Des_Phemmes FW24 at Milan Fashion Week

Des_Phemmes FW24 / Fall Winter 2024 at Milan Fashion Week

Des_Phemmes FW24 collection was born from a transversal and intimate reading of one of the most influential personalities of the last century: Photographer Carlo Mollino. An esthete, a visionary artist and transformist, who with the constant search for beauty and harmony has experimented with the most disparate artistic languages, from architecture to design, up to photography.

The starting point and most interesting aspect for designer Salvo Rizza, however, is observation of Mollino’s artistic dichotomy, on the one hand the public and most famous works, on the one hand the architecture severe and with a futuristic design, on the other a more intimate, almost unknown, surrealist Mollino, who is expresses itself in the design of Casa Mollino and in the polaroids discovered after his death; and that’s right Salvo Rizza focuses on this most intimate part and begins a journey of fascination.

Few know the photographer Carlo Mollino, in whose polaroids he immortalized women he met in his office walk, known or often even unknown, who were asked to pose for him, women interesting, unique, which he “imprinted” on film as if they were works of art. From the same approach, Rizza’s collection is born, designed for different women but with strong traits in common defined feminine characteristics.

Casa Mollino is a nineteenth-century villa in the Turin area redesigned by the artist between 1960 and 1968, a treasure chest of art rich in symbolic references, which becomes the manifesto of his creative vision, in which Opposite elements apparently coexist: an interior telescope that lives without being lived, in which the artist puts himself but will never live. A melting pot of styles and colours, whose furnishings and colors become inspiration: animalier carpets become skirts and mini dresses with a zebra motif maxi sequins embroidered by hand in shades of black and white, to be worn with wool polo shirts cashmere taken from the men’s wardrobe and embellished with entirely embroidered collars, a stylistic signature of the brand. Likewise, cowhide rugs are reinterpreted on tailoring garments silk and cotton velvet with photographic print: midi wrap skirts and embroidered details a contrast or trousers with stud splash combined with lurex knitwear.

Just as design elements in strong, bold colors stand out in the house, so does the palette of Des_Phemmes FW24 collection comes from a perfect and unbalanced mix and match of apparently nuances and textures contrasting but which overall are in harmony, creating a new and eclectic language.

Colors that apparently do not coexist become each other’s support and it is precisely from theirs unusual combination that are enhanced: acid green, navo yellow, wisteria and pink but also grey, black, beige and nude color duchesse, cashmere, ecofur, cotton and denim.

Clear references to the men’s wardrobe acquire a new meaning through plays on volumes oversized on feminine, slim and delicate silhouettes: the gray and beige grisaille suiting is worn with high-waisted bras and culottes in French Chantilly lace in pastel shades, a departure from hers original function as an underwear garment and becoming an integral part of the looks you want to show.

A the sensual and never vulgar appeal of the high-waisted lace culottes, which references those boxers underneath typical jeans of the 90s presented in previous collections, and which can be glimpsed today in the Des_Phemmes FW24 proposal with oversized trousers and fully embroidered midi skirts worn with oversized poplin shirts stick or worn as shorts with double-breasted duchess jackets with a brilliant fit dry and very short. Like the jackets, the skirts also become micro, becoming even more embroidered and with an accentuated A-line and are worn with mini cardigans that hide maxi shirts from masculine flavour.

The body-knitwear is tight like a second skin, the lurex ribs follow the curves of the body, lines of great inspiration for Mollino in his famous furnishings.

Details of Des_Phemmes Fall Winter 2024,the embroideries, matrix and characteristic element of the brand, are inspired by the works of the Turin artist, from the evening dress with embroidered fringes that recall the ceiling of the Teatro Regio in Turin, to the sequins embroidered on skirts that reflect futuristic shapes and lines with 3D roses, hand-forged and blooming on couture-inspired minidresses and pencil skirts.

The Des_Phemmes Fall Winter 2024 collection tells of a woman who wanders around the spaces of Casa Mollino, with hypnotic movements and a simple but strong sensuality, as if the house were her habitat, interpreting her and carrying it on him. A woman who makes her this eclectic and silent sensuality, like those women portrayed in the artist’s famous polaroids in which, in a fortuitous way, environments of the house there are the only incredible testimonies of the time.