NEW BORBONESE FALL-WINTER 2012-13 COLLECTION

On 26th February 2012, during the Milan Fashion Week, Borbonese held a special event to present the new Fall-Winter 12-13 Collection.

Travel and the Orient are the inspiration for this new collection Gabriele Colangelo has designed for the brand. The designer has chosen the ethnic and tribal details of Oriental carpets and sharp and rigorous lines to create pieces in bright hues, inspired by the colours of the earth, spices and the natural pigments of hand-dyed mats.

It is like a rainbow that goes from burgundy to ochre, from cobalt blue to beige and emerald green, tobacco and antique gold and the darker shades of anthracite and dark brown.It is a wardrobe that has its strong point in the refined, sumptuous and unique materials, produced exclusively for the fashion house by French and Italian professionals of luxury.
There is the jacquard cloth woven directly with fringes, the mat made with a mix of tapes in wool, lurex, cotton and mohair, silk printed with tribal stripes and patchwork and satin crêpe like suede to the touch.
In the knitwear, on the other hand, materials range from camel wool to jaspé slub yarn in wool and polyamide and to cashmere and Lycra for stretch. The fabrics are skilfully accompanied by inserts or linings with the bird’s eye pattern, the unmistakable motif that has distinguished Borbonese creations ever since its foundation.

The pieces are designed and created for a refined woman, who does not wear close-fitting clothes but is very sophisticated, choosing hemlines at the knee, exalted by in-depth research on cuts and geometric pleating. When the Borbonese woman travels and is on the move, she dresses in soft shapes that mark the waistline, silk shirts tucked into slim cigarette pants, low-waisted dresses alternated with classic shifts and hooded capes open at the sides. Because, as the history of the fashion house teaches, elegance is not about  flaunting shapes but style.

The touch of glamour comes with the blue, cobalt and grey shaved mink furs, and with the fox stoles which are anything but sober although at the same time very refined and “branded” by the classic gold screw, which is the symbol of the company.
On her feet, the traveller can wear comfortable low-heeled boots, adorned with mink and with inserts in leather and python, as well as, when it snows, moon boots in rabbit fur with a cord with the natural bird’s eye pattern. There is also fur on the staggeringly high heels, as well as on the ankle strap of the plateau shoes. Python makes the pumps, which are also offered with the bird’s eye pattern and with an open toe, even sexier.

The scarves reproduce in full the patterns of the carpets following Colangelo’s wishes. The scarf, an iconic piece of the fashion house, works everywhere, tied around the head, the neck or tied to bags.

The rhythm and the colours of the clothes also return in the accessories, bags, purses and clutches with the vertical loom-woven tote bags and with inserted metal screws, the arrogantly chic duffel-bag in two-coloured fox fur inspired by Berber carpets with bird’s eye inserts and a shoulder strap, the patchworks in nappa leather and python lozenges, forming stripes of colour for clutches, again with hand-made chain shoulder straps. The bird’s eye pattern and metal also appear in the costume jewellery, proposed in five series: Traforo, Smalto, Camoscio, Galassie and Old Logo.

GABRIELE COLANGELO
Gabriele Colangelo is at his third collection for Borbonese. This year the mood for the collection was inspired by travel. As he explains, “Travel appeals to the style of the fashion house that since its birth has made “travelling from one place to another” its elegant and refined motto. But it also refers to the travelling I did to find the inspirations and colours in the world of Tibetan and Nepalese carpets.” The fluid forms, which certainly were not created to show off curves, represent for the designer “an idea of femininity that is soft and subtle and absolutely discreet. I have always liked the idea of letting air pass between the fabrics and a woman’s body.”
He conducted many studies on the fabrics before arriving at this collection. “The Lurex and twisted wool textures I used were so rare and precious that each piece supplied was only five meters long, and the same goes for the fringes that fall directly from the weaving.”
The colours are a mix of warm and cold tones, a lot of colour on geometric cuts and handmade pleating.
Months of hard work went into this collection, which Colangelo designed for a woman twenty-five and above, without a precise look, a lover of real luxury that is discreet, not flaunted. She has excellent taste and good manners, with just a touch of contemporary transgression.