Brioni’s AW 09/10 Women’s wear: Brioni’s Creative Director Giampiero Arcese speaks with SQUA.RE’s Olivier Bassil

Brioni’s Autumn/ Winter 2009 Women’s fashion show in Milan presented a stunning new line that combined bold architectural forms into soft feminine gestures. Complete with the appearance of iconic 80s model Marpessa Hennink walking down the runway, this season for Brioni was an unforgettable turn towards a future of inspiring and empowering women’s fashion.

Established just after World War II, the house of Brioni has become the benchmark for Italian custom-made clothing. Renowned for finely tailored powerful business suits, the attitudes and ethics of Brioni has dressed celebrities such as Clark Gable, Kirk Douglas and Gary Cooper as well as politicians and presidents. A Brioni suit is now a timeless treasure that makes an iconic statement through elegance and poise with a distinctive individuality. In the 1990s the brand started its very own women’s line in order to combine the success of its sophisticated handcrafted tailoring with female designs.

The 2009 womenswear collection highlights the talent of current creative director Giampiero Arcese who is taking the brand to another creative dimension. Giampiero draws from an inspiring range of historical and cultural elements, history and art for his designs. SQUA.RE’s Co-founder Olivier Bassil caught up with Giampiero in Milan for the show last week to learn more about Giampiero’s fascinating creative process, inspirations, philosophy and hopes for the future of the Brioni brand.

OB: The Autumn/Winter 2009 Brioni Women’s Fashion Show was truly magnificent and memorable, and it has been termed ‘ultra modern and almost futuristic’. It was a true pleasure to be there. What inspired such striking creations and such a unique show?

GA: Inspiration does not always come from one single source. It is more like the result of different images or feelings that your own sensibility is able to turn into others. In the case of this collection, what I had in mind since the beginning of my research was the need to incorporate different moods. The first one of them looks at the world of the warrior nobility of the Japanese samurai, with the geometry of their armor and the strictness of their carriage. Japan and its tradition has always been an extraordinary source of inspiration for me.Another mood which appealed to me strongly is represented by the historic period between the end of the 20s and the beginning of the 30s of the last century. It is the period in which the emancipation of women started to become a reality and the iconography linked to this idea had such great expressions. Try to think, for instance, about Tamara de Lempicka self-portrait driving her green Bugatti!! I find that painting still amazing and modern today, very representative of the independence and the power that the “new woman” began to have even in the cultural environments of the period.

I’ve incorporated such aspects in my creations for Brioni’s catwalk during the Milan Fashion Week last February, putting them all together like in a blender, adding to these higher ingredients, like some frames from the movies (Blade Runner) and, also very important to me and to the philosophy of the Brand, a lot of cashmere! The result has been what you call an “ultra modern and almost futuristic” collection.

OB: What inspired you to choose iconic 80s model Marpessa Hennink to walk down the runway for the show? How did it contribute to the spirit? And what were any other special characteristics of the show?

GA: Marpessa has always been very well known for her independent spirit and for her original interpretation of the most famous designer’s creations. I first met her when I was at Valentino’s as a junior designer and was impressed by the her mixture of elegance and freedom that she is able to give to the dress that she wears.I think that Brioni makes clothes for people with a certain kind of personality, people who don’t want to be overwhelmed by fashion. Quite the contrary, they refuse any kind of compromise solution with fashion. Marpessa represents exactly this idea. Besides, by showing women of different ages on the runaway, I tried to stressed Brioni’s capability of using all the ages because, in my opinion, modern products have to respond to this kind of requirement.

OB: What is your creative philosophy today, after your work through such prestigious names as Valentino, MaxMara or Ferre, and how do you apply it to the philosophy of the Brioni brand?

GA: I think that the chance I have to interpret the womenswear of a Brand like Brioni is quite unique because Brioni is synonymous of real luxury, which is something that goes beyond fashion itself becoming an “iconic” reference for all those high-level consumers who really appreciate quality!My philosophy here at Brioni is to support and to highlight the unique capability the Brand has to create quality; all the people involved in the womenswear project, pattern makers, tailors and craftswomen, have an extraordinary ability to cut and manipulate fabric, to drape it around the figure in order to make it more elegant and beautiful than I’ve ever seen anywhere else before in my work. Using these solid foundations it is possible to create a contemporary style that will last in our consumer’s closet. This is the reason why, when I think about the Brioni woman, I take inspiration from art and tradition– never-ending values, mixing them together with the fantastic heritage of the Brioni brand more than following a specific trend of the season. I certainly think my research for Brioni womenswear should always go towards that objective.

Images: Giampiero Arcese, Tamara de Lempicka Self-Portrait Green Bugatti (1929), Marpessa Hennink at the Brioni’s 2009 Autumn/ Winter show in Milan

Watch Brioni’s A/W 09/10 Women’s Wear on Giampiero’s SQUA.RE Channel.