Binge-watching Hitchcock During Lockdown Inspires Creative Director Paul Andrew to Create Clothes Emblematic of Resilience and Beauty.
Images: Salvatore Ferragamo
We are living in uncertain times, in a reality that is defined by deserted streets, half empty cafes, and people confined at home as a safeguard from the big bad threat of the pandemic lurking outside. The whole thing almost feels like a movie.
A similar observation dawned upon Paul Andrew, creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, when he first experienced lockdown about a year ago. “(That) spring, stuck at home, I rewatched classic Hitchcock, in particular Marnie, The Birds and Vertigo,” he shares. “In the past, watching those movies has always felt like inhabiting a surreal and strange world. But watching them during lockdown was different: they felt like ‘real life’ because ‘real life’ itself had suddenly become so strange, surreal and oddly beautiful.”
That realisation would become the inspiration for the Salvatore Ferragamo Spring/Summer ’21 collection. Andrew continues, “There are several direct homages to key Hitchcock moments in the collection, and the collection echoes that gorgeous, hyper-real level of colour saturation that is so evident in the beautiful Technicolor masterpiece that is Vertigo.”
In Technicolor Glory
The Technicolor palette of the menswear and womenswear collection provides the most obvious ode to Hitchcock, bearing names the likes of Gull Grey, Sparrow, Vertigo Mauve, Hitchcock Tan and a gorgeous Hedren Green. Less obvious are the philosophy behind the clothes, designed to represent the resilience and beauty characteristic of Hitchcock’s heroes and heroines.
Silhouettes are more form-fitting this season, a “tridimensional” seersucker back-zipped top with matching trousers being a key highlight, its fabrication exemplary of the label’s technical innovation. Ditto the use of recycled jersey and a new sustainable-grade wool/mohair fashioned into outerwear as an active approach towards sustainability. On the other hand, Ferragamo’s artisan techniques flourish by way of a hand-spun ‘floating’ string skirt, as well as hand-applied embroidered feathers that add movement to a vest, skirt and chic trousers. (No guesses as to which movie inspired said feathers).
Left to right: Rounded Top Handle, The Studio Bag and Trifolio Top Handle
Accessories-wise, the sculptural F-wedge is this season’s key investment, now offered in two reimagined versions, along with square-toed slingbacks. Signature bags have also experienced slight tweaks: the Studio bag presents a new size and accessorised iterations, the Trifolio adds on a top-handle, while the new Marnie bag makes its debut, its design inspired by a key scene from the film it is named after.
Left to right: Sculptured Hell Slingback, Sculptured Heel Sandal and Sculptured Heel Sandal
Check out BAZAAR‘s special showcase of this collection in the video below:
