What is stronger than a hug? It’s a universal gesture that Marco Rambaldi used to reflect on the concept of the classic. The soundtrack for his fall show included a sampled interview extract with the Italian icon and singer Ornella Vanoni, who defined the hug as “the most beautiful thing one can have between two people.” This followed a waltz, a classic dance once considered scandalous for its tight embrace. It was another way Rambaldi explored what a classic can be.
On the runway, the idea of classics was reconsidered. Tailored garments were sabotaged to reveal an inner structure that evolved into an adornment, like the overturned waist of pants and skirts or the exposed lapels of blazers in navy blue or dark gray pinstripes. Thus Rambaldi challenged bourgeois codes. His mood board featured stills from Teorema by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Fantozzi by Paolo Villaggio, two different examples of how to criticize social stereotypes through a very Italian vision.
The classicism of knitwear was subverted in two different directions: with fake twinsets created by layering cardigan sections and with trompe l’oeil prints as an homage to Flora Monti, the youngest Italian partisan courier and a symbol of resistance. Rambaldi’s signature crochet was updated in a handmade version using thick mohair yarn or recovered as a vintage source and then uplifted through a tulle covering. To close the show there was also a couture-like version of the doily for a wedding-approved crochet gown, hand-encrusted with micro sequins.
