For Pre-Fall, Angela Missoni and her design team looked at the unique style of Jane Forth, one of Andy Warhol’s muses, who went from being the Factory’s appointed receptionist to an adolescent film sensation, playing alongside Joe Dallesandro in Paul Morrissey’s 1968 cult movie Trash. By the Factory’s standards, her look was rather peculiar: angular features, alabaster skin, shaved-off brows, and slicked back dark hair in a neat bun. Her fashion sense was also quirky and oddly chic, mixing downtown vintage with a certain fetching high-style polish.
This look still retains a rather “now” appeal, and it translated well into the new contoured figure proposed in the collection. “There’s such freedom today to be whoever you’d like to be. But I think there’s a need for beauty, for femininity,” said Angela. “Or at least this is what I feel for now. Shapes which are closer to the body, a certain flair for dressing up and for being more soignée.” The silhouette was, in fact, lean and sensuous, with a few hints of the 1970s in slim flared pants and tiny waistcoats layered under slender cardis. Long tiered dresses retained a haute Bohemian flavor but were worn under generous masculine checkered coats or round-shaped patchworked blousons for ease. They were offset and counterbalanced by a series of short minidresses, knitted in the imaginative Missoni patterns or else printed with floral motifs, hiding the Missoni logo among abstract curlicues. The new mini length is creeping up in Pre-Fall collections as an alternative to the ubiquitous lady-of-the-canyon frocks that, in recent seasons, have overflowed both high fashion and high street collections.
Yet when it comes to the so-called trends, Missoni is definitely in a league of its own. There’s always a sort of circular creative “loop” at work between past and present: The archival patterns are constantly reworked and renewed with a fresh, modern approach. “Memory is important to us,” said Angela, who is nonetheless adamant about experimenting with new knitting techniques. In the Missoni-sphere, the word timeless applies so well to its m.o. that vintage pieces always look of the moment. They can be worn forever without looking dated. In a world of disposable fashion, that isn’t a small achievement.
