For more than 40 years, Anna Molinari’s leitmotif has been the rose, and today’s show was no exception. Roses—whether yellow, pink, or blue—were trellised in print across pretty silk dresses, on mid-length shearling jackets, on gauzily sheer pants and jumpsuits, and as an embroidery on an excellently cut blue suit.
The rose is the most fundamental floral emblem in the romantic dialect: the flower of Valentine’s Day. Sappho, Burns, Blake, Shakespeare, and several anthologies’ worth of other love-minded poets have used the rose as a vehicle for written seduction. Blumarine, you’d think, picks roses with conventional intent.
Backstage, however, Molinari was less delicate petal than she was righteous thorn. She said: “Yes, the collection might appear to be ‘feminine’ and sweet, especially with all the roses. But look at this [she gestured at a very vaguely military blue shearling] and these [the scattering of trousers in the collection]. As women, we are oppressed by the world around us and we have to say enough with being victims. I wanted to show an image not just of beauty, but of strength. My message is a social and political one.”
To build and maintain her company in Milan’s male-dominated milieu, Molinari must surely know a thing or two about kicking against the pricks. This collection served as her declaration that strength isn’t something you wear, it’s something you are: She never promised you a rose garden.
