The Attico’s show was exactly what Milan needed: a combination of luscious fashion with a dash of eccentricity, top-notch casting, a simple yet impactful set-up and a sprinkle of a collaboration on top.
With their sophomore runway show, designers Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini, who built a cult brand out of women’s aspiration to be effortlessly fabulous and part of the cool clique — like them — added the missing component to the picture-perfect aesthetic they’ve been building since 2016: vulnerability.
Ahead of the show, they revealed to have both recently experienced a heartbreak, “have seen failure and felt it on our skin like broken shards of glass.” The personal yet universal narrative naturally trickled into their collection, with the crystals galore, sheer textures and transparencies that usually convey the brand’s bold and fierce attitude, here layered with a softer patina, symbolically nodding to the way the founders exposed their feelings.
Catharsis through creativity is not new practice, but the duo’s take on it charmed thanks to its coherence with The Attico’s glamorous ethos. The woman they sent down the catwalk was neither defeated, nor needing to prove herself to others, albeit her eye-catching fashion might at first suggest otherwise.
Walking to the evocative lyrics of Michelle Gurevich’s “Party Girl,” the likes of Vittoria Ceretti, Irina Shayk and Amelia Gray displayed a collection that played on the brand’s duality between high-octane seduction and daytime casual, daring partywear and sassy sportswear.
Sparkly beaded tops, sensual lace frocks and asymmetric minidresses rendered in metallic hues had a distressed feel, their fringed textures and embroideries intentionally falling apart. The undone attitude was reinforced in looks with skirts barely hanging from vintage corsetry and lingerie juxtaposed with oversized leather biker jackets, hoodies, anoraks and roomy track pants, which injected edge in the lineup. Sport bras, leotards and sneakers teased the second chapter of The Attico’s collaboration with Nike, after a cobranded Nike Cortez style was released over the summer.
A barely-there dress covered in crystal fringe and a crystal cobweb layered on black underwear were also hard to miss and winked to the differently shaped chandeliers hanging down the ceiling of the industrial venue.
“This is no revenge dressing,” ensured Ambrosio backstage. For the duo, it’s sparking a new awareness that fragility is strength by letting fab clothes do the talking.