Fashion news from Falconeri, Shanghai Village and Prada
Falconeri
Falconeri opens its Shanghai store at Taikoo Hui.
Falconeri, an essential brand for lovers of cashmere and natural yarns from Italy, opened its Shanghai store recently at Taikoo Hui, the second boutique in Chinese mainland after its Beijing flagship. At the same time, it launched its Fall/Winter 2020-21 collection, which combines the sublime elegance of cashmere with on-trend, eclectic style.
Ethereal and delicate, the Winter Melody of womenswear series takes shape through pieces in a palette that encapsulates its essence, from ice to powder grey and from cream to taupe or white.
The refrain of the collection remains comfort, in oversize cuts that are nevertheless short. Ultralight cashmere cardigans are paired with bateau necklines and must-have turtlenecks.
Lightweight sweaters are as soft as snow. This season, the new material is cashmere-silk yarn with an abundantly plush, delicate effect, used to make the collection's roomy oversize cardigans; striped pullovers and accessories such as scarves and hats.
Warm, welcoming tones such as burnt sienna, brick red and moka come alive in a selection of garments with an everyday contemporary feel. Plaid, tartan and houndstooth prints enliven coats inspired by menswear, perfect to mix and match with pullovers or cardigans in ultralight or ultrasoft cashmere.
The men’s collection, pure, enigmatic and multifaceted, pays tribute to the great nature. With the goal of a primordial return to Mother Earth, color becomes the protagonist of Falconeri garments, from cashmere to other natural yarns. The thread of the tweed collection embodies this ideal, mixing various hues and highlighting the natural tones of the earth, and water in shades of blue.
Rust in all its gradients echoes the colors of falling leaves in autumn, while army green provides stability and harmony in cozy sweaters and unlined jackets.
Cashmere or merino wool offer strength and warmth, while a focus on knits and textures ensures a unique look for each piece. Interplays of weaves and stitches bring out the beauty of the yarn, making it a must-have for the upcoming season.
As a premium fibre, cashmere offers a discreet charm. Falconeri sticks to high-quality clothing with Italian artisan skills and innovative production systems, and succeeds in combining luxury yarn with affordable, democratic prices.
From Mongolia to the Avio manufacturing plant in the province of Trento, the cashmere fibres are acquired from afar, without the use of intermediaries, before being skilfully worked on Italian soil.
Falconeri believes in eco-conscious manufacturing, paying attention to ensure that people and the environment are respected. The brand supports two important international organizations, the Cashmere & Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute to protect the interests of consumers, producers and retailers by maintaining and guaranteeing the integrity of cashmere, and Sustainable Fibre Alliance, which acts to benefit the flora, fauna and cashmere processing chain in Mongolia.
Shanghai Village
Shanghai Village has lots to offer in the golden holiday week.
With the approaching of double-festival Golden Week (the National Holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival), the joyful spirits are running high these days in the city.
Shanghai Village, a European shopping destination in the Pudong New Area, presents its just upgraded version with 20 new luxury brands settling in, and offers a variety of activities for shoppers, foodies and party animals.
The new-coming brands are sure to enrich your autumn/winter wardrobe. Loro Piana from Italy gets you warm this winter with its high-end cashmere and wool products, and Longchamp famed for its bags and small leather goods reinvents the French vision of elegance. Chinese lingerie brand NEIWAI connects women with its commitment to body diversity and self-expression, while the contemporary streetwear-inspired collection Ports V encourages empowerment and free expression through style.
Bone china and porcelain maker Wedgwood brings traditional skills and fine designs, while the balancing, a global select shop, opens the pop-up store for the city’s fashionistas to get the coolest items around the world.
Gourmands can find their niches at the fine restaurants by the riverside, and children and their parents can enjoy a bonding time at the Jegoplay Too, a kids’ park.
Adjacent to Shanghai Disney Resort, Shanghai Village, known as “Yi Ou Lai” in Chinese, opened in 2016 and is the latest addition to The Bicester Village Shopping Collection, one of the world’s leading luxury shopping destinations. It has grown into a collection of 11 such villages in Europe and China (Shanghai and Suzhou in Jiangsu Province).
Featuring 1920s Art Deco influences from Milan, Vienna, New York and Paris, Shanghai Village is home to around 200 boutiques showcasing international and Asian fashion and lifestyle brands.
Prada
Prada Spring/Summer 2021 womenswear show
Prada held its Spring/Summer 2021 womenswear show last week online, live-streaming from Milan, Italy. It was the first collection made in collaboration between the co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons.
The century-old villa Rong Zhai on Shaanxi Road hosted the special runway show as a parallel venue in Shanghai, starring the city’s celebrities, musicians and artists. It was also broadcasting live to more than 42 million viewers on Prada’s social network platforms in China.
The collection explores the notion of uniform, touching on multiple different interpretations of that concept — a uniform of Prada, of a community, a visual representation of identity, of shared and embraced values, a way of thinking. Clothes are pared-back, refined, focused, without superfluous decoration: shell tops, straight pants, overcoats in industrial re-nylon, constructed using couture techniques, suits executed in fleece.
A requisite component of uniform is simplicity: recognition, reducing clothing to an essence. The wrap, a precise rectangle of fabric, is a logical outcome of this mode of exploration of reduction, also a symbol representative of the collection’s overall considerations. Proposed in the different fabrications that comprise the collection — T-shirt jersey, fleece, re-nylon, embroidered duchesse satin, chiné taffeta — its intention can transform from protection to decoration, utility to adornment.
“I was thinking of how I have perceived Prada over 25 years — and one thing that came out instantly was uniform. A uniform gives a sense of community. In a context of reduction, the idea of a uniform is a representation of longevity,” Simons said. “We felt all the time like reducing — to something that feels essential in meaning, essential in the actual piece. Simplicity, purity, honesty.”
The physical environment of this virtual fashion show, conceived by OMA/AMO, was a personal, intimate space. Technology appears as chandeliers of monitors and cameras: decoration and use combined. The soundtrack, composed for the show by Plastikman, British-Canadian electronic musician Richie Hawtin, included the names of every woman modelling in the show — an entirely new cast who had never walked a runway show previously. For all of them, this marked a debut.
