A lot of what you see at the menswear shows is the byproduct of mathematical calculation. How much did that house pay for its celebrities, its casting, its campaign, its PR team? Can the collection make enough to earn that back? Not every designer, however, lives according to that equation. Massimo Alba, a poet to his core, is one of the exceptions.
For his spring 24 collection he considered the Alda Merini bridge near the house’s studio in Milan’s Navigli. Named after the poet and writer, who passed away in 2009, the bridge allows people to cross from one side of the canal to another and is rammed at weekends with locals and visitors alike. Alba being Alba, he seized on the notion of human connection through poetry, prose, and clothes and then: “embarked on a journey into love.”
At an event at that studio last night a group of industry friends read their favorite poems on the soundtrack of a film that showcased Alba’s latest collection. This was a fresh stanza in his ongoing quest to meld high levels of sophistication and craft with a deformalized and bohemian point of view. Construction-free tailoring in lightweight cottons, often garment-dyed, were laid over silk shirting in tile-like checks and polka dots. Cardigans, polos, swimming shorts, and leisure suits punctuated the main thrust of it. This collection represented no great twist in Alba’s work, but that was immaterial: Alba’s poetic nature and expertise in craft, both of which come embedded in the menswear, makes revisiting them a reliable pleasure.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
