Perhaps I have never apologized to you, my dear readers, for certain gaps that sometimes there are between one post and another; I’d like to guarantee a certain continuity to the blog but I’m not always able to do it, because I’m also doing other jobs and sometimes problems and thoughts keep me away. This is one of those moments, so forgive me, I still try to be there, how and when I can.
One of my other occupations is also to follow the various international fashion week; I follow them for a specialized magazine but I also follow them because only in this way I can know if mainstream fashion also includes and therefore considers eco-designers (as happened at Milan Fashion Week for Tiziano Guardini) or if some luxury brands start using techniques and / or sustainable materials in their collections.
It was therefore a pleasure to see that more and more designers, and I refer both to historical brands of prêt-à-porter and to more recent but trendy brands, especially among young people, have begun to develop a certain sensitivity in this sense, convincing also the management of the various fashion houses to embrace a certain type of policy.
Today I want to give two examples that come from diametrically opposed brands in many ways but whose choices made in their last collection surprised me pleasantly.
The first is Sonia Rykiel, a historic French fashion house founded by the homonymous designer in the late 60s, which immediately focused on knitwear, then on wool, giving it the same importance that the other designers normally reserved for the finest fabrics. Rykiel died two years ago and today the creative direction of the brand is in the hands of Julie de Libran who, at the last Paris Fashion Week, ended a few days ago, presented a collection dedicated to the Saint Germain district and especially to the organic market of Sunday.
Already the show notes showed that it was the first collection that consistently used ‘kinder materials to the Planet’. Which ones? Organic leather, with which she realized, for example, dresses made of fringed macramé, recycled polyester and the recycled market canopies for shoppers. Kudos to de Libran therefore, for convincing the Sonia Rykiel business side that sustainability is a needed breakthrough. What we hope now is that the choice is consistent and it will be taken. Therefore, let’s wait for the next collection.
Off-White c / o Virgil Abloh is instead the brand founded by Virgil Abloh, an American designer (of the moment) of Ghanaian origins, a true multifaceted, as he loves self-defining, artist, since in addition to being a designer, is dee-jay, creative consultant of Kanye West, perfumer, owner of his own brand, cool creative director of Louis Vuitton man and, which does not hurt, graduated in engineering with master’s degree in architecture (and also received a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package for the role of art director of the 2011 Watch the Throne album by Jay-Z / Kanye West). And he is just 38 years old. This enfant prodige to 360 °, has become, together with its label, a global phenomenon; Off-White’s deluxe streetwear drives young people crazy, for example, if Abloh launches a trend, be sure it will create thousands, or rather, millions of followers in a nano-second.
At the last Parisian fashion shows, his collection, ‘Track and Field’, has imposed itself because full of sportswear with ultra-performing technical garments, with the captivating addition of sartorial elements and grande soirée tulle, so impossible not to conquer the various Millennials and Centennial. But what we liked most is the upcycled garments, made with a collage of Nike socks (another brand with which Abloh collaborates), not only sustainable but also beautiful to look at.
Then a world giant like Nike, however not new to sustainable practices, promotes them through collaborations with cool and very popular designers as Virgil Abloh, is a further positive fact, because it involves the vast world of sport and of course the very young.
Also in this case we hope that there is a continuity, we will keep an eye on the work of Abloh, assuming that we can follow him in all his various activities! 😅 But fashion is enough for us.