To be continued: Dress for excess

Some call it "post-pandemic hedonism," others prefer to refer to it as a movement, a kind of roaring twenties of the 21st century. Whatever the case, the truth is that fashion is going through a phase of euphoria that is mirrored in the trends we now see a little all over the place. After years of athleisure and discretion, it's time to choose the pieces that scream "main character energy."

In March 2021, exactly one year after the start of the pandemic, Jonathan Anderson presented Loewe's fall/winter collection in a (very) peculiar way: by publishing a Loewe newspaper, which read, on the front page, "The Loewe show has been canceled." The 900 people who would normally attend the show, and who were confined, got the publication, which made it into the weekend editions of titles like Le Figaro or The New York Times. What was also in that newspaper was an excerpt in Danielle Steel's latest book, The Affair. The justification, according to Anderson, was the "opportunity" that the moment provided. The collection, full of geometric patterns and electrifying colors, followed the same line of thought as the English designer: "Hedonism is switched on," he told Another Magazine. "People are desperate to have a tactile relationship with the world again. [...] I can see that there will be the birth of the nightclub again. If I’m desperate to go to a nightclub, then I don't even want to imagine what a 16-year-old must be feeling..." It was this feeling, this excitement, that heralded the coming seasons of Fashion Weeks.

"Don't be afraid to be ordinary, just boring," Diana Vreeland used to say, for whom excess was always better than simplicity. Her critical eye would be dismayed by the coyness and modesty that, for many years, marked the collections of many designers. The taste for minimalism, which began as a way to put the maxim "less is more" into practice, turned into a kind of cult that annihilated any attempt at humor and fun - fashion took itself too seriously for too long. Until a strange, alien virus came, which pushed us home and forced us to wear sweatpants twenty-four hours a day. We had nowhere to go, no reason to get ready. That childlike joy of choosing what to wear in the morning was lost, and for almost two years we were hostages to a uniform whose sole purpose was to be practical and comfortable. Of course, after that, the bubble had to burst. People were tired of looking in the mirror and seeing cotton sweatshirts with pimples. Where was the glamour, the extravagance, the va-va-voom? Just around the corner.

Fast forward to spring/summer 2023, where almost all the collections scream euphoria and excitement. From Coperni to Blumarine, Moschino, Altuzarra, Roksanda, Gucci, Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha or Loewe (not forgetting Giambattista Valli, which despite being more couture than ready-to-wear, surprised with candy tones and playful cuts), almost all the brands bet on out of the box looks, which celebrate the beginning of a new phase, in which the constraints of the pandemic are definitely behind us. Long gone are the days when we could only go outside for a few minutes. Now is the time to celebrate the return to life, with ruffles, satins, lace, latex, and all the materials we avoided for too long. The too-short dresses, the tiger-pattern leggings, the sequined jackets, the XXL sunglasses, the lamé blouses that scream '80s... all of this is valid, because it all screams happiness and magic. As Iris Apfel said in the documentary in which she recounts her memoirs, "style is curiosity and a sense of humor." This is the time to choose the pieces with the most personality from our closet. Those are the ones that have "main character energy."