La Pelota, Milan

April 28th 2016

Milano Unica art director Stefano Fadda and his staff along with the noted fashion journalist Antonella Matarrese oversaw the work that stands out for its modernity and style. A completely innovative and highly conceptual work based on references to societal, artistic and fashion culture. Stefano Fadda with SGS Architetti Associati developed the exhibition concept. Ninety mannequins divided into three groups, each representing a trend. Every mannequin is dressed in a hand-painted poncho that displays a combination of fabrics and accessories (buttons, zippers, ribbons, etc.). As if it were an army ready to draw its weapons. Visually striking, loaded with references and suggestions that give free reign to creativity. Six big players participated in the comparison, each speaking a personal lexicon that combined into a narration of this edition’s trends, giving shape, word and sound to the “sublime side of elegance”: Burri and Piano, Fontana and Hokusai, Albini and Portaluppi.

Burri and Piano make us reflect on the power of raw materials and their poetic capability of transforming it. 

In the field of textile and accessories, this means maximum processing and experimentation in order to produce fabrics, buttons, labels and sophisticated edgings, pleasant to the touch, so rich to look like architectures.

Fontana and Hokusai, instead, are the alpha and omega of elegance. The black and white perfection of the Tao. Sharp cuts as opposed to beguiling and stormy curly waves. As fabrics, rich in embroidery and in laser cuts, revealing full-body cloth in contrast to hypermodern shaped and sophisticated multy-layered accessories.

On the other side, Albini and Portaluppi rely on lines and details, on the reinterpretation of the classics but in a less serious and more contemporary way. In a progression of symmetries, geometry games and prints which fully summarize the concept of the unique Italian excellence.