Gabriele Colangelo made his first trip to Tokyo recently, and the experience stuck with him. "I was so impressed that when I came back, I couldn't clear it out of my head," he said. It was probably inevitable that even as his business in Milan ramps up—he was speaking from his new, larger showroom—a trip like that would seep its way into his collection. Colangelo translated the traditional shibori-dyed pieces he saw in Japan into their contemporary equivalent: Pass on the time-intensive shibori process, bring on the polyurethane. The poly-splashed pieces, intended to simulate the effect of the wax used in shibori, fit nicely into the lexicon of his prints. A bit trickier were some of the shapes and cuts he introduced, like an articulated sleeve he called a "suspended shoulder," which mimicked the cut of a kimono but lost some of its natural elegance. On the whole, his simpler shapes and subtler experiments won the day, like the pieces cold-dyed to produce an irregular, mottled effect.
