THE FASHION MANIFESTO
Vogue looks back at autumn/winter ’20/’21 with the hindsight and unique perspective of now to decipher a season manifesto.
One certainty on the road to the future is the agency we have over our own wardrobes. Vogue looks back at autumn/winter ’20/’21 with the hindsight and unique perspective of now to decipher a season manifesto – think of it as a style statement of intent – and take the reins on who we want to be, and how to dress for a new world. By Alice Birrell.
ODE TO JOY
Though the fantastical gowns of red-carpet proportions were dreamt up prior to a global pandemic, there lies in their abundant skirts and gleaming adornments a clear-eyed belief in the joy of dressing up. Being well turned-out takes thought and care, seen in Gucci’s churchgoers, Simone Rocha’s pristinely prim smocks and Molly Goddard’s gossamer tiers. Defiance now includes a pleasure in the ritual of piecing together a look with an after-eight feel, no matter where we’re headed. Call it a roaming romanticism for the freewheeling freedom we will forever be able to enjoy in the mind’s eye, until we can return, with abandon, to occasions worthy of floor-sweeping trains and Watteau-scale silhouettes.
ACT GLOBAL
It is all about fashion with a gentler impact: sticking together and pursuing practices that spark a positive ripple effect, celebrating our makers, our precious resources, our individuality and our diversity.
THE MAKERS
“My uneven heartbeats and my thrills”– Alessandro Michele
The people behind the scenes were revealed this season, especially at Gucci’s backstage-as-centrestage mise-en-scène where final adjustments were made by dressers. Craftsmanship and the beauty of the process were also valued at Loewe, where dresses were panelled with the work of Japanese ceramicist Takuro Kuwata, and at Dolce & Gabbana, which showcased the sensory work of artigiani (artisans), including la sarta
(the seamstress), la magliaia (the knitter) and la tessitrice (the weaver). In the show notes at Gucci, Michele continued: “It caresses a nostalgia of the human, that others call imperfection. It sews, with the accuracy of love, the tiniest details of the scene, in order to offer them to a community of interpreters … may the miracle of skillful hands and holding breath come out of the shadows.” The beauty of creation.
THE UPCYCLERS
“They are basically our new furs,” said Francesco Risso of the coats pieced together from cast-off Venetian hand-loomed velvet at Marni. The feeling of DIY and beauty in happenstance saw designers like Risso, and young guard thinkers like Chopova Lowena and Marine Serre, redefining what we understand to be luxury. Subtle irregularities gave character to John Galliano’s ‘Recicla’ line within Maison Margiela, made from re-cut charity shop finds and restored wicker bags from the 20s to the 70s – with the labels showing provenance and date stamped. Sarah Burton continued the theme, using past collections’ offcuts of British wool flannel, inspired by The Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt, a piece of art fashioned at night over a 10-year period from 1842 by a tailor using recycled scraps of the woollen cloths he used by day.
BE A SMART INVESTOR
We’d call it a return, but classicism has been a persistent vein in fashion, just appearing in various permutations, from austere but stealthily elevated 90s minimalism to the luxurious ease cropping up with The Row’s modern sculpting, Daniel Lee’s razor-sharp modernity in Bottega Veneta’s tailored pieces and the pitch-perfect, meditative minimalism at Jil Sander. Now is the time to buy with purpose and call it your smartest investment. A time of pause is ripe to lay wardrobe bedrock.
TAKE COVER
The craving for comfort is a human reaction, one understood by designers who offered up ways to bundle, cradle and pad in fuzz-ball outer layers, plumped puffers, head coverings and colossal knits.
THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
With this year’s release of Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful, the power of provocation returns to the fore. Designers couldn’t have predicted the future, but their use of lingerie elements – harnesses, skin-framing cut-outs, incursions of lace – are the very same women everywhere have been topping up on in lockdown. Not to mention colour, like the incarnadine red of Saint Laurent’s latex leggings, the shade favoured by Velazquez and close to the red of a human flush. Contentment in the present is easy in theory, but prioritising moments of joy, and pleasure, is a path to instant escape.