted to do casual shapes with a kind of Italian neoclassicism in the fabrics,” he said before the show. “I come from Naples, where there’s a Southern sensuality. So I worked on the idea of big T-shirts with wide sleeves, but with pencil skirts to make it sexy.” There was a briskness about it, and a modernity, that makes this collection a breath of fresh air in a city dominated by many more weighty brands.

The baroque side of the equation came, at first, in a graphic digital print of a dancing Renaissance nymph implanted on the front of a short vibrant blue tabard skirt with a curved hem banded in white and then on an oversize T-shirt-dress. Later, he brought in ornate Italian brocade, contradicting its richness—and making it wearable for day—by cutting it into boxy dresses and shirts, and, in a couple of cases, stamping it with bold, rubberized red stripes. What you can’t see from the front-on pictures is that Dell’Acqua is one of those designers who likes to contradict a plain front with a different backview. When his models turned, the audience saw that several of the clean, sporty pieces had sheer lace panels in the back. As someone who’s always referenced lingerie in his work, that’s the kind of knack Dell’Acqua’s followers are going to like.