Fashion
Can the ‘Sex and the City’ Reboot Keep Up with Fashion’s Woke Evolution?
It’s been nearly 20 years since Carrie Bradshaw, the protagonist and narrator of the HBO series “Sex and the City,” (SATC) described her penchant for wearing “ghetto gold” to her three equally white girlfriends at brunch as “fun”—not the aesthetic that she envisioned for her engagement ring.
“How can I marry a guy who doesn’t know which ring is me?” she bemoaned after finding a pear-shaped sparkler affixed to a yellow gold band, tucked away in her boyfriend’s belongings.
Though it was a cringe-worthy moment in 2001—and one of many from the show that routinely used gay men as campy comedic props and fetishized Black men, to its overall lack of diversity despite famously being set in New York City, which the show’s actresses often described as the “fifth character”—it didn’t deter millions of rabid fans from tuning into the show the following week to watch Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte on their quest for love, success and Manolos in the Big Apple.
More than 10 million viewers watched the show’s final episode three years later, and the subsequent films, 2008’s “Sex and the City” and “Sex and the City 2” in 2010, went on to rake in a total of more than $713 million.
Audiences in 2021, however, may not be as generous—or uneducated. When the show’s star Sarah Jessica Parker announced on her Instagram account earlier this month that a new chapter in the SATC saga called “And Just Like That…” is going into production this spring, the news was met with cautious optimism.
On one hand, the show, which will follow three of the four original characters—Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte—“as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s,” may be the kind of nostalgic romp that homebound viewers devour. A respite, perhaps, for restless viewers who are in fact navigating their own complicated realities of life and friendship in a pandemic.
On the other hand, the world is in an entirely different state of mind, especially in regard to one of the show’s biggest legacies: fashion.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020 was the catalyst for an overdue reckoning in the fashion industry, and brought to light the ugly experiences rooted in racism many Black people have encountered while trying to survive in the business. In turn, the movement drove many fashion brands to recalibrate how they address diversity within their companies, promote inclusivity in their campaigns and communicate their messages with sensitivity. BLM also sparked online conversations about intersectional environmentalism and cultural appropriation, educating consumers about the deeper impact of their purchases.
SATC’s cultural exploitation problem didn’t start or stop with “ghetto gold.”
It was on full display in the second film, which took the four friends to Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s conservative capital, in an effort to escape their hectic—or in the case of Carrie, increasingly humdrum—New York City lives. The plot line teed up an endless parade of unfortunate opportunities to flash nonsensical wealth and more tone-deaf fashion choices like headdresses and harem pants, not to mention Carrie’s bewilderment when she finds out that shoes sold at a souk cost just $20. Shocking.
Sex and the City 2
Years later in an interview at a New York Magazine event, Parker said, “I can see where we fell short on that movie, and I’m perfectly happy to say that publicly.” These issues, however, will need to be rectified for the new show to stand a chance because woke fans and influential industry watchdogs, like Diet Prada and Saint Hoax, will be watching, and maybe even salivating and the chance to catch and call out the next big blunder.
“Many of the people I’ve talked to have said ‘I’ll watch it, but…,’” Benjamin Ayer, lead consultant for Benjamin Bellwether, said of the mixed reception to news of the reboot.
“The short of it is that the movies, especially the second one, really marked a point of seemingly no return,” the trend forecaster said. “The second movie has some real pain points for people who saw it as reductive to feminism and diversity; and, that’s on top of complaints that the show, in general, was too white and too materialistic.”
With doubts like these, the reboot runs the risk of becoming another successful “hate-watch” anomaly of the pandemic entertainment landscape, like the Netflix series “Emily in Paris,” which viewers binged last fall only to trade online gripes about the show’s unrealistic portrayal of fashion on an entry-level PR salary. (Though it didn’t stop style-hungry watchers from emulating some of the show’s key style moments, like red berets.) The show, it bears noting, was styled by Patricia Field, the iconic New York City stylist who coined the signature looks of SATC’s characters.
“With conversations around inclusivity growing louder, there will be pressure on the SATC reboot to be diverse and woke,” said Kayla Marci, an analyst for retail market intelligence platform Edited. “However, efforts need to be collaborative, well-researched and authentic to avoid coming off as insincere and tokenistic. As some episodes and parts of the movies were problematic, there is an opportunity to learn from these past mistakes.”
Positive influence
That’s not to say that “And Just Like That…” is doomed before its first fitting.
Rather, experts say the show’s creators and costume department have a chance to sway fashion in a new positive direction. SATC, after all, debuted 12 years before the first ’gram was ever posted. It influenced fashion through the original small screen, television, requiring viewers to come back each week at the same time, Sunday at 9 p.m. EST, for 94 episodes over the course of six years—an ask that seems unreasonable in the instant-gratification age of streaming.
Integral to this change, according to Caroline Vazzana, stylist, influencer and author of Making It in Manhattan: The Beginner’s Guide to Surviving & Thriving in the World of Fashion, will be more diversity behind-the-scenes—from the writing room to the wardrobe truck. More diverse view points on the set will help ensure that the show puts its best foot forward, she said.
The reboot also presents an opportunity to tap into a more mature millennial mindset and, perhaps, reinvigorate how viewers look at their own closets after months of wearing sweats. It may even inspire new loungewear or face-mask trends, Vazzana noted, if the show is set during coronavirus times.
Ayer lauds SATC for how it wielded fashion as a means to express the characters’ personalities and emotions. Field’s ability to build characters through silhouette, color, pattern and accessory choices—many of which went on to become global trends like Carrie’s tulle skirt from the opening credits, the horseshoe necklace she wore throughout season four or her silk corsages in season three—gave consumers the green light to be playfully experimental with their own look.
Manolos and a vintage fur—two Carrie Bradshaw signatures
“I’ve talked to so many women and gay men alike who felt they could be [bolder] in their fashion statements, especially in New York City,” because of the show, Ayer said.
Whether it was pairing two different colors of the same shoe style, like Carrie did when the ladies ventured to Los Angeles in season 3, or making strong shoulders sexy again à la Samantha, Field showed viewers how to mix and match and take risks. This adventurous approach to fashion filtered into street style, which became just as important as runway styling, Ayer added, and made designers who were once only on the tips of the tongues of in-the-know fashionistas, new household names.
Brands such as Manolo Blahnik, Fendi, Dior, Vivienne Westwood and Tiffany are just some of the labels still synonymous with the franchise, Marci said, as well as specific products like Fendi’s baguette bags and Manolo Blahnik’s Hangisi pump, which Big—a character that was likened to Donald Trump in a positive way early on in the series—used in lieu of an engagement ring to propose to Carrie in the first film. (Editor’s note: shoes, apparently, are a more acceptable symbol of love than “ghetto gold” jewelry.)
A Bergdorf Goodman window display featuring items from “Sex and the City: The Movie”
Since the show ended, Marci said many fashion houses have been reshaped by new creative directors at the helm of Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Givenchy and Bottega Veneta. “These legacy brands’ redefined looks are very much in line with Carrie’s feminine and eccentric aesthetic, Miranda’s clean and minimal, and Charlotte’s polished and preppy one,” she said.
The next show, however, has an opportunity to elevate lesser known designers and brands into the spotlight. In addition to the big names that everyone is expecting to see, Marci noted that cult darlings coveted by today’s consumer, like Ganni, Marine Serre or The Vampire’s Wife, would be a welcome addition.
“I’d love to see airtime given to designers spearheading environmental change like Gabriela Hearst and Stella McCartney, or labels that champion inclusivity like Fenty, Prabal Gurung or Christian Siriano, as well as see SATC use its enormous and powerful platform to showcase emerging BIPOC designers,” she said.
Ayer shared that sentiment, adding that the show’s stylists should “reward” high-fashion brands who are embracing diversity on their runways and look books, like Erdem, Balmain, Carolina Herrera, Collina Strada and Ferragamo, with placement on the show.
“The show has the power to elevate designers, and [it] should take that power seriously,” Ayer said. “It would be great to see the same fashion independence that Field brought to the cast of SATC to represent the new fashion industry. The one where sustainability matters, ethics matter, behavior matters.”
His top picks for the characters include “modern” and “powerful” looks by Fear of God for Miranda, classic and modern pieces by Wales Bonner and Andrew Gn for Charlotte and No Sesso and Threeasfour for Carrie’s fearless style. As the shows main trendsetter, Carrie, he added, should be “mixing her vintage fashion with new pieces from local, Black-owned, queer-owned, minority-owned and future-minded brands.”
Brooklyn-based and vice president-approved designer Christopher John Rogers is high on Vazzana’s list of designers whose work should make a cameo. “Christopher John Rogers would be epic and so beautiful for Carrie to be wearing around New York City,” she said.
Christopher John Rogers RTW Spring 2021
The reboot could bring good fortune to local talent. With the show celebrating the city, Marci said it would be great to see New York talent spotlighted. Fendi baguette bags could be traded for a ‘Bushwick Birkin,’ the nickname of Telfar’s in-demand unisex tote, or Carrie could swap her infamous Dior newspaper-print dress for Duckie Confetti’s money robe, she suggested.
A reflection of the times
Another common inducer of eye rolls about SATC was its unrealistic portrayal of wealth. The same lavish fashion that lured people to their TV sets each week also alienated some—particularly New Yorkers who knew the improbability of a local newspaper sex columnist being able to afford Carrie’s Upper East Side abode, endless closet and buzzing social life.
“This fantastical approach to luxury is what made the fashion in the show so iconic because it was very aspirational, yet unbelievable, that these ‘everyday women’ could afford to be head-to-toe in high-end designers every day,” Marci said. Following an economic crisis like the one brought on by the global pandemic, it will be important to balance the fantasy element with reality, she added.
While longtime fans of the show will expect to see a high caliber of designers, SATC must offer a measure of relatability in order to resonate with a new audience, Marci said. “A great way to show luxury in 2021 is to blend designer pieces with more contemporary and affordable brands,” she said. “Given the status of some of the items worn in the show and with sustainability becoming such an urgent and complex issue for the fashion industry, I’d love to see classic outfits re-worn or vintage archival pieces curated.”
The writers bringing the show to life “will have to make sure they reflect the times, and capture the essence of what they started out as: a show that helped normalize the timely female dynamic in mainstream culture,” Ayer added.
But that’s not to say that the ladies can’t catch up on their relationship follies while shopping in The RealReal or in small boutiques that champion diverse designers. Or why not have the characters share pieces, he added, highlighting the ever-growing sharing and rental economy.
“The show is known for the fashion, so represent the times,” Ayer said.
But be authentic
SATC is not the first show from the late ’90s and early aughts to make a recent comeback, but whereas series like “Will & Grace” and “90210” struggled to recreate the magic of their originals, “And Just Like That…” already has social media doing some of the leg work.
It also has Gen Z’s fondness for throwback fashion on its side. “A combination of social media and the revival of ’90s and ’00s fashion has helped keep SATC relevant as well as gain a cult following with a younger generation obsessed with nostalgia for an era they haven’t experienced,” Marci said.
Vazzana pointed out that SATC-themed content performs exceptionally well on TikTok. “Gen Z definitely knows about ‘Sex in the City’… young women and men are still very into that ‘moving to New York City’ mindset,” she said. Do they love the characters and appreciate their style the way older cohorts do? Vazzana isn’t sure. “Gen Z style is very different, but it is not super-eclectic and over-the-top like Carrie is known for,” she said. “Maybe it will inspire a whole new generation to dress outside the lines.”
But if everyone wanted to “be a Carrie” back in 2004—fans even snapped up “I’m a Carrie” merchandise prior to the show’s finale—Type A Miranda has emerged as the fan-favorite today. “Reopening the SATC series time capsule in the 2020s has led to an internet consensus that Miranda is the coveted character, with attributes and style resonating with young women today,” Marci said, adding that her character is defined as career-driven, proud feminist with a minimal wardrobe.
Additionally, Charlotte, the most traditional character on the show, has become the poster character for political correctness, inspiring the #WokeCharlotte meme, a viral sensation that paired images of prim and proper Charlotte with progressive captions. The evolution of these characters into today’s world will add to the show’s longevity and its impact on the Gen Z audience, Marci said.
While Ayer said the SATC reboot is really for “millennials and above who loved it the first time around,” as consumers, we are all moved by nostalgic pop-culture phenoms, no matter how we may think we’ve evolved, he added.
“Consumers will always be influenced by entertainment,” Ayer said. “As much as we may fight against it, we are creatures that crave persuasion.”
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Kendall Miles Designs
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Coach
New York Fashion Week may look a bit different this year, but like New York itself, fashion is certainly not ready to sleep. Ahead, see what designers have in store for fall 2021. We may not know what the world will look like then, but we can know that we’ll look great in it.
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With Milan Fashion Week kicking off today, WWD met some of the promising names on the city’s fashion scene. While most of them cut their teeth at prestigious houses, including Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Givenchy, they’re now all ready to make their own mark on the global fashion map.
DEL CORE
Daniel Del Core
Courtesy of Del Core
Probably the most anticipated debut of Milan Fashion Week, Daniel Del Core, former special projects and VIP designer at Gucci, will unveil the first collection for his namesake brand with a physical show today at Cittadella degli Archivi del Comune di Milano, a location in the northern area of the city where all the municipality’s official documents are stored.
Del Core established his women’s wear brand, with support from an anonymous private investor, in December 2019. Raised in a small village in Germany’s Black Forest, the designer moved to Italy as a teenager for a cultural exchange and then settled in the country, where he studied fashion and graphic design.
Prior to joining Gucci in Rome, where he collaborated with creative director Alessandro Michele on the creation of a series of spectacular looks donned by stars including Björk and Lana Del Rey, Del Core worked for a range of other houses, including Dolce & Gabbana and Versace in Milan, and Zuhair Murad between Paris and Beirut.
As he revealed during an exclusive interview with WWD last December, the designer aims to present two collections a year, transcending the idea of seasonality and including a mix of ready-to-wear and couture looks, identified by different labels.
During an interview a few days ahead of his debut show, Del Core said “the starting point for my first collection was nature and the organic realm. My inspiration came from the morphing and the mutations that take place in the plant kingdom.”
A look from Del Core fall 2021 collection.
Courtesy of Del Core
According to the designer, a study of different personalities will be central. “I like the idea of glamour and conceiving each dress for a specific personality. Every woman leads her own life,” he said.
Silhouette wise, the designer said he kept that sleek and sculptural, and that it will be counterbalanced by the richness of fabrics and decorations. “Much research and thought went into the materials, including our jacquard and fil coupé. And I also put emphasis on the embroideries, applications, intarsia and 3D techniques.”
Tailoring will stand out with sharp and graphic suits worn over lace underwear garments, as well as jumpsuits, including one crafted from a fabric showing a corrosion print.
“Working on eveningwear gave way to multiple interpretations of nature’s hidden beauty,” added the designer. “From an allover embroidered dress to a gown designed in different weights of jacquard to create both sculptural and fluid effects around the body.”
The collection will be completed by a range of accessories, such as shoes, including a pair of feathered sandals, bags, and jewelry pieces, such as gold chokers. — Alessandra Turra
CHB
CHB’s designer Christian Boaro.
Courtesy of CHB.
For anyone familiar with the Milan creative scene, Christian Boaro is not a new name.
With previous experience in-house at Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, MSGM and Gianfranco Ferrè, fashion remains Boaro’s first love, but he’s also explored different areas, training his camera on a series of Polaroids for an exhibition called “The Naked Truth” in which he explored today’s youth movement: Vocal, creative, gender-bending.
A multifaceted talent, throughout his 15-year career Boaro has dreamed of establishing his namesake brand but found one reason or another to delay it, until late last year when he launched his CHB fashion brand imbued with sensual femininity and a glamorous take on contemporary fashion.
“I’ve worked for different established fashion brands and I was always dedicated and absorbed but at a certain point I felt the need to have something of my own. After my mum passed away, I suddenly realized how uncertain and volatile life is and did not want to waste a minute more,” Boaro explained — his eyes moist — during an interview at his home-turned-atelier in central Milan.
After his debut collection last October unveiled via Instagram images and a look book release, he is set to present his first full lineup on Feb. 28 during Milan Fashion Week.
“This collection builds on the first one launched last year and which served as a manifesto for everything the brand is about: seasonless, genderless fashion,” the designer said. “They are both concepts that are dear to me and really ingrained in my professional and personal story. They are less of a trend and more values that I strongly believe in.”
Blending references that nod to traditional tropes of men’s wear and old-school feminine glamour, he designed gender-bending pieces that more often than not can be worn by women and men. “I think that since the metrosexual aesthetics came to the fore [in the ‘90s] men have started to fine-tune their taste and women have been embracing a mannish style,” he noted.
The collection is filled with desirable pieces, from lace-trimmed slipdresses to lace tank tops — one featuring attached gloves; black tuxedos; a wet-look vinyl trench, and a silk duchesse duster coat in butter yellow lined with cotton, an example of the high and low approach the designer is charting.
A look from the CHB fall 2021 collection.
Courtesy of CHB.
Boaro said the collection is rooted in minimalism but without looking stiff or out of date. “I don’t think a designer can really innovate anymore, and you would probably find references to the history of fashion in my collection, however you can always offer something new by presenting the clothes in a contemporary way,” he explained.
To wit, he cast a circle of close friends to appear in his look book images, including model Marie Sophie Wilson, a Peter Lindbergh favorite. “I don’t want to build a tribe of fans and followers, but rather a community that shares my vision,” he said.
Currently self-financed, Boaro is looking for a distribution partner and working on setting up his own e-commerce. — Martino Carrera
FLAPPER
Flapper’s Geneviève Xhaët.
Courtesy of Flapper.
Geneviève Xhaët has been charming her customers with her surrealist take on headgear since 2013, finding inspiration in everything from artist Dora Mar to the mountains and ‘20s glamour. Now she’s ready to expand her brand’s offering.
Whereas many creatives were feeling pressured by confinement, Xhaët decamped to Sicily and found time to let her creativity express itself. For her Flapper brand’s fall 2021 collection she is introducing a knitwear capsule collection that is radical in its minimalist approach.
After years working alongside knitwear guru Pierangelo D’Agostin and for Malo and Dhrumor, Xhaët wanted to leave her own mark on the category and build on the interest her headwear has generated.
“My goal was to provide women with a Flapper uniform, complementing hats with a ready-to-wear capsule,” Xhaët said. “It is really in tune with my hat collection and because of its minimalist approach it can also be easily thrown into the mix of a boutique’s offering,” she noted.
Inspired by the uniforms of ‘70s professional skiers (the designer herself had a gig as a professional skier), the knitted pieces span from bras to floor-length, body-hugging dresses, tactile sweaters and soft pants, reminiscent of retro-tinged ski suits but way more comfortable. Adding her characteristic off-kilter touch, Xhaët translated the geometric details on the ski suits worn by the likes of Maria Rosa “Ninna” Quario, Anne Marie Pröll and Rosi Mittermaier into intarsia decorations on her fall pieces.
A look from the Flapper fall 2021 knitwear capsule collection.
Courtesy of Flapper.
Xhaët largely employed cashmere and a ladder proof blend of polyurethane and elastane, nodding to the sportswear, high-performance trend in fashion. “Both yarns captured my attention because they are long-lasting and can stand the test of time, and there’s also a sustainable bent to them,” the designer explained, adding that the capsule is intended to be worn throughout the year. For her headwear creations she has already used a range of eco-friendly materials, including Econyl’s regenerated nylon.
While the designer is not planning to make a full foray into clothing, she said retailers have given the thumbs up to her knitwear offering, setting the foundation for a further expansion of the category, which retails between 200 euros for bras and 700 euros for cashmere dresses. — M.C.
ALESSANDRO VIGILANTE
Alessandro Vigilante.
Courtesy of Alessandro Vigilante
For Alessandro Vigilante, presenting his namesake brand as part of the Milan Fashion Week official schedule is “a surprise, a gift and an opportunity” as he described the occasion as a “channel through which I can communicate my personal stylistic vision.”
He first gave it a try in 2007 when, after graduating in fashion design at IED Moda Lab in Milan, he won the My Own Show contest promoted by the school and the late Vogue Italia’s editor in chief Franca Sozzani, which gave him access and visibility during the fashion event.
But Vigilante opted to return to the starting blocks and cut his teeth at different fashion houses, piling up experiences and different skills over time. After spending seven years at Dolce & Gabbana, particularly overseeing eveningwear and embroideries, he moved to Gucci to manage special projects. There, he worked under Alessandro Michele, a designer “I admire a lot not only for his powerful and personal creative vision but also for his ability in catalyzing everybody’s attention and curiosity on the brand in such a short time, completely revolutionizing the label,” said Vigilante.
After working with Lorenzo Serafini on Philosophy from 2015 to 2019, Vigilante eventually decided to focus on developing his brand, through which he investigates the duality between femininity and masculinity via a minimal aesthetic.
In particular, his exploration of the human body and its movements is rooted in his long-time fascination for modern dance, a discipline he practiced in the past and that became a constant source of inspiration during his career as a designer.
For fall 2021, he looked at Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham. Of the former, he praised the inclusive approach and the exaltation of humanity and imperfection in her work, while he revisited her personal style filling the collection with oversize tailoring.
Cunningham’s innovative cross-pollination of dance and technology and his penchant for technical perfection inspired Vigilante’s rigorous shapes and the contrasts in fabrics, as traditional wool, jersey and silk georgette are combined with neoprene and vegan latex in the range. In particular, sartorial jackets and coats, which often reveal sensual cut-outs on the back, are styled with wide pants, as well as high-wasted leggings and bike shorts. Feminine frocks with deep slits and leotards with seducing transparencies and geometric cuts contribute to the body-hugging silhouettes that counterbalance the generous proportions of tailored pieces.
A look from the Alessandro Vigilante fall 2021 collection.
Courtesy of Alessandro Vigilante
The enhancement of the human body is also the main theme of the video the brand produced to introduce the collection. Directed by Attilio Cusani, the short movie has a voyeuristic approach in portraying a woman as she observes and studies her body while alone in her apartment.
“I would like to make women feel self-confident both when they wear my masculine suits and ultra-feminine dresses,” said Vigilante, whose ultimate goal is to “create an authentic and personal aesthetic, [one that is] sensitive and receptive of the world we live in, and to convey it in a way that is precise, recognizable, unique and courageous.” — Sandra Salibian
IINDACO
Iindaco’s cofounders Domitilla Rapisardi and Pamela Costantini.
Courtesy of Iindaco
Take two women, blend their shared passion for shoes with their commitment to sustainability, add a generous amount of Italian craftsmanship and spice everything up with symbolism: luxury footwear label Iindaco will be served.
Named after the indigo color that marks the transition from day to night — a nod to the brand’s mission to dress women throughout the day — Iindaco is the venture of friends Pamela Costantini and Domitilla Rapisardi, who met in 2014 when both worked at Roberto Cavalli.
After Costantini’s stint at Givenchy in Paris and Rapisardi’s experience in a consulting firm working for brands including Emilio Pucci and Max Mara, as well as at Tod’s, in 2018 the two women ended one of their usual chats over the phone with the idea of establishing their own brand as an answer to a stalling industry in terms of environmental sustainability.
“For Iindaco, new luxury is responsibility,” said Costantini. “This is why Iindaco is committed to creating 360-degree sustainable collections: from the design to the realization, from the materials to the distribution.”
In particular, the brand, which made its official debut last year, sources excess fabrics and leather leftovers throughout Italy’s warehouses and stockists, diverting and reusing scrap materials in their creative process while reducing waste. Recycled and recyclable ABS heels, regenerated leather insoles, and certified linings in biodegradable leather are also deployed in the manufacturing of the shoes, while the founders are additionally eyeing scraps from fish markets, such as eel and salmon skins, as the next ground for experimentation.
In terms of aesthetic, Costantini and Rapisardi are influenced by the ’90s in their work and find “beauty and femininity in the seduction of the girl next door, a clean face, and naturalness.” This approach informs the essential silhouettes and no-fuss attitude of their offering, in which flat and midi-heeled styles play a big role.
Inspired by rationalist architecture, the fall 2021 collection comprises just one, four-inch heeled pump named Pegaso and the three-inch heeled Circe d’Orsay sling-back shoe, both featuring squared toes. The range includes the Persephone sandal and Ade mule with midi heels covered in crystals; the masculine Adone loafer embellished with the brand’s logo clamp on the front, and the Argo lace-up boot — a standout style, especially when crafted from Iindaco’s signature moiré silk and rendered in colors like mustard, red or emerald green, in addition to black.
Iindaco’s Argo lace-up boot.
Courtesy of Iindaco
All styles are also available in calfskin, often studded with rhinestones, while other details include splits on heels and soles winking to the two “Ls” in the brand’s name. The double use of the vowel nods to the two founders and forms the number 11, which recalls the month of November when they were both born.
Debuting on Milan Fashion Week’s official schedule, Iindaco will present the fall collection through a virtual showroom filled with photos, videos and details on the assortment intended to approach buyers in “a clean and direct way.”
Retailing at prices ranging from 390 euros to 690 euros, the brand is available at Rinascente in Milan, LuisaViaRoma in Florence and Bloomingdale’s in Dubai and Kuwait, as well as at its own online store.
“In the future we would like to expand our product range and have the opportunity to open the first physical stores [continuing] to collaborate with retailers through exclusive capsule collections,” concluded Rapisardi. — S.S.
YALI
Pia Zanardi
Courtesy of Yali
Longevity is something that Pia Zanardi cares very much about. Probably because she loves to wear her grandfather’s shirts and her grandmother’s dresses.
Born and raised in Italy, Zanardi lived for two years in China, where she studied Mandarin, and during that period she fell in love with the country’s craftsmanship and textile heritage. Aiming to combine Chinese garment culture with a color and aesthetic sensibility rooted in her Italian origins, when after college she moved to New York, she decided to establish her own brand, Yali.
Zanardi started her entrepreneurial adventure in a space in SoHo, where she conceived a jacket, available in a short and long version, that immediately echoes the Chinese tradition but infused with a modern appeal.
“I basically launched the brand because I was getting very good feedback from the people around me, who started asking me to make one of the jackets I was wearing,” Zanardi explained. “I basically started with door-to-door selling and that’s how the Yali community was established and grew.”
Employing at the beginning exclusively high-end Chinese textiles, including raw silk from Suzhou and Nankeen linen, Zanardi has slowly and steadily enlarged the collection, which now includes also Made In Italy styles, such as refined silk pajama sets. “I call them the ‘Everyday Tuxedo’ because you can wear it to go to work and you don’t need to change to meet friends for drinks and then for dinner,” explained Zanardi.
Along with silk wrap dresses, Yali’s fall 2021 collection also offers a range of cotton quilted jackets and pants, which are filled with a silk padding. “I didn’t want to use goose feathers, so I opted for silk, which has incredible natural thermo-regulatory properties,” said the designer, who also introduced cute little bags.
A piece from Yali fall 2021 collection.
A piece from Yali Fall 2021 collection
Colors and textures play a key role in the development of the collection. “When I was a child I suffered from dyslexia and they treated me with textile and color therapy,” Zanardi said “That really helped me a lot and especially showed me the importance that colors have in the development of memories.”
For fall, Zanardi mainly focused on a palette of colors inspired by the nature surrounding her family’s countryside house close to Parma, in the Emilia-Romagna region. Warm tones of brown are juxtaposed with emerald and pine green, rust, terra-cotta, as well as baby pink and fuchsia.
Yali collections, retailing from 500 euros to 900 euros, are available at the brand’s online store, as well as at a select network of stores located across Europe and the U.S., including LuisaViaRoma in Florence, Tea Rose in Milan, as well as Just One Eye in Los Angeles, and Aerin in the Hamptons, to cite a few. — A.T.
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