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Huge news in the Philippine fashion industry, Filipino-American RhuigiVillaseñor takes up the mantle of creative director for Swiss luxury fashion house Bally, a post that has since been vacated for five years.
Villaseñor presented his debut collection for spring/summer 2023 (SS23) with Bally in Milan, sending a hybrid of vintage-inspired references down the runway.
The collection incorporated a bright display of Animalia, leather, plush velvets, as well as airy fabrics in white, navy, yellow, and citrus green. The silhouette veered between a playful but sleek ’70s look and a billowy bohemian with lounge-style button-down tops and trousers, which appeared befitting of the sandy beaches of St. Tropez or the sunny hills of Los Angeles.
Cotton and silk tops slightly overlapped with the vibe of his previous offerings at Rhude, a prolifically rising LA-based label founded by Villaseñor, while roomy denim shirts and jeans vied for the runway spotlight, denoting a sense of casual luxe.
Key standouts were the boxy, double-breasted suiting, a stark, canary yellow trench coat, men’s snakeskin leather sandals and boots along with Mary Jane-inspired flats, contrast-colored leather shorts, and soft weekender bags.
Tapping into the brand’s past, Villaseñor used the slim and iconic BB interlocking logo on belt buckles, fasteners, bag closures, and sweatshirts.
Looking back on the house’s 171-year history, Bally has become widely known for its leather craftsmanship in shoes and handbags. In the early days of hip-hop’s surge in the ’80s, the brand became popular on the streets due to rappers like Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick praising its athletic footwear, helping the brand break through as one of the originally hyped designer sneakers. Prior to Villaseñor’s appointment, the label was under the direction of Pablo Coppola from 2014 to 2017, which saw a slight resurgence in creativity and celebrity endorsement.
Stuart Vevers’ spring 2023 collection, meanwhile, premieres in New York with an exploration of Coach’s American heritage through the lens of circularity, fluidity, and celebrating the beauty of imperfection and pieces designed with multiple lives in mind.
Coach’s creative director instigates an expressive view of luxury in which circularity, heritage, and pop culture mingle to project a new value proposition for fashion and luxury. The collection consists of ready-to-wear and bags crafted of repurposed leather jackets and football leather, remade into one-of-a-kind pieces, as well as charmingly love-worn handknit fisherman’s sweaters and distressed denim workwear.
To underscore the collection’s theme of remixed references to the past, these pieces were juxtaposed with short gingham dresses, finished with black lace, and overdyed varsity sweaters—Americana subverted with attitude. Also introduced were new imaginations of the Tabby bag, seen for the first time on the runway, in a messenger style, and in a colorful jelly material, a nod to the beachy undercurrent of the line up.
“With spring, I wanted to evolve notions of luxury that place an emphasis on perfection. Inspired by the next generation’s fluid approach to fashion, the collection celebrates pieces that become more beautiful the more they are worn and loved, and references to the past rediscovered in the present,” explains Vevers. “To tell this story on the runway, I imagined a Coach world inspired by New York City’s piers, a place with a unique cultural legacy, and a unique feeling of possibility.”
Held at the Park Avenue Armory, the runway presentation took place on an imagined, dream-like pier inspired by the evocative histories of the wharfs of New York City as sites of creativity and found communities.
The show opened with choreographed vignettes where characters of the Coach pier pass through the space and interact through moments of happenstance. Set at sunrise to convey a feeling of romance and possibility, the imagined world evoked a sense of escapism grounded in the energy of the city, like New York’s piers and beaches.
Part of the presentation is the unveiling of singer and songwriter Lil Nas X as a new global ambassador for the luxury brand in his first-ever runway appearance.
“I was also thrilled to partner with Lil Nas X on his first runway show as part of our presentation—he is the epitome of the next generation’s inspiring approach to self-expression,” says Vevers.
“It was such a fun experience being part of the Coach show and walking on my first runway ever,” beams Lil Nas X. “I’m super excited to make my debut as a face of Coach, a fashion house that believes in a lot of the same things as me. I can’t wait to share all of the other amazing things I’ve been working on with Stuart and his team very soon.”
The first ambassador to be announced within the house’s new chapter of “Expressive Luxury” and its vision of inspiring confidence in the next generation, the multi-platinum artist will bring to life the house’s legacy of innovation and courageous self-expression through campaigns, collections, and more. Lil Nas X’s first campaign for the house to be revealed next month.
The show is available for livestreaming on Coach’s social channels.
A new dawn for Ferragamo
Maximilian Davis ushers in a new dawn for Ferragamo with his first-ever showcase as the house’s new creative director since March.
“I wanted to pay tribute to Salvatore’s start by bringing in the culture of Hollywood—but new Hollywood. Its ease and sensuality; its sunset and sunrise,” explains Davis.
This fresh language of luxury blends contemporary clarity with the purity of the Florentine drape. Ethereal elegance materializes through sheer knits, liquid silk, and layers of organza, but appears grounded by suede sandals drawn from renaissance reality, and the tangible allure of polished accessories.
The languid, beachfront glamour of new Hollywood is subverted by flashes of fetishism, glossy leathers, second-skin fits, and micro shorts. Elevated everyday essentials, from tank tops to polo necks and leggings, appear almost perverse in their simplicity.
Effortless knits are wide-woven to reveal the skin beneath, or so fine as to appear translucent. Even eveningwear is imbued with insouciance. Drawing upon the sparkling red shoes Ferragamo made for Marilyn Monroe in 1959, the collection appears scattered with crystals, the Hollywood hallmarks of glitz and glamour refracted anew.
Tailoring twists the classically masculine tropes of ’80s executives into a modern wardrobe, perfectly-proportioned, louche refinement formed from fabrics often reserved for womenswear.
The tuxedo is imbued with new energy shirting cut in silk organza and cotton poplin, collars or sleeves removed. The Wanda bag, first introduced in 1988 and named after Salvatore’s wife, is reinterpreted in sleek new proportions, while a prismic shoulder bag carries a sense of minimalist modernity. “I want each piece to feel playful, but also desirable as an object. To stand on its own,” adds the young designer.
Organic forms are translated with linear precision. The new Elina heel is clearly defined, while the revival of a cut-out bag, now realized in polished leather with a contrasting canvas inner, echoes the undulating shapes of sculptural jewelry. Floating scarves appear streamlined while archival prints are reduced, redrawn, and reimagined. Draped into new forms, they revitalize the formative codes of the Ferragamo DNA. “It was about looking into the archive and establishing what could be redefined to become relevant for today,” says Davis.
A palette extracted from Rachel Harrison’s Sunset Series degradé prints and handdyed knits, from optic white to deep indigo, buttersoft yellow, and sky blue. A new Pantone red formally codifies the brand’s iconic hue, dominantly visible both throughout the collection and within the show space, coloring the sand that covers the floor. “The sand relates to Ferragamo, to Hollywood, to the ocean, but also to me, and to my own DNA. To what the sea means to Caribbean culture—a place where you can go to reflect and feel at once. I wanted to show that perspective, but now through the Ferragamo lens.”
The presentation took place in the palace of the former Archbishop’s Seminary of Milan, which was commissioned by Saint Carlo Borromeo in the 17th century and remains considered a historic model of Baroque and Neoclassical architecture. Now the subject of a conservation and renovation project, the seminary will soon host the Portrait Milano hotel and a new destination in the heart of Milan featuring boutiques, restaurants, and a garden space.
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