A photo of Diana Vreeland wearing a kimono, smiling with a glint in her eye was among the images on Albino Teodoro’s mood board backstage. “She was elegant but always with an ironic streak; this irony is what I aim for with my collections,” said the designer, who also turned to “visionarism,” a movement he explained that pairs modern technology, such as Photoshop, with past art works, presented in contemporary, industrial spaces. And so he did, showing high-definition jacquards with Ottoman patterns on voluminous, Renaissance and couture-like shapes, or technical trenches alongside liquid sequined dresses. Teodoro revisited checkered men’s wear fabrics on pencil skirts or oversize, boxy jackets.
Teodoro played with the feminine/masculine or constructed/deconstructed dichotomy. He embellished a handkerchief skirt with jewels, added ruffles on the front of simple dresses and piled on the embroideries on a taffeta coat. But he also showed a beautiful and severe buttoned dark cape as well as a feather-light, no-frills boxy down jacket. Touches of pink, yellow, mustard, ochre and gold revved up the designer’s palette of fall colors. The collection looked well thought out and reflected Teodoro’s craft.