Roma Fashion Week February 2022. The best of.

In my previous post I teased you with lots of great fact about Roma Fashion Week, the way it is organised and its inner workings. I’m aware that I didn’t actually show you a great deal and above all my selection of the February edition. That was intentional as I didn’t ant to overload you, my reader, with lots of info and slowly get you into the many layers of this event. Here go though with my edit of the best brands and looks that went onto the runway. It may not be easy to gage how good a collection is looking at a screen but experience at watching shows and the lockdown shift to digital shows are something I feel I’m quite good at by now 😉

You cannot escape the Italian main features of charm, elegance, craftmanship and a dose of glamour when at the Roma Fashion Week and the designers that you’ll see below they all show one or more of these characteristics.

EDOARDO GALLORINI

Edoardo Gallorini continues to define his signature style and vision with the collection ‘Showgirl’ inspired by the film Cabaret and the character Natalia Landauer, rich, middle-class and well behaved. The looks showcase the chaos and the craziness that happens when the off/on stage world and the burgeois collide. Mismatched prints, bold colours, pailette, feathers and outfits that reveal in a classy way the body. We even have two menswear looks thrown in there. Gallorini proves again that the journey he started last year exploringthe dark side of glamour is a good path for his creativity and designs.

CASA PRETI

Casa Preti explores the concept of innocence and purity. The simplicity of emotions and a child like vision of the world with no assumptions and pre-conceptions. This is reflected onto the neutral colour palette – black, white, grey – with a flashes of red that embodies the fullness and rawness of innocent emotions. Clean lines that on some looks become clerical and religious. Children drawings are the one and only print in the collection, created by kids aged 2-5 asked to draw freely. A positive message is on the runway: do not judge people by the way the look and without knowing their story and their personal struggles and journey.

FRANCESCA COTTONE & SARTORIA 74.

I’m getting the two brands side by side because even if their brand identity is quite different and their inspiration comes from different places, they do share the same roots in Italian tailoring and craftsmanship. You can clearly see at a glance how Francesca Cottone (on the left) and Sartoria 74 (on the right) have a lot in common. They both start from a deep knowledge of clothes construction and design. The starting point for Francesca Cottone is the blazer and Sartoria 74 starts from the smoking.

Francesca Cottone collection 'Guilty Pleasure' plays on sensual and glamour looks. Texture and patterns make each look intriguing and interesting and the precise and exact lines of the blazer add a dramatic, sharp twist to the silhouette. 

Sartoria 74 instead offers a mature, put together, timeless take on tailoring and an amazing twist on the male smoking sartorial features. It is really interesting to see how a contemporary brand can really design garments so femminine and modern without compromising on tailoring standards.

This is my personal edit of the Roma Fashion Week February 2022. let me know what you think and stay tuned for the summer edition in mid-July!

Roma Fashion Week February 2022. Overview and Review

Four months is a looong time to review any fashion week. However, the bright side is that what was on the runway back then is closer to what will be in the shops and boutiques next autumn/winter. That is still the usual slow fashion cycle that, from a sustainability angle, I believe it can be better than fast fashion or even the see now-buy now model. It does and should help designers to have better data from orders they get and, hopefully, produce what’s needed with no need of discounting and above all produce too much and produce waste.

Me as a happy bunny last time I attended in January 2020 ( just before the pandemic!)

But back to Rome Fashion Week February 2022. I’d like to start looking back with some facts and figures just to let anybody not familiar with this bi-annual event how serious and relevant it is within the Italian fashion system and to a degree the international fashion system.

90 brands and designer on the calendar, 11 shows in the Cinecitta’ Studios (Yes! Those mythical studios where Ben Hur was shot and Fellini used too!) and an external one, 400 accredited journalists and 40 from overseas, 170 buyers accredited online and 50 in person and 76K people followed the event online on its on digital platform (including myself). Important numbers for Rome that historically has been neglected after its more notorious and rich cousins – Milan and Florence. Not anymore since Roma Fashion Week has pivoted from showing Italian Alta Moda (Haute Couture) from showcasing, nurturing and supporting emerging brands and designers by providing a framework, a platform, an audience and a springboard unmatched anywhere else in the country. Plus, huge plus, in a setting abundant with history, culture and charm…that is the city itself and the location chosen over the years for the events.

The video above is one of the best examples and practices that the Roma Fashion Week has in place. A collective show called ‘Rome is my Runway’ where brands that already have stepped into the organisation programme in previous years can taste what a show is like and above get experience, exposure and learn from it. Infact new brands can dip their toes gradually into the fashion system through other two opportunities that Rome provides: Showcase and Who is On Next.

Showcase is a one day/all day set up where brands and designers literally showcase their products on stands and rails to press and buyers and have the opportunity to establish connections and plant the seeds for future sales and collaboration. Who is On Next, instead, in collaboration with Vogue Italia, gives them a chance to be selected for a final collective show in Rome, during the summer edition, be featured on the magazine, print and online, and get real and useful feedback from the jury. Usually most of the finalists then keep showing at the Roma Fashion Week for the next few seasons before taking the big leap to Milan.

But there is more to Roma Fashion Week. Infact the organisation gives slots in the calendar for the Lazio region fashion schools and in conjunction with the regional and city council organises workshops, work experience and a final show for fashion students.

This is what Roma Fashion Week is all about my friends and I can't wait to get involved in about a month's time during the July edition.

Roma Fashion Week. London Fashion Week. Fashion. Back on track!

 

Here we go again. Back to writing on this blog after four months of a busy, busy time on the off line world – new role in the Partnership basically with all that it entails. I’ve struggled to keep up with my fashion news, fashion weeks and writing about it even though I kept reading about it and reviewing LFW as a UK Fashion Correspondent for Fashion News Magazine – in Italian, 160 articles so far ;-)

I now feel much more settled in my new role as a Retail Training Specialist and I’m back to giving my point of view on all things fashion. In English. Yep. I regularly floated between writing in Italian or English or a mix of both (hard work!) but I have finally realised, after more 10 years of blogging, and 10 years in the UK it, I have an English-speaking audience that would miss out if I don’t do that. So sorry Italian friends. If you can’t read English well but are still interested in my posts, I usually post lots of pictures and videos and you can use Google translate for help. :-(

Also, all of the above is a true reflection of who I am. An Italian (Roman) living and working in England, interested in both cultures and both fashion worlds. That’s why most of the past posts are about Roma Fashion Week – yes, there is one in Rome! – but also anecdotes and reflections on London Fashion Week that I have been regularly attending since 2011.

Back on track as well as I’ve just received accreditations for the upcoming LFW June 11^th/13^th and going to tell you about the February 2022 Roma Fashion Week edition and the upcoming July one.  So...more content coming your way on this platform soon...