The Sportmax design team doesn’t seem to fear a U-turn.
After last season’s all black and red runway and mischievously sensual designs, for spring the brand decked the Pinacoteca di Brera colonnaded courtyard in pristine white carpeting to parade a collection that charmed with its precision, crafty details and inherent duality of sharp and softer edges.
The show opened with drapey frocks, long and short, that reminded one of luxurious bed linen wrapped on the body and progressively heightened the craft quotient, first with a display of sartorial tropes such as sculptural blazers, razor-sharp tunic dresses with a plunging V-neck, drilled leather frocks and trenchcoats, the latter emphasizing the shoulders with rounded but structured silhouettes.
Amid such graphic precision, the first embellished number, a boxy top covered in dangling crystal beads worn with white undies, was the preface to an ebullient ornamental flair that burst onto the runway midway through the show, taking the audience by surprise.
Plied inventively and gracefully, rhinestone-rich harnesses and aprons gleamed from underneath shift dresses, diaphanous tops and caftans, the latter edged in beaded fringes. Second-skin knitted frocks and cropped tops and undies were textured or embellished with rocky crystals.
The movement enhanced the contrast at play, between the stiffness of the tailored concoctions and denim pieces — elongated jeans and constrictive bandeau tops — and the swaying grace of soft eveningwear.
“The collection invites to the infinite sensuality of the essential,” read the press notes.
Even if it has been somewhat hard to keep up with Sportmax’s character evolving every season, the spring iteration was alluring.