Pilati Enters a New Universe

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/fashion/Stefano-Pilati-Designs-for-Zegna-Womens-Label.html

Version 0 of 1.

MILAN — Said Stefano Pilati about his first collection for Agnona: “What I love about the women’s wear is that it’s a universe you don’t know if you are a man.”

“It’s much more challenging, less objective” than men’s wear, the designer said. “And then the fabrics are different. There’s the movement. They are all criteria.”

The designer kicked off the Milan collections on Wednesday by opening to a select few fashionable women the doors of a discreet branded shop.

Instead of a show with an audience, the invited visitors, who are encouraged to buy the clothes, saw mannequins with calf hooves instead of human legs. They reflected Mr. Pilati’s message: at Agnona, it all starts with a wooly lamb.

He might have added that silk also plays a strong role in the Collection Zero, named, the designer said, not because it was his first show for the brand, but for the European art movement started in Agnona’s early years in the 1950s.

At 60 years young, Agnona, founded in 1953 and part of the Ermenegildo Zegna luxury group, is beginning a new life to make it into what Gildo Zegna, the company’s chief executive, calls a “complete collection” — from fully tailored wool jackets to light dresses in printed silk organza. But at the heart of the 66 different pieces, with 25 different fabrics in 23 colors, is the company’s origins in nature.

“Stefano went to the archives and selected colors and materials, but had it redone in a modern way,” said Mr Zegna. “At the beginning, there were a lot of pictures of natural life with greenery and baby lambs. It is going back to our roots.”

An example of the new approach is the meld of silk with wool and the reimagining of an iconic fabric and pattern, long worn in Hawaii, that its residents call “palaka.” The check-style pattern was even replicated on a crocodile jacket.

The substantial collection gave the impression of beautifully made clothes for modern women in the real world of work or relaxation. Fresh silk dresses, some cut at an angle, and tailored coats in featherlight, double-face cashmere, competed with slender suits in bright colors and more casual shorts and tops. One particular shade of light yellow is dubbed ‘’baby sun.”

Mr. Pilati, formerly with Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, picked up on a theme that is already having traction for the Milan summer 2014 season: the post-Marilyn glamour, out in the fresh air in the late 1950s and ’60s.

The backdrop at the DSquared2 show took a similar theme — but with a very different impression. The setting was a patch of rich greenery, a bar with wicker roof and bamboo, where the models sat enjoying cocktails under their bold sunhats.

Heaven knows how they found room for even an olive in the tight corset tops that, along with high-waisted bikinis and full skirts under wasp waists, suggested a beach era when taking a plunge was not the thing.

Dean and Dan Caten, the duo behind the DSquared label, put on a good show and a powerful front row, including Ireland Baldwin, Kim Basington’s daughter with Alex Baldwin.

Take away Elvis singing “Little Sister,” the lush red lipstick, the two prong-high heels spiking the runway sand and those big hats — and there was a collection of sporty summer clothes for today.