Ode To Milan: Seasonless Design At Gilberto Calzolari Fall 2020.

By Lucas Pantoja

Milan, Italy — “Tilt System” the title of the Gilberto Calzolari fall 2020 show and the designer’s latest innovative fashion week endeavor, resulted in a collection presented as a progressive approach to seasonless design, reflecting on the current dealings of sustainability and over-consumption. Calzolari held the show inside the modern walls of the Volvo studio in Milan’s popular Garibaldi district, an area surrounded by high-end design constructions well-known for its instagramable Bosco Verticale, a set of towering residential buildings coated in plants. The Volve Studio interiors were a fusion of artificiality with nature and a modern-day take on design, the towers a complimenting resemblance to Calzolari’s collection. The designer’s intentions were clear, the environment is at the forefront of his brand’s DNA and design ethos.

With eco-friendliness at the core of Gilberto Calzolari’s ethics, we found many commemorable efforts of sustainability besides the noted seasonless design approach in the production, which ultimately made up the uniqueness of the garments themselves. The wools came from regenerated yarns, satins made from the recycled polyester of pet bottles, 100% organic and GOTS certified silks, faux-furs, and interestingly enough, broken umbrella sheets upcycled into dresses.

Gilberto Calzolari fall 2020 (photo: courtesy Gilberto Calzolari)

Designed with the intention of being reassembled in a multitude of ways for seasonless wear, the collection balanced qualities of older, more traditional and rather masculine-winter-like fashion with a complimentary-softer, spring-summer side. We found houndstooth wool patterns colliding with bold pastels and neons. Prints of dynamic stripes paired with abstract shapes portraying the look of a sophisticated consultant jetting in and around the fashion capital, while revived vinyls and neoprenes spoke the glam of pop fashionistas. A loose and flowy silhouette could be seen in the many silk garments which featured prints, making up a fair portion of the collection, as well as the sheer dresses and skirts which layered over tops of certain looks. The footwear kept a continuous flow; not straying away from the same cracked-icy, white-and-black print, but altering from boots to heels complimenting some looks better than others.

What seemed like an ode to the city of [Milan] was a print of the city’s symbolic Duomo and Castello Sforzesco layered over a silky two-piece look, The nostalgic design entered towards the end of the show at which point the thought occurred if the collection itself wasn’t an ode to the Italian fashion capital.

From its moments of rich flamboyance paired with gray-traditional aspects, to the effects that efforts of sustainability had on the aesthetic — the final result had a strong resemblance to the cities mix of baroqueness with modernity. A mix which would well-suit only the true lovers of logoless, slow-fashion garments from smaller-scale designers, and those consumers who can swallow the price-tag which follows.