“I’m a passionate gardener!” enthused Angela Missoni, looking radiant at today’s presentation, surrounded by plants of every possible species and greenery of every possible shade piled up in Missoni’s airy showroom. “It runs in the family—we all love flowers, plants, vegetable gardens, anything green. Even my 8-year-old grandson Otto is becoming a connoisseur! My parents went regularly to the Chelsea Flower Show in London; they even had a rose named after them. My late father Ottavio loved to order huge heaps of bulbs: Once he gave me as a gift a box full of narcissuses, which I planted. They’ve bloomed beautifully ever since; every time I look at them, I think of him.”
Missoni could talk for hours talking about her gardening skills; knowing about her passion, it seemed appropriate that the collection was dedicated to an urban gardener. “My mother, Rosita, called my father ‘her gardener,’” she said with tenderness. She didn’t say the collection was dedicated to him, but you could easily picture the tall, handsome patriarch wearing the colorful jumpsuit woven with the typical Missoni technique, with threads dyed in 137 different colors to achieve a bright madras pattern. It was Angela’s favorite look from the new collection. “Its production is so time-consuming, it’s not possible to have more than a very limited number made,” she said, pointing also at a featherweight, short sweater-blouson made with the same technique.
Missoni’s style has always been intrinsically easy and effortless, way before the term became a mantra for labels trying, with obvious efforts, to capture that very natural effortlessness. The same inimitable flair was at work in the color palette: lavender, periwinkle, indigo, cherry blossom, apricot, shadow blue, mint, bamboo, and red birch fabrics were dyed, blended, and then washed to achieve a faded, almost blurred effect, as if it were a new, unique hue whose essence wouldn’t be easy to replicate.
Shapes were kept relaxed for maximum comfort; linen safari jackets, shop coats, and slouchy utility pants had a lived-in feel, as if they’d been part of a well-worn wardrobe for quite a while. Cotton crepes, lightweight wools, jute, and washed denim conveyed a sense of a light, summery mood. There was nothing hip, nothing trendy, nothing loud, showy, or overworked; that wouldn’t have been Missoni. It was a confident look exuding a calm, joyful vibe, like a well-tended garden in spring.
