N21Fall/Winter 2021
An insight into the recovery of physicality after months of forced digitization and requisite social distancing. The N21 collection for fall/winter 2021-22 springs from a powerful attraction, an instance of fascination. It also proposes a particular method. From the atmospheres perceived in the polaroid shots of Carlo Mollino, great Italian designer, architect and photographer eclectic of personality, comes the redefinition of a physicality that becomes expression of the modest and intuitively felt sensuality typical of the Italian bourgeoisie; from a request for physicality come the redesign of a snug silhouette and the reassuring touch of natural materials; from a return to physicality comes the need to express oneself through striking, eye catching details: sheer fabrics, lace cloth, glimpses of underwear, hints of lingerie, shiny surfaces. As for the method, it’s emblematic of a clearly Italian project: one that combines, brings together as a whole, apparently contrasting elements. For this N21 collection that means envisioning a human figure which all while involving two genders uses the same clothes to convey their differences. With elements measured, interpreted, underlined for women and for men.
‘A Carlo Mollino photograph got me to thinking about a form of aesthetics that the great Italian architect imbued also into the attitudes and postures of the women he photographed in settings he constructed with his eclectic vision. I wanted to transfer into my collection the same eccentric eroticism, a typically Italian sense of eroticism holding all in one both modesty and desire to draw attention. That’s the starting point for a very “clean” inflection of the eccentric side to the bourgeoisie consisting of lace bras peeking through a cardigan, see-through elements emerging quite by chance, a wish for physicality and nudity which find innocence precisely in the nonchalance of intent. It’s a collection that’s built not around “double meanings” open to interpretation but around direct words providing women and men the chance to show themselves for how they want to be.’
