Gabriele Colangelo’s style is all about neat, streamlined shapes; plays of folding, layering, and juxtapositions do not substantially alter the minimalist, stark aesthetic he favors. What makes his looks distinctive is his artsy research on inventive fabrications, elaborate textures, and surfaces, adding a certain tactile depth to his design and softening its sometimes overly severe simplicity. For Spring, a lighter spirit was definitely apparent.
As always with Colangelo, experimentation on fabrics was elaborate. This time he was inspired by a painting technique called pliage, created by Franco-Hungarian artist Simon Hantaï, whose work he once saw at an exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris. The process involves pleating the canvas before painting it, resulting in a crumpled, 3-D texture. Colangelo transposed the procedure on cotton canvas, which, once painted, was knotted, then immersed in a deep shade of indigo and subsequently unknotted, revealing haphazard abstract motifs on its surface. The patterned cotton was used in a series of slim skirt suits worn over narrow pants in silk georgette. A light silk chiffon received the same treatment and graced a slip dress whose elongated waist was finely pleated; it retained a linear precision, but had a feminine, breezy flair.
A welcome sense of softness was there throughout the collection; Colangelo seemed to loosen his usual architectural restraint in favor of an easier, uncomplicated approach. Case in point was a beautiful long dress in black silk chiffon printed with the tie-dye pliage technique in shades of bright green; cut tunic-like with a delicately pleated bodice enhancing the waistline and worn over slim emerald green leather pants, it looked utterly desirable.
Colangelo also showed a more confident sense of color, energizing the collection with a palette of cobalt, indigo, cerulean, and mint. A painterly flash of a warm shade of orange made the message even clearer. Colangelo was in good shape here.
