index
Show Report

Show Report: Missoni A/W 12 Womenswear

by Alexander Fury on 27 February 2012

Alexander Fury reports on the Missoni A/W 12 womenswear show.

Alexander Fury reports on the Missoni A/W 12 womenswear show.

'Like a heroine in a concrete jungle'. You hear some ridiculous things during fashion weeks. For instance, the idea that the Missoni woman ever encounters concrete - it may have been invented in Ancient Rome, but her fifteenth-century palazzo probably doesn't contain any.

The concrete jungle was, nevertheless, one of the inspirations behind Missoni's Autumn/Winter 2012 collection. One of very many - but the collection they combined to create had surprising chesty. Then again, Missoni's heritage is one of the strongest of all in Italian fashion. Regardless of the season, regardless of the inspiration, you know the melange Missoni knits will make an appearance just as sure as the Missoni family will be massed on the stairs, clad in head-to-toe knits, ready to leap up and acclaim the models' finale.

This time, those Missoni knits came in an autumnal palette combining rich rust, anthracite, teal and moss green. One dress whirled a selection of those together in three-dimensional velour embroidery that resembled that lacy knit-one purl-two. Texture offered the variety, from three-dimensional copper-sequin strewn knits through ponyskin and latex to 'volcanic' finale dresses where vermillion threads bubbled like lava through slate-grey stitches. The silhouettes were generally slender, belted high under the bust always and sometime with shrunken jackets tugged around the shoulders.

Nevertheless, there was something about this show which dragged in a way that seemed out of place on the normally joyous and riotous Missoni catwalk. Perhaps it was all the rigour and control in those clothes which stifled the house's trademark energy. Maybe it was just the twenty-something celcius heat that made a parade of knit, leather and fur winter-wear feel a little grating. But with the hindsight of a few hours, this collection looked great. It's liable to look better and better as these very real yet covetable clothes hit the racks.

Explore

Show Report

Show Report: Alberta Ferretti A/W 12 Womenswear

22 February 2012
Alexander Fury reports on the Alberta Ferretti A/W 12 womenswear show.
Show Report

Show Report: Francesco Scognamiglio A/W 12 Womenswear

22 February 2012
Alexander Fury reports on the Francesco Scognamiglio A/W 12 womenswear show.
Show Report

Show Report: Gucci A/W 12 Womenswear

22 February 2012
Alexander Fury reports on the Gucci A/W 12 womenswear show.
Back to top