The emerging Italian brands that showed at Paris Fashion Week

It is rare for an independent Italian brand to succeed abroad, as competition is always ready to assail newcomers with criticism, all the more so when 'abroad' means Paris, the universal capital of luxury, haute couture, and therefore exclusive fashion. This week, however, two very young names made their way under the Parisian skies of Fashion Week SS24, affirming the white-red-green presence alongside the more renowned Prada, Valentino and Marni. This September, Niccolò Pasqualetti and Lessico Familiare wrote a new page in their careers, perhaps even influencing that of Italian designers to come.

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

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Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

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Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

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Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

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Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

The first up-and-comer to show on the catwalks of Paris Fashion Week was Niccolò Pasqualetti, who presented the SS24 of his eponymous brand in a white setting, decorated only by soft white cushions. In a context devoid of colour but nonetheless intimate, Pasqualetti's designs studied the limits separating opposites: the natural and the synthetic, the formal and the informal, night and day. «In a white space, you see things for what they are, and forget where they came from,» read the show's press release. Since the inception of his brand, the designer has been combining earthy elements and classic tailoring by juxtaposing classic silhouettes with androgynous styling, and his SS24 did not fail to do so either. A feeling of surprise infused the atmosphere of the show thanks to Pasqualetti's ability to add personality-rich details to clothes fundamentally rooted in tradition, at times winking at irony, others motivating reflection. In his new collection, Pasqualetti explored how leather can look like foil, cotton can become cardboard, while silver metal runes gave each look a dark edge, prompting the viewer to wonder if the collection was really designed for the elegant streets of Paris, or perhaps for Mars. In any case, the show once again demonstrated Pasqualetti's sartorial expertise and his penchant for playful juxtapositions, a combination that heralds, through clear stylistic codes, a prosperous artistic direction.

Credits TI_DEMURO

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Unlike Niccolò Pasquetti, who manufactures in Tuscany but decided to base his brand in Paris, the presentation of Lessico Familiare at Paris Fashion Week was a step away from home. The brand, founded by Riccardo Scaburri, Alberto Petillo and Alice Curti, collaborated with forte_forte for poem for a guy - the inspiration comes from Elton John's Song for Guy - in a show created with the aim of disintegrating «the archetypes of the male wardrobe with a future-nostalgic, seductive, alive and real approach.» For this collection, the designers chose to bring their classic nostalgic codes to the French capital by allowing lace and denaturalised milleraies shirts to pose among the tables of a Parisian café. Actively following the rules outlined in the brand's early days, pyjamas, fru fru and trench coats lost their historical rigour and took on a new aesthetic. At first glance an innocent-looking collection, even a bit child-like, poem for a guy looked defiantly at the fashion insiders of Paris, suggesting that they go back a few years and think back to when play, the purest form of art, was still the most important part of the day.

Interviewed by nss on the occasion of their first fashion show in Paris, Scaburri, Petillo and Curti remarked on the sense of pride felt by the Lessico Familiare team during these days. «Presenting in Paris, definitely more of a city than the capital of Lombardy, had an incredible flavour,» the designers said, recalling how the choice to present at the Progrés bistro was strictly in line with their brand's DNA. «A democratic place and on the street, so that collection and passers-by could mix without distinction.» Just like the trio's decision to bring their brand to Paris, the collaboration with Forte_Forte came about very spontaneously, among friends and in respect of slow fashion, as both brands have always done. Starting from Giada Forte's archive in Veneto, the collaborative team «merged methods, working on the ground and immediately recreating the outfits, or rather the characters, that then came to life in Paris. Forte Forte deals with womenswear, but for this collaboration we recreated all the archetypes of the male wardrobe by assuming it was worn by Shakespearean characters.» Does the reference to the English playwright allude to an upcoming show in the UK capital? «We're so nostalgic and lovers of the past that I couldn't tell you if we'll be in some location in Milan or on the sofa at home watching Gone with the Wind tomorrow,» the designers admit, but add: «We're not ruling out some other lessicata abroad though!»

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Credits Cecilé Bartoletti

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And so this Paris Fashion Week played host to the newcomers right beside the cornerstones of Italian fashion, alternating the tenacity of Prada's narrative and the incurable romanticism of Valentino with the extraterrestrial freshness of Pasqualetti and the melancholic fable of Lessico Familiare. On the one hand, two maisons that still have a lot to say despite the fact that their history began several decades ago, and on the other, the beauty of youth that in the Italian industry always struggles a bit to make its way into the limelight brought by two fresh talents. This fashion week was a success for the four emerging designers, as well as for those who, from the wood of a desk or the metal of a sewing machine, still hope for a fashion that is more inclusive to those who deserve it and less obsessed with Instagram numbers.