Massimo Giorgetti’s second mainline collection for Emilio Pucci opened with an audio spoken word piece. A list of intentions played throughout the venue: ‘I want to hold, I want to tell, I want to learn, I want to know, I want to control, I want to feel, I want to want, to finish, to forget, to get rid of, I want to get on top of it. I want to accomplish mastery.’ The off beat-ness of eccentric ambition continued, as stilted accordion melodies jigged - whilst the models arrived - followed by the discipline imbued sound of piano played arpeggios.
Via the voice of a young and determined female, the designer laid his professional soul bare. All masters never stop being a student - and although Giorgetti may be far from a master yet his transparency and dedication in answering the brief of carrying forth Emilio Pucci into a new era was an honest admission of the task which lies ahead.
In the show notes, the words DYNAMISM, TODAY, LIBERATE, and NOW were all in capital letters.
The words from the spoken word piece, ‘to finish, to forget, to get rid of’, also heralded a line drawing of sorts, yet in the show notes - and through the designs - it was very clear that the past was also being very much respected. To take the past and transform it so it becomes something new is something several key designers are diving into right now. However, despite fashion’s love for historicism, Pucci’s jet-set legacy feels a little out of kilter with the fantastical wonderings of the dressing up box. What Giorgetti cleverly did today was lift off Pucci’s jet engines - and have them soar beyond the stratosphere. Who needs to be thinking just of the ski-slopes, when – as the designer said – you can be thinking of ‘Mars landings’ too? Teaming the alpine with the intergalactic, the designer also slid the referencing to the far side of the sixties, beyond Pucci's iconic Branniff Airlines collaboration of 1965 (always worth a Google). We moved into the seventies, creeping out of traditional Pucci territory - it helps the house feel more undone, and relevant again. What sixities gems Giorgetti did bank on this season were silhouettes, which were either second skin tight, or BIG (another set of show note capital letters), cocooning the form in voluminous and oversized coats, knits and puffas.
Otherwise, away from the utopian perfection of the Pucci world in the fifties and sixties, the house was free to mish-mash it’s own kaleidoscopic prints with a more irreverent spirit. Avoiding the ‘put together’ look of its society hey days, the house is rightly now focusing on customers having fun with its pieces – on their own terms. Performance has always been a key value of Pucci’s heritage – but today’s Pucci woman is free to skew this notion. Performance fabrics don’t need to mean control, they can portray the beautiful imperfections of her character – and life in general. Case in point? In the fifties, Emilio Pucci used his inventive stretch fabrics to create a line of wrinkle-free printed silk blouses. Today, many fabrics – including velvet, metallic silver lame - were DELIBERATELY (capital letters my own) wrinkled, crackled or embossed.
However, practice makes perfect – and Giorgetti’s goals were never to be fully realised in one season. Areas for improvement within the collection include the pyjamas. The fabrics were too stiff, patterned and oversized – one of these qualities needs to drop to increase wearability. One also really wants to love the shiny satin logo tees, because the ruched sleeves are super cool, and fit with the now – but they were the wrong side of irony. Exciting fashion is currently so very loud. We really don’t need logos.
