There is no need to go over the litany of problems affecting our world right now. We all know about them and so do designers, who absorb the general mood like sponges and turn them into collections reflecting the times. And the times are so uncertain and dark that they didn’t even want to come up with any escape or exotic trip, topped with embellishments and colours, in the way they used to do a few seasons ago. Now, quite simply, the time has come to truly realise that running away or taking refuge who knows where is pointless; instead we should stay and live in the present, with caution. The most we can grant ourselves is a little nostalgia. The Paris shows had a strange air of limbo about them, in which the beaten track was preferred over new roads (if they ever exist in fashion). So, there was an emphasis on the classics, on the formal suit and especially the blazer, which is turning out to be the season’s key piece. is the logical but not the most obvious choice,, although this trend swaps formal looks for everyday wear. Repetition is the order of the day, so comfort and, almost always, protective, cosy outerwear, lots of knitwear, and practical skirts suitable inside and outside the office. The designers who are less accustomed to fitting in with the rules of everyday life, perhaps those who like to dream big, allow themselves a little , like the Tarkovskij film, which is not a journey elsewhere but more a leafing through an album of memories: lost youth, the most intimate side, feelings, the little things. Or, in general, more care-free periods, stories suspended between real and imagined but with some element anchored in reality: an old suit, a vintage print, a particular shade. The life already lived.
