Pal Zileri SS18
Enhancing its solid tailoring legacy and deep ties to Vicenza and the Veneto region, the Pal Zileri SS18 collection drew from its archives and from the beauty of Venice.
The starting point for the new season were the swatch books culled from the archives, dated between the Eighties and Nineties. Here, the check emerged as the pattern of choice, a fil-rouge revisited to create a sophisticated and contemporary sartorial story that exalts Pal Zileri’s tradition and know-how.
In assorted sizes and shapes, from gingham to glen plaid to tattersall, structured or featherlight, checks seamlessly fused with Pal Zileri’s homage to Venice, inspired by its vibrant golden years and its glamour, from the Grand Canal to the Lido.
The colors were true emblems of the Lagoon city. Blue dominated in liquid shades, from azure to indigo. Similarly, Venetian red, which blurred into nuances of sunset orange and antique gold, and Laguna Grey were gently infused throughout, rendered with a sundrenched, subtly timeworn hand that felt summery, fresh and refined.
Kiton SS18
The new collection was the result of careful research that reinterprets the concept of timeless elegance, enriching it with new stylish details and applying it to all product categories: tailoring, sportswear and accessories.
The suit once again confirmed its status as the season’s must-have item, the quintessential garment in a man’s wardrobe. Blue was the main colour and appeared in all its different shades, a chromatic frame ideally suited to containing micro-patterns and imperceptible designs.
Etro Menswear SS18
Etro’s SS18 collection was an homage to the spiritual wanderers of the psychedelic generation who made their pilgrimages in the ‘60s from the shores of Goa to the Himalayan foothills. Kean Etro took us on a vividly colourful journey to this moment of collective awakening. Pulling from the classic imagery of Indian mysticism and the esoteric imagination, talismans and deities make their presence known.
Fabrics were inspired by Kean Etro’s grandfather, a textile dealer, who would spend the dry season in Madras alongside local weavers that would assemble their looms outside to work freely in the fresh air. The impurities woven into the fabric in these impromptu workshops would give each yard of fabric its own unique fingerprint – a DNA specific to Madras that Etro has arduously recreated inch by inch in his own Italian atelier. Colours have been exactingly studied to create dyes that preserve the essence of the collection’s spiritual home: coral, tangerine, turquoise and fuchsia work in contrast with earthier shades of brown, military green and bronze.
Materials were intentionally informal but meticulously wrought. Linen featured heavily: lightweight blazers, screen printed with a sonorous, multi-coloured paisley pattern or richly coloured Madras checks benefit from a flexible linen-viscose composition. Combined with raw wool, plaid suiting retained the structure of a heavier blend but remained light enough for warmer months. Rumpled light brown trousers composed of a cotton-linen mix kept their leisurely tousled texture. Linen and rayon shirting maintained a handwoven aesthetic, woven with contrasting colours to produce a three-dimensional tone. A simple blazer in lush cotton was radiant in all over paisley print, featuring archive patterns from Etro’s ‘60s-era inception.
