LONDON — Frida Giannini has been laying low, but is finally ready to step back into the spotlight, on her own rock star terms.
The former Gucci creative director has been working on Hypernova 150, a bespoke collective from Liberty London celebrating the department store’s 150th anniversary. As the creative director of the project, she’s designed 40 pieces of ready-to-wear that span from dresses and coats to accessories.
It’s a Giannini project from the heart. She’s invited her friend and ‘90s model, Yasmin Le Bon to feature in the campaign to the soundtrack of “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran. The model is married to the lead vocalist Simon Le Bon.
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“No one else was making me feel butterflies in my stomach [the way Liberty did]. Liberty has always been my final destination in London and I was always there when I used to work at Gucci in London with Tom Ford,” the Italian designer said in an interview, lighting up a cigarette.
Every time she visits the department store, she hikes up its wooden stairs instead of taking the elevators. She’s still enchanted by the history surrounding the building and the smell of the timber wood staircases.
Giannini wanted to honor Liberty’s rich British history in her collection and the movements that its windows have witnessed, from the slick aesthetic of the Mods in the late ‘50s to the colorful prints of the Swinging ’60s.
A starting point was the Union Jack flag. “You can find the Union Jack in any cheap store in the U.K., but I wanted mine to explode like a hypernova, creating more than a thousand stars,” she said, referring to her faded design of the Union Jack with tints of bronze, gold and purple, Liberty’s signature color.
Giannini borrowed another trope of the British Empire, the reefer jacket, a version of a peacoat with gold buttons and epaulettes usually worn by an officer. Her design uses the Union Jack for the lining that Yasmin Le Bon wears in the campaign with a Breton T-shirt, white trousers and riding boots.
She made two more versions of the coat, one in black velvet with matching buttons and trims and another in a cropped style in red velvet.
Giannini stayed clear of Liberty’s floral prints. “I told them, ‘Listen, you’re famous for flowers. I will not make any flowers.’”
There’s a slight nod to nature in the logo she designed for the location, the letter L pressed against each other in two fonts, serif and sans-serif. The former imitates delicate shoots off of a vine tree.
“One is the past, the other is the future, they represent those two things,” Giannini said, hinting at her past with Gucci and Fendi, where the double letters are used.
Adil Mehboob-Khan, Liberty London’s chief executive officer, said the collaboration with the designer was to create a “creative partner with a historical lens on our heritage, someone who could draw from it without being intimidated by it.”
He added that the brand’s 150th anniversary is a moment of reflection and momentum.
Mehboob-Khan revealed that the retail business is 60 percent larger today than it was pre-pandemic. The growth has been driven by Liberty’s own brand line, which now represents 30 percent of the business.
Giannini’s hiatus from designing has been a bittersweet one. She has spent the last four years taking care of her ill mother, but she still keeps her ears and eyes to the fashion ground. She’s curious and excited about the changes and challenges of the luxury market and fashion’s musical chairs with the debuts of new designers at more than 10 brands including Gucci, Jil Sander, Versace, Bottega Veneta, Dior, Chanel, Loewe, Balenciaga, Maison Margiela, Mugler, Jean Paul Gaultier and Carven.
Giannini wants to see more women in the top designer positions, however.
“I grew up in a company of females with the Fendi sisters and at Gucci, there were a lot of female managers at the time. In my design studio I had 90 designers and half of them were girls, but I can see that today [overall], there is not a hint of a female touch [at all the brands],” she said.
She sympathizes with the designers of today and the tough climate.
“In the past few years, there have been some poor management choices, but then the designers get accused of the mistakes. I’ve worked for all the group umbrellas and I know all the mechanisms of it,” Giannini said, cheekily adding that she made a bet with her friends about which designer debuts will succeed.
She believes that luxury is losing out by copying the fast-fashion model.
“In the hard moments, businesses have to be brave and dare a little. People are also getting bored with the huge surge prices that are not affordable to anyone now,” Giannini said.
She argues that the art of craftsmanship has been lost at many brands and it needs to be reinstated as part of the culture.
The designer might give off a rock star vibe with her nonchalant image, but deep inside, craftsmanship is near and dear to her heart, like the thousands of vinyl records she’s collected throughout her career.