In September, Marco De Vincenzo will take over as the creative director at the Italian fashion brand Etro. Thus, the men’s spring summer 2023 collection is the last to be presented by Kean Etro, the founder’s son and creative head of menswear since 1990.
As a man with a deep love for the written word, he wanted his last collection to be a celebration of poetry. Rather than just send the ubiquitous invitation to the collection’s unveiling, Kean had actors call the hundreds of individuals on the guest list, and recite personalised poems to each one.
“Poetry, today, is something utopian: it balances the purity of sentiment with the need to be grounded, pragmatic, and productive,” is how Kean outlines the ethos of the collection. Seemingly eclectic pieces – “stripping down to maximize” – bend harmoniously through the art of layering.
The show followed the path that a day takes in its journey from morning to night. It opens with the white and neutral delicacy of the morning, burns in the zenith light, and sparkles in a starry night run by metallic threads. There was a luxuriant abundance of flowers, and motifs featuring the house’s signature patterns.
Pieces on show included a broad spectrum of selections – caftan, kimono, souvenir jacket, a blazer closed by an obi, a seemingly immaterial duster coat pullover, breezy shirts, very long shirts, and boxing shorts.
Some of the materials are partially transparent. The perforations of the broderie anglaise run on t-shirts and shirts, in the transparencies of impalpable materials such as the silks of the caftans, the linens of suits and metalized cottons, under the flow of crushed satins in the tailored suits, in the swimming trunks worn with a shirt. Volumes are soft and accompany the movement. Shoes with rope soles and sandals complement the idea of lightness.
