This fashion month has dressed up in feathers

To write the fate of next autumn's trends, this fashion month welcomed a riot of feathers, covering the shoulders, arms, breasts, and legs of models in Paris, London, New York, and Milan. We will spare you the list - endless, it seems that even the men of Neanderthal used to wear them - of all the times feathers have appeared in the history of fashion, and limit ourselves to reminding you that in every era they have been a symbol of social status and self-celebratory decoration, for soldiers of the Crusades and Native Americans, as well as for Marie Antoinette, Cher, and Renato Zero. From what emerges from the latest fashion shows, during the next cold season, we will return to show off our feathers like the aforementioned, but instead of the colored plumage of rare birds,  we will take inspiration from the ultra-dark or snow-white plumage of more ordinary crows and geese.

The first who brought feathers to the catwalk in recent years - although this year Valentino's collection was one of the last to be shown - was certainly Pierpaolo Piccioli, who had already launched one of the most eccentric looks ever in 2019 with his Spring-Summer Haute Couture collection. For the Fall Winter 2023, Piccioli has reintroduced feathered details in a less showy way, sticking to white or black hues by decorating with soft edges office-wear shirts, and keeping that slice of eccentricity only in a Cruella Demon-style ostrich feather coat. The look brought to the catwalk by Valentino in collaboration with make-up artist Pac McGrath in 2019 was instead taken up by other brands: in Milan by Moschino and Dolce and Gabbana, who declined it in a punk and lingerie key, and London by Richard Quinn and Burberry, offering it on modest silhouettes, decorating a white lace coat and a wrap-around electric blue dress.

Even young designers have proved to have demanded a lot of feathers. For his debut at Ann Demulemeester, Ludovic de Saint Sernin designed two monochrome opening and closing looks that complement each other, consisting of two skirts and two long goose feathers, intended to cover the models' nipples. More structured, on the other hand, were the feathered designs of Dilara Finndikoglu, who created a bikini set by experimenting with dove grey, and a sheath dress with a corset covered in black feathers like the accompanying latex gloves. Vaquera's designers also combined the sexy and the soft remaining on achromatic tones but mixed ostrich feathers with transparent nylon. Few brands proposed feathered trimmings in a color other than black and white, including Sportmax, which created a collection in apricot tones, Bottega Veneta, where Matthieu Blazy beautifully composed a coat in turquoise wavy lines, and finally JW Anderson and Loewe, for whom the designer respectively used bright green feathers, and a T-shirt and Bermuda suit imitating the coat of a blue and white bird, Woody Woodpecker style. Perhaps inspired by films featuring feathered protagonists that strongly impacted mainstream culture 10 years ago, such as Black Swan(2010), Birdman(2014), and even Maleficent(2014), and Hunger Games: Catching Fire(2013), for next autumn the designers are dreaming of an army covered in black and white feather cloaks, not as flashy as Cher's 1970s costumes, or even those of the dancers at the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, but still as sumptuous and sexy.