Fashion trends for Spring/Summer 2023 curated by Angelo Figus and Nicola Miller
Winter is notoriously the most difficult season of the year, and both the coming winter and the following one are showing signs of being particularly cold. This will lead, more or less spontaneously, to us looking inwards with a focus on ourselves, and a more reflective state of mind, in search of that which counts the most for us, while examining what values are genuinely fundamental and irreplaceable for us. A reflection that will lead each one of us to draw different conclusions even if some, most likely the main ones, will be held in common with others. The warmer season will be a dynamic and breakthrough explosion of our thoughts, energies, and ideas matured during the winter. Maybe even in reaction to winter itself. The trends for Pitti Filati spring/summer ’23 are developed across three main and essential themes, which can be summed up in an equal number of words and concepts: freedom, quality, necessity. We have named them DUAL as a way of suggesting a doubling, a duality, present in each theme, in terms of the materials, colors, and concepts used.
DUAL is the title-theme of the new Spazio Ricerca of the fair, developed under the creative direction of fashion designer Angelo Figus and knitwear expert Nicola Miller.
This is the theme of freedom, which is symbolized by a bicycle. An experimental and hybrid theme that blends the past with a future vision. The coming season will be an ode to the unconditional freedom of movement, flexibility, and lightness, of comfort and a striking image through visual and curvilinear experimentation, which from the very first bicycles arrives all the way up through the most futuristic ones made from eco-friendly materials. The bicycle represents the most sustainable and innovative mode of transportation for medium to long distances. Without limitations, restrictions, or borders, if not the physical ones connected to strength and the geographical ones of water. New luxury will combine tradition with innovation in the lines of materials and in the colors of patterns, for a hybrid fashion that inspires stitches, designs, prints, processes, and references that retrace the history of the most ancient means of transportation, which has allowed mankind to easily and quickly shorten distances on a daily basis.
This is the theme of quality, value, and fineness. Quality will play a fundamental role in the choice of objects, food, lifestyle, and the way that we pass time. Everything will increasingly move upwards. We will require higher quality and will be willing to recognize a greater value for it. The scale of values for the coming season will correspond with the scales of value for the seven metals, to which alchemy historically associates planets, special properties or specific characteristics, using it as a basis in identifying critical historical periods in the evolution of mankind. From gold to iron, a trend that will shine light on the precious value of metals, their nature, and the properties associated with them, are a corresponding number of deities in ancient history and the myth that represents the intrinsic character and properties of every single element mentioned. The theme will have a radiant and elegant character, of great sophistication above all for the evening and for occasions that are special or reason for celebration.
Necessity is the theme of what we genuinely need. A theme that tends towards an almost absolute minimalism, removing all decorative elements and that which is superfluous, while at the same time magnifying a graphic use of color and the sculpture-like quality of shapes. In other words, “minimalist maximalism”. The everyday reality of shapes and their uses is made extraordinary by the color of materials and by oversized functional details. Toiletry kits or beauty cases are the most basic kind of luggage required for travelling. They contain the main essentials for our time away from home. These objects and the world of travel bags inspire shapes and colors but also details in knitwear, as ordinary as they are extraordinary. An extreme sense of necessity will guide our choices in terms of fashion, without sacrificing fantasy, while becoming in fact rather eccentric.
