Davi Paris
Milan
Like every great disruption, the sea change in contemporary notions of masculine elegance has been good for some people and less so for others. In 2015, after a post at Armani followed by nearly a decade as head of tailoring at Gucci, Davide Marello became the first creative director of Boglioli in its history. He presented some strong collections – centred around soft-shouldered tailoring, naturally – but after a change of strategy in executive leadership Marello left the brand abr uptly in 2 017.
Just like the rest of us, Marello needs to eat. He has applied for other design gigs. But, he says: “Every time +I do interviews with companies, they put you in a box. They think because your experience is in tailoring, that is the total of y our skill.”
Which is why in April 2018 Marello – who moved to Paris from Milan after his Boglioli contract ended – decided to seize his own destiny. Launched last June following an intense two months of development, the fir st collection by Davi Par is is a cool collection of made-in-Italy cotton and viscose separates in lushly rendered prints. Its elegance is informal yet elevated. There is not a tailor ed shoulder in sight.
Says Marello: “I moved to Paris on instinct – I have always wanted to live here – and I developed this collection on instinct too, to bring something of myself into the clothes. I’ve tr ied to create prints in which the movement of the brush is visible, in which you can see the mark of the hand. Fashion is a social statement, a way to communicate your personality, and for an artist the illustration is a way to communicate.” As tools for the expression of personal elegance in 2019, Davi Paris’s pieces are, by design, a fine option. “Elegance used to be about rules, now it’s about not following any defined rules. Instead it’s about reflecting your character, so everybody has to build his own way to be elegant.”
As Davi Paris expands, expect more expressively artistic prints that are easy to wear and hard not to look at. Marello is determined to demonstrate that if you heed the winds of change rather than fight against them, adversity can be tur ned into tr iumph.