Jacob Cohën presents new collection by Matthew Adams Dolan in a unique Milanese location – an artist’s studio
The American designer’s first physical presentation for Italian denim brand Jacob Cohën took place in the working studio of Italian artist Luca Pignatelli
![Jacob Cohën runway show](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nko9oVjYVTShFKaLzxj3zA-415-80.jpeg)
‘Jacob Cohën is a very elegant brand, but it required that kick to move into the fashion world,’ artistic director and president Jennifer Tommasi Bardelle told Wallpaper* earlier this year of her decision to collaborate with – and later appoint as head of women’s collections – American designer Matthew Adams Dolan. Having run his eponymous label from New York, he is perhaps best known for his link with Rihanna, collaborating with the musician on her LVMH-backed Fenty fashion label.
Yesterday (21 September 2023), as part of Milan Fashion Week S/S 2024, Dolan held his first physical presentation for the label, showing a S/S 2024 womenswear collection in a unique location: the Milan studio of Italian artist Luca Pignatelli. Pignatelli (born 1962) is known for his intricate large-scale images which often feature elements of handcraft – one image of a city’s skyline is adorned with hanging pocket watches – though the sparse, warehouse-style studio itself, found in Milan’s former industrial district, has the feeling of a New York loft.
Jacob Cohën by Matthew Adams Dolan S/S 2024
As such, Tommasi Bardelle, who collaborated with Dolan on the collection and was there to support, felt the space captured the spirit behind their own partnership – part wardrobe for urban city living, part expression of Italian artisanship (Jacob Cohën is renowned for creating some of the world’s best denim, all made in Italy).
‘[It is] a special location,’ read the collection’s accompanying blurb. ‘It is Milanese, but has a distinctly international look. A touch of New York, in a space that blends together fashion and art.’
Models lounged around the studio – lying on furniture or flicking through books in the artist’s expansive floor-to-ceiling library – which the organisers said had not been used for a fashion presentation before (a rare occurrence for Milan Fashion Week, where show locations are usually familiar season on season). The collection itself was befitting the setting’s low-key mood: a crisp white shirt was worn with blue jeans with a simple wraparound detail (as if a denim scarf had been loosely tied around the waist), while a lightweight zip-up utility jacket and matching trousers came in matching denim with a gentle fade.
Colours reflected the brightness of the space – it is lit with a series of windows across the roof – with crisp whites and ‘citrussy’ shades of lime. Dolan noted inspiration from the 1980s for the collection – an era which has long fascinated the designer – here evoked in wide-shouldered tailoring and overcoats, or sporty split-seam shorts crafted in denim.
‘I’ve always been drawn to the idea of denim being this democratic part of your wardrobe,’ Dolan previously told Wallpaper*. ‘It’s easy to wear, it’s familiar – all these things that continue to draw people to jeans.’
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Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
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