As fashion’s road show shifts to Continental Europe, here are three brands to watch during Milan Fashion Week beginning today.
Following the departure of creative director Pablo Coppola, Bally is gearing up to introduce both its men’s and women’s collections with a single presentation to be held on Thursday at Milan’s prestigious Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense library.
“Bally has evolved its single creative director model to embrace a ‘creative collective’ comprised of three design heads for shoes, accessories and ready-to-wear. This will refresh the way of working on the development of the collections, fostering the collaboration among creative talents inside and outside the company and merchandising,” said Bally chief executive officer Frédéric de Narp, explaining the new organization of the brand.
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While a big focus was put on rtw over the last few seasons, Bally is going back to its roots for fall, shining the spotlight back onto accessories.
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“Bally is built on a legacy of luxury leather goods and this is where the strength of the business lies,” de Narp said. “Design will continue to focus on creating a vibrant selection of fashion accessories, with shoes and bags at the center, and in growing the women’s offer.’’
For fall, the creative team evoked the mood of a gentleman’s club in the Seventies in New York City with gambling, cigar smoke, whiskey and card games, as well as personalities such as David Bowie and Mick Jagger as guests.
In terms of key women’s products, Bally evolved its Janelle footwear family to incorporate new versions of the best-selling babouche style shoe with two new heeled versions and the Belle bag, featuring the same archival buckle. The company also updated its successful B Turn, Sommet and Suzy bag, which are presented in new variations. Replicas of the diamond heart worn on a black choker by Bianca Jagger in the Seventies punctuate bags and shoes.
The men’s collection is more focused on an active urban lifestyle with sneakers, hiking boots and backpacks, covered with archive-inspired motifs and badges.
Asked about the commercial expansion of the brand, de Narp cited the U.S. as one of the most important markets for Bally.
“In April, we will open a new flagship store on New York’s Madison Avenue — following the opening of Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles early last year — marking Bally’s second flagship in the United States,” said de Narp. “This new store location, at a pivotal residential crossroads in New York’s Upper East Side, places us in the center of the city’s luxury retail district.”
ALANUI
Can a $12 oversize cotton cardigan be the starting point for a hot new brand? Yes, according to siblings Carlotta and Nicolò Oddi, the founders of Alanui. The brand, which offers luxurious belted cardigans, takes its name from a Hawaiian word that means “large path.”
“Nicolò gave me this cardigan he found in a vintage market in America and I brought it with me on a trip to Hawaii…. I used it at lot and people liked how I pulled it off,” explained Carlotta, who is a stylist and a street-style favorite. “When I came back, I told Nicolò and one year ago we decided to launch our brand focused on a single garment.”
While Carlotta takes care of the creative aspect, Nicolò, who works in their family’s company in a completely different sector, manages business and operations.
“It was totally new to me but I found it exciting,” said Nicolò. “The idea behind the brand is to offer an item which you can always bring with you, which accompanies you in your trips, like a sort of luxurious Linus’ security blanket.”
Alanui’s signature product is a unisex buttonless oversize cardigan embellished with fringes, a two-tone belt and a range of intarsia patterns, which celebrate Native American iconography. The cardigan is crafted from 2.2 pounds of Cariaggi cashmere and a total of 12 hours are necessary to knit and assemble the piece. Pockets have been added to the first release to make the cardigan more practical and functional.
Alanui’s offering features 19 carryover styles, which retail for 2,480 euros, or $2,615 at current exchange. For fall, the Oddi siblings are introducing a striped cardigan available in five color combinations, all with a jacquard belt; a cardigan, shown in white and black, embellished with lamé graphics in silver and gold; a hooded cardigan; a thick fisherman sweater decorated with fringes, as well as a fringed cable-knit maxi poncho with big pockets.
Alanui is currently sold at about 50 stores around the world, including Colette, Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman, Liberty London and Joyce Hong Kong, among others. The brand is available online exclusively at Net-a-porter.
CASADEI
Italian luxury footwear company Casadei has teamed with Russian model, socialite and fashion influencer Elena Perminova on a capsule collection to be presented in Milan on Thursday.
“We immediately clicked because she knew the brand already and we share the same values — as a man I liked to make women look beautiful but I’m also totally aware that they need to feel comfortable in their shoes,” said Cesare Casadei, creative director of his own label.
The designer explained that the capsule designed with Perminova “wants to be the perfect shoe wardrobe of a dynamic, international woman who travels around the world.”
In order to make the lineup versatile, Casadei and Perminova focused on traditional materials, neutral colors and styles.
The capsule includes five footwear styles — a leather lace-up combat boot with a nickel buckle, an ankle boot with a platform and a chunky heel, a pair of stiletto cuissardes, Casadei’s signature Blade pointe pump with ankle strap and a pair of sensual peep-toe, laced-up boots.
All the styles are worked in black, except for the Blade shoe, which comes in a light champagne tone. The collection, which will feature a dedicated label, will hit stores in June.
This year, Casadei will open two corners at La Rinascente stores in Milan and Rome, along with a unit in Moscow, which is expected to open in March. The brand, which is also scouting locations for a second store in Dubai, will launch a revamped web site this month.