"Taking a spiritual rest in nature," was Tomas Maier's intent with Bottega Veneta's Spring collection for men. And if that sounded like Reese Witherspoon ready to go Wild on the West Coast, then that wasn't such a wrong note for Maier to strike. The music struck those same chords too, Steve Mackey's soundtrack chiming like a Windham Hill record, the waves and wind adding to a perfect aural backdrop for a hike through the redwoods. Except it wasn't New Age totem Windham Hill, it was actually snatches from Touching the Void and Kundun, and both pieces of music cued something more extreme. Something "wild," in fact.
Maier has always loved clothes that look like they've lived. The knits with their necklines stretched out were a great example here. And with this collection, he also had a ready-made, all-weather, all-terrain scenario. But he came at it from a surprising angle. The silhouettes—parkas and fitted pants with snapped hems and quilted jackets—suited the story and, yes, there were a few of the technical pieces you might expect: Some of the pants were fleece, for instance, and trekking boots featured among the footwear (very attractive they were too). The striated quilting effects on plush blousons looked like water or wind running through sand. That was outdoorsy.
But Maier was also fiercely attached to the shiny fluidity of cupro, an unusual fabric to see in a collection which its designer spoke of as a return to an elemental mood. Cupro looks good at night, in a disco. Here, it loaned a languid, jewel-toned, almost-decadent edge, like a last gasp of the world our seeker for inner peace might be trying to leave. As airy-fairy as that idea sounds, it does acknowledge the curious tension that always crouches at the heart of a Maier collection. Likewise a teal blue blazer that sat at the end of the show like a gorgeous alien chick in a nest of ticking-stripe quilting and repurposed militarywear. Maybe Maier was acknowledging his man wants his inner peace without actually relinquishing his good old bad time.
A literal footnote: Socks and sandals, once voted worst fashion faux pas, reign supreme in Milan as the footwear of choice for Spring 2016. German package tourists will be the very height of chic come next summer.
