Marco De Vincenzo is an eager traveler; this year he visited Africa and recently spent his holidays in Cambodia. But he also navigates frequently around Etro’s vast archive, a treasure trove of rare fabrics and prints, where he gets lost in a sort of suspended journey. “It’s weird how the imagination brings you to places that somehow you can’t describe,” he said. “The magic of the temples of Angkor Wat, a scrap of beautiful brocade from the 18th century…. The mind travels through memories and suggestions, mixing them together with no logic or rational hierarchy, and lands instinctively in fabulous places with no name.” He called his spring collection Nowhere.
De Vincenzo is no philosopher, but Nowhere is a concept that can get the mind spinning in multiple directions. For one, fashion is a nowhere land where the art of infinite combinations can thrive. “This collection is a nowhere in that it’s a mix of my vision, illusions, and obsessions blended with Etro’s exceptional artistry in sourcing the rarest patterns and fabrics across the world,” he said backstage.
De Vincenzo’s audacity and quirk were the glue that kept the collection cohesive, despite its visual jumble of graphics and handsome textures. “But there are no citations, no recognizable attributions, everything comes to life in a magical no-place,” he said. Not afraid to confront challenging shapes (swirling trailing hems sneaking awkwardly around the ankles), unexpected juxtapositions of volumes (XXXL leather blazers worn over equally humongous tentlike strapless circle dresses) and redundant intricacies of construction (an abundance of twisting, knotting, braiding and slicing), De Vincenzo is carving a distinctive niche of cool for Etro, bending its codes into a spirited, vital, visually compelling rendition. The diverse, refined casting, sophisticated grooming and imaginative styling only added to a convincing performance. De Vincenzo is bringing Etro to a pretty good no-place.
Collection
This article was originally published on Vogue Runway.
