Filippo Biraghi and Simone Botte made their reputation years ago with a shrunken, upcycled look. Today, they question the fashion system’s perfunctory acts of progress through thought-provoking collections.
Simon Cracker’s Filippo Biraghi and Simone Botte are soldiers. Their AW25 show, in much as could be discerned, was about the struggle to survive the system’s downturns. In the end, their crowds, dressed in various pouchy, billowing layers that might have been made up of brushed cotton deadstock and cosy patterned bedclothes, walked imposingly and unabashedly.
Maybe they were waiting to visualise what Biraghi and Botte meant by their intent for the collection, Pearls to Swines. The audience was trying to figure that out, too. “We make major efforts that produce almost no results because the fashion world is in shambles, and things are not going the way they used to be,” explained Biraghi post-show.
“So we decided to make fun of the rich people and create a parody,” he continued, noting that the disconnect between what’s perceived and the reality has become unbridgeable, given the little there’s left of fashion that lives in a bubble that has nothing to do with real life and clothes (be they fast fashion or luxury) no longer interest anyone.
“We also questioned the elements that sit between price and value, as everybody knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” he added. “We decided to make it fun by printing or painting on vintage bags, like the iconic Birkin or on designer scarves which are not original: Even if it turns out not right, for us, it’s fine.”
The designers wove a wealth of colours into the picture, tying traditional English grandmothers’ chocolates with the construction techniques linked to previous collections: knots and patchwork garments were held together by industrial bands, punctuated by the continuous experimentation with different dyeing techniques.
“This collection is a provocation,” remarks Biraghi, “because we’re not happy and no one’s happy, but no one’s doing anything. The fashion business goes on like everything is fine and normal, but it should go in the streets to see what’s happening”.
Their take on fashion is just like a battle filled with hope, as they continue to push for progress amid a system that continuously fails to support their practice. “The issue is that the whole business has to be rearranged, but no one’s taking care of that because it’s easier to go on like normal,” they opined. Still, the designers are nothing if not (cultural) soldiers. You’d hope there was still room for some of that spirit in this strange new world.
by Chidozie Obasi