Mood board: There is a dandy raffishness to Rocco Iannone’s Pal Zileri. His debut for the house last season brushed off the uptight bourgeois mood of heritage tailoring and took inspiration from the Villa Valmarana ai Nani in Zileri’s homeland of Vicenza. S/S 2019 takes a darker turn. Portraits of men gazing at their reflection in fragmented mirrors were shared online in the run up to the show. Iannone wanted to explore the status of vanity: ‘Vanity is a virtue corrupted. In this collection I have exorcised it through a gallery of portraits, seen through the lenses of virtues, splitting essence and appearance,’ he wrote. The look is easy. Three piece suits are worn open, trousers cropped. Floral motifs are original 19th century patterns. A silk flora print scarf is set into the front of ribbed knit.
Best in show: As with Marni’s Francesco Risso and Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, Iannone’s shownotes are impenetrable whimsy but his clothes have a plush clarity to them. Take the lustrous jacquards, heavy weave linen blazers worn with tailored joggers, or the gently acid-wash, carrot-top jeans matched with a butterfly motif silk-jacquard dinner jacket. The candid pairing of textiles is opulent yet relaxed.
Sound bite: Counter to the digital get-up-and-go of our times, there’s a literati loucheness to Iannone’s vision. ‘I believe we can translate poetry and romanticism into this world – it doesn’t have to be flat. It can be an incredible source of beauty and inspiration, a fountain of information that allows us to discover and be connected to millions of ideas that otherwise would be impossible to know,’ he said after the show. ‘The digital world is shaped by us, so it can be marvellous if we let it.’
