“Violence!” exclaimed Fausto Puglisi, plunging headfirst with gusto into a straightforward explanation of his men’s collection’s references and mood. He doesn’t mince words and he doesn’t skimp on controversy.
Puglisi is attracted to renegades, rebels, and outcasts; one of his most memorable presentations, staged in Florence during Pitti seasons ago, included a posse of muscular guys picked from a nearby jail. He doesn’t play it safe; Pre-Fall was no exception.
He tapped into the Italian hip-hop music scene and singled out a group of quite controversial rappers, who modeled in the lookbook. Heavily tattooed, their socially provocative, raw lyrics depict troubled and difficult backgrounds, hailing mostly from Southern Italy’s cities whose suburbs are often mafia-infested and extremely violent. Think Gomorra.
The look was obviously a celebration of the street style that Puglisi favors and which was hybridized and emblazoned with his usual excessive imagery: frames inspired by soft-core movies; Latin sentences; golden studs galore; posts from his own Instagram; metallic effigies of the sun and images of statuesque male bodies printed across mega-size sweatshirts and hoodies; extra-roomy silk shirts; and massive black leather biker jackets. It was a no-nonsense, rapper-esque wardrobe, hypercharged, Puglisi-style, with explosive energy.
