This weekend in Milan, one could catch up on everything from masterly Milanese accessories to uber quiet luxury, to young foreign hopefuls. We did with Valextra, Loro Piana, and Salinas.
Valextra: Tapping into wider culture
Few brands anywhere are quite as in sync with their local artistic culture as Valextra, which unveiled multiple fresh ideas inside a via Manzoni store – flourishing amid the best of Italian mid century designs.
The house presented its streamlined new Hobo, an over-the-shoulder bag made in a new leather, ‘Millepunti Morbido’, meaning soft thousand points, a more malleable version of its classic grainy leather. Shown beside retro futurist stamping lamps and a perfectly restored gun metal gray Lambretta scooter. Oh, to be a mod again!
Under its uber innovative CEO Xavier Rougeaux, Valextra also recently opened a very novel store in Kyoto – which operates as a gallery of the brands history, and dialogue between creative arts in Milan and Japan. Named ‘Casa Valextra’, the new boutique is inside a traditional house, whose exterior was left completely untouched. Inside, instead, the marque interacts with local artisans in skillfully dyed tatami mats and hangings, beside Gabriele Crespi Bohemian lounge chairs and Gianfranco Frattini padded chairs.
At the opening, Rougeaux met a local artisan, recognizing him with his indigo-stained fingers, igniting a project to create indigo dyed cotton Valextra bags. Finished with surgically precise hardware, in a classic Iside bag and a small clutch. Both presented between an indigo ceramic sculpture of a braying horse by Gio Ponti and a dark psychedelic resin urn by Gaetano Pesce. Close by, new black and white variations of the Iside bag, suggested the geometric graphics for which Italian art directors are famed.
Rougeaux also teamed Valextra up with a local metal-working artisan to create a gold varnished steel mini Iside bag. A beautifully grainy object in an impeccable presentation.
J. Salinas: Andean attitude
Good to see the fashion scene in Milan being renewed by fresh blood, like J Salinas, a Peruvian brand that staged a comeback show Saturday lunchtime.
An eye-opening show in terms of the tremendous woolen fabrics, ironically staged inside the Istituto dei Ciechi, or Blind Institute.
What worked best were the cable wool coats and cardigans supplied by Andean weaving committees. Highly sustainable fabrics handcrafted by local artisans from the provinces of Huancayo, Puno and Huancavelica. Founder Jorge Luis Salinas clearly understands these materials, sending out jackets and sweaters with peak shoulders and tulip sleeves; or mini cocktails paired with capes that were all very impressive.
He also broke new ground with ruffled and fan shapes chiffon tops and a series of flor de la patata flower prints seen in trousers suits and cut with faux holsters.
An original take on fashion, adding to the melting pot that Milan has increasingly become, as designers who might previously have shown in UK pre-Brexit now come to more welcoming Italy.
Loro Piana: All in the family
It felt like all in the family at Loro Piana, in the brand’s first presentation inside its new headquarters, a looming palazzo on via della Moscova.
With the house about to start celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of its fabric mill, Loro Piana feted the personal style of its founding family in this season’s collection. A large installation within the palazzo’s courtyard also boasted extensive fabric archives and hundreds of thread spools.
Along with some very fine fashion. Like a delightfully natty blazer in chardon or thistle – fabric that is a meeting of herringbone and window pane check – which was the picture of gentlemanly chic. Playing on the family habit of lifting up the lapels of their jackets when they hung them up at night, the better to protect their shape, the jacket had its lapels up and was pinned by a gold chardon.
The brand also had an intriguing new idea in marketing. This weekend Loro Piana took over an old city center Milanese news kiosk, turning into a billboard for its latest campaign and a boutique offering carefully arranged bunches of thistles.
A sturdy flower with longevity, just like Loro Piana, a very quiet luxury label that is very quietly doing amazingly well. Matter of fact, without making too much of a fuss, it’s one of the fastest growing brands in LVMH.
Sometimes a little discretion does pay.
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