Massimo Nicosia looked to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and traditional knitwear patterns from the Isle of Skye for this attractive blend of heritage Hebridean piscatorial with carefully carefree Bloomsbury elan.
A striped linen-lined henley reinforced at the neck was one of a few pieces touched by a third element in this collection—the post–World War I bathing suits Nicosia had researched in the Victoria and Albert Museum archive.
Sanquhar pattern—which hails from around Pringle’s birthplace near Hawick, Scotland and was described by Nicosia as “a two-color Fair Isle that comes with little diamond checks”—was incorporated into a series of beautifully fashioned computer-drafted sweaters in red and white or monochrome which occasionally featured darned patches. These were worn under twill cotton macs or contrast-stitched cotton jackets, and above tailored cotton pants (Lycra-lined for stretch) belted with narrow rope—a styling tic pinched from Duncan Grant.
Fishermen’s sweaters in a kind of deformalized, pixelated, and oversize Aran had that considerably imperfect darning detail. There was a funny oversize blue hoodie, with a hood which zipped apart to resemble a ribbon-piped sailor collar, that fit nicely above ribbed chunky cotton sweatpants. A landscape sweater featured the russets and dark aquatic tones of Skye’s magnificently brooding geography. A white sweater featured a line written in trailing wool inspired by To the Lighthouse: “Only the sound, the sound of the sea.” Like Woolf’s books, this was a collection both romantic and intensely wrought.
