If he weren’t a fashion designer, Antonio Berardi could consider a career in writing. The email he sent this reviewer about his Resort collection was a well written and moving account of his British upbringing as the son of Sicilian immigrants. His childhood memories served as inspiration this season, but they are also a perceptive reminiscence of the clashes and overlaps of two different cultures in a moment in time, filtered through the eyes of a sensitive kid.
Berardi is steering his fashion house in a new direction. Last season he showed in Milan for the first time, presenting his collection in his flat after years of showing in London, and he recently opened a new showroom in an elegant yet intimate apartment in a Milanese palazzo. He also had his Resort lookbook shot around Milan by the photographer (and frequent Vogue online contributor) Daniel Arnold.
“Everything in this collection has a little story behind it,” said Berardi. “It has a lot to do with my childhood memories.” In England he attended an all-boy grammar school, where kids wore uniforms and sports like rugby and cross country were big commitments. “I even played cricket, which for an Italian wasn’t really stimulating,” he remembered. “But soccer was enjoyed at all times.” The stripes of his house colors were reinterpreted on silk tie fabrics from Stephen Walters & Sons, a historic English mill, and ’70s soccer shirt weaves were remixed in the full-bodied jacquard of a sharply tailored double-breasted pantsuit and a corseted stiff-flounced skirt worn with a tight bolero over a striped bodice.
Berardi is a designer who favors a sculptural, elaborate silhouette, yet the collection had a supple feel. His rigorous tailoring was infiltrated by a relaxed sporty vibe visible in lightweight striped parkas layered over masculine shirts and city shorts rendered in substantial shirting cotton or cotton drill.
Despite all the sharpness of cut and the precision of construction, there’s always a sensuous flair in his collections, and Resort was no exception. It was brought about by another wave of memories: “I remember the beautiful slips and matching dressing gowns the women in my family would be wearing while getting the children ready for church on Sunday mornings, when we visited my aunties in Sicily,” he recalled. This sentiment was captured in sensual bias-cut silk devoré ruched slipdresses worn with matching billowing blouses, or in flowing caftans in burnt chiffon voile, which conveyed a sense of breezy movement, as did a wind-swept-palm-trees motif printed on a lightweight, loose-fitting duster-parka. “Being a kid coming to Sicily from gray England, those palm trees and blue skies made such a big impact on me,” he remembered. “I was thinking: Where am I? It felt like I was visiting the most exotic, wondrous place on earth.”
