THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAYERING: MISSONI AUTUMN/WINTER 2011-12

Angela Missoni talks tweeds and yarns with Zoot Magazine and reveals while she loves reinventing the staples of a man’s wardrobe.

Text by Anna Battista

When Ottavio and Rosita Missoni first presented their knitwear collections at Florence’s Palazzo Pitti in the late 60s, they charmed the American buyers who dubbed their creations as “put together” designs. Indeed, Missoni’s garments allowed customers to freely create their own style: people could pick and mix jumpers and trousers, skirts and tops, creating perfectly coordinated or uncoordinated outfits according to their personal tastes.
This was Missoni’s main strength and Ottavio and Rosita’s daughter Angela, current women and men’s wear Creative Director at the Italian fashion house, knows this very well. For the Autumn/Winter 2011-12 menswear season, Angela sent out on the Missoni runway models clad in multi-layered styles, accessorised with floppy suede hats. There was a trick, though: none of the layered items – shirts, cardigans, bomber jackets and scarves included – seemed cumbersome nor cluttered the silhouettes and the movements of the models. The trademark zigzagging motifs and abstract geometrical textures weren’t missing, but there were also intarsia creating interesting decors and cobweb-like elements and the focus was on double-faced and reversible items, from jackets to trousers.
Being based on a natural palette of dark blues and greys alternated to maroon, camel and warm browns, with occasional sparkles of colours – from red and orange to electric blue mainly employed in the details of shoes and gloves and in the flecks of the quilted wool jackets – the Autumnal collection promises to be definitely softer compared to the Spring/Summer 2011 season currently arriving in the shops, but it will also score high on three points, wearability, versatility and, above all, saleability.

Zoot Magazine: How would you define the Autumn/Winter 2011-12 collection?
Angela Missoni: It’s a soft collection, but it also reflects the fact that I do have a very different vision of men’s wear compared to women’s wear. Bright colours literally pop out of the current Spring/Summer collections, so for the next Autumnal season I decided to opt for a relaxed palette and more subtle and sober moods. I guess it was only natural to go down this way since, when you work as a fashion designer, for the next season you always want to do something that’s completely the opposite compared to what you did for the previous season. Anyway, there are colourful elements also in this collection: if you see the new designs from a distance you think it’s very soft, based on a natural palette of blues and greys, but, as you get nearer, you realise each piece is actually very sophisticated and each one features a lot of strong colours, especially in the small details such as the buttons.

Zoot Magazine: What kind of yarns did you choose for this collection?
Angela Missoni: A blend of different yarns. We combined alpaca with Shetland, mohair and tweeds to create contrasts between raw and softer elements, evoking in this way the essence of masculinity. Though there are a couple of bulkier designs in thicker yarns, the collection is prevalently made of light knitwear pieces that can be easily layered one on top of the other.

Zoot Magazine: What fascinates you about menswear?
Angela Missoni: I find quite interesting the fact that there are mainly male journalists who come to see the menswear shows and, usually, they tend to imagine themselves wearing the pieces they saw on the runway as soon as the catwalk is over. They sometimes come and tell you, ‘I could already picture myself in this or that design’. I find this extraordinary since they seem to instantly be able to project precise pieces from the collection into their own wardrobes even more than female journalists would do after seeing a womenswear show.

Zoot Magazine: There are quite a few reversible designs in the new collection, do you feel that this trick allowed you to play a bit with the garments, reinventing them?
Angela Missoni: When it comes to a man’s wardrobe, there is a limited number of items you play with, for example a jacket, a coat, a cardigan, a shirt, a V-neck, round neck or turtleneck jumper and a pair of trousers. You usually buy a piece and then mix it, wearing it as you want, while womenswear can be a bit more complex. Yet, I still find menswear incredibly inspiring because, moving from these basic items and working into them subtle or playful elements, you can still come up with innovative designs and add some zest to your pieces.

All images courtesy of Missoni.