Fashion Symbols with Aynura Maye

Bringing together the opposites

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Milan Fashion Week SS21: Thousand Faces of a Dream?

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I wonder whether the fashion has ever been really about fashion. I always thought of the fashion as the mirror of the spirit of its time. Yet, on the last day of the Milan Fashion Week, looking back the previous years, I think fashion means way more. It may also harbinger big social changes yet to occur. As close as three years ago, the runways were all about experimental deconstruction. To a point it was hard to understand what we feel about them. Now, in the midst of social, political, environmental crisis and debilitating pandemic, I, in retrospect, want to allow myself to believe that fashion or designers were heralding this perfect chaos. This crippling predicament that we’ve put out on the face of the world after seasoning it for some years inside the dark alleys of our mind.

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One may ask, what these thoughts have to do with this week of fashion? Now, going carefully over the shows, I see one major line, one dream. A theme that to my mind, have been replayed and brought to runways and our screens in a thousand different ways. Each house and brand, in its own way, played the idea of going back to roots, home and DNA – the guarantor of serenity and tranquility. In times of unprecedented discord and agitation to feel once again in charge of life to recharge and re-orient. To be able to be hopeful again.

Thousand shapes of one story

Although at first sight unlikely, each of these houses played the same theme in line with their core values. Maybe the most direct take came from Valentino by going back to Italy, its country of birth. Dolce & Gabbana revisited the patchwork tradition of its home, Siciliy with a grotesque set design. Etro, likewise, paid a tribute to its roots in a very Etro-ish colorful presentation. In total contrast to the splash of bright colors, Fendi had its models walk down dreamy, delicate white runway decorated with nostalgic yet kind of romantic white curtains… once again, in a tribute to its family traditions. Luisa Beccari, in a poetic way, dedicated the show to her own family. Holding tight to its DNA, the rule-breaker Missioni was home again. Probably the only house capable of elevating knitwear to high fashion and extending it into home and lifestyle, Missioni reversed seasons, revealing autumn-winter collection (to me, rightfully). Armani, who rose and shone with fabrics, went back to roots in his own way. We’d just witnessed a showcase of fabrics of almost ambrosial taste. Versace, born out of the instinctual lust and subterranean carnal desires was back in chthonic land of the Gorgons. Prada occupied itself with “a fundamental examination of the meaning of Prada”. Moschino outdid itself with its already viral doll show in quest of reinventing its DNA of playfulness. Even an emerging brand, Act-1, which is born out of bottomless doubts and identity crisis once more considered this dreadful theme against the staggering reality we live now.

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More Earth Colors, More Flowers

What I am writing next may sound bizarre. Maybe it’s kind of bizarre. Fashion houses, regardless their story of inspiration, have seriously resorted to the Earth Colors. This palette, besides being a bare testimony of us painfully and slowly waking up to our prejudices, has a distinct meaning. Starting from the milkiest beige tone to the dark brown the earth colors symbolize the Earth, the mother earth, the mother, the safe harbor. Resorting to this color palette, to me, says a lot about our state of mind. To this train of thought we can easily add green color (Mother Nature), and flower details.  

When the drives behind manifestations are studied, really the pieces of the puzzle come together – the cry of our soul to feel safe again expressed in so many different ways and colors. The stories of inspiration revolved around what we long for – returning home, roots, family or brand DNA. To bath in the unfailing serenity and tranquility to recharge and re-orient.

Why suddenly the Earth Colors are staple colors of SS21?

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As we’ve made half way thru the Milan fashion week today, on the third day, I dim the light of my cell phone and make myself comfortable on the coach with a freshly brewed coffee to catch up with the shows that I didn’t get to watch during the day. Right, I enjoy night time “me” hour with coffee after the family members are gone to bed. By the way, I’ve finally learned to use my coffee machine as I avoid bars and coffee shops as much as I can. Sometimes I even dare to experiment with my coffee.

Cut to the chase, I keep clicking IGTVs one after another and at some point close my eyes to see what has remained with me so far – the total palette of earth colors flicker in front of my eyes. I feel like, wait a second, really, starting from milky white to dark brown – the earth colors (colori della terra) do make considerable part of all collections. Now, seeing this repetitive pattern takes my thoughts to another pattern that I’ve been observing. Albeit, more detectable than and not as subtle as this one – many stories of inspiration revolve around going back to roots, home, family and traditions.

I know it may sound bizarre what I am going to write next. The first question comes to mind is how one is related to the other. Yet, if someone ever wondered, here is one possibility of why and when we tend to turn to the earth colors (and how these two things are related).

Secret tone of the earth colors

We perceive earth colors in association with the Earth (as it is obvious from the name). The earth symbolizes home for us. Home is where we belong, safe harbor, our mother and ultimately defining feature of our identity. No wonder, when we go poetic about it, we call it ‘mother earth’. In a sense, the earth, (la terra) is the great mother, the container of life – from where we come, to where we return. Without making it more complicated let’s get to the point.

Now, when in difficulty, what is the first urge we feel? For most, the urge is to go back home, parent’s house, that small village where each piece of stone is so familiar to us, where tranquility reins and nothing seems to change. All too familiar, right? We long for that unfailing serenity. This basic formula has myriad ways of manifestation in our behavior.

Wish for homecoming in making

One is what, I dare to say, we’re observing on the runways now (oh, well, also on our screens too). In disquieting times like this, we involuntarily crave to back home, our safe place. The cacophony of the time we live in, political uncertainties, environmental crisis, social movements, the pandemic that has crippled the world make us look for a solid ground where we’ll feel safe again and feel in charge of our lives. Earth colors in all its shadows are manifestation of that need for comfort, serenity and certainty.

Yes, I love fashion for so aptly interpreting the cries of our souls and compensating the missing aspects of our lives through design.

I guess, by now, the correlation is quite clear between the earth colors and the stories of “going back home”. The colors and patterns D&G presented are very strong. Yet, the theme is revisiting the patchwork tradition of Sicily with a grotesque set design. Fendi, in sharp contrast to Dolce & Gabbana, dedicated the collection in delicate tones to family traditions. And my most favorite so far, with refined aesthetics Luisa Beccaria showcased family ties in the most poetic way possible.

Yes, just like that. To my humble opinion, the longer we have to endure hard times like this, the more we are going to see romantic, nostalgic, yet structured pieces and tranquilizing or solid dark colors running down the runway or coming to our screens. Especially, in fashion of the continental Europe. Unlike Anglo-Saxon fashion, which takes more of an outward stance, the fashion of the continental Europe is wish-making at work, especially, in hard times, to bring visual compensation for what is missing in our lives.