The room was buzzing with good vibrations as Etro family and friends walked alongside professional models, all of them dressed to impress themselves alone. Veronica Etro cheered them from the front row — her husband Alessandro Frigerio was in the show, as were two of her nephews, Swann and Gerolamo Etro — while the walkers low-fived as they passed each other, trying not to laugh. One even strode down the runway with his dog.
It was — who else — Kean Etro’s idea. He invited artists, architects, poets, a tattoo expert, a classical dancer and a saxophonist into his world, and asked them to pick pieces they loved from this laid-back collection that had a hippie trail feel to it. “It’s a gathering of friends,” he said before the show. “We wanted to show them with their imperfections, and we wanted them to feel good in what they were wearing.”
Cue one of the most laid-back tailored clothing collections this city has seen for a while and a refreshing antidote to all of the rapper and sports-inspired street style that’s flooded shop floors worldwide. Etro telegraphed the message that tailored doesn’t have to mean buttoned-up, and that a suit can be as comfortable as a pair of pajamas — and still look terrific.
Models — some of them barefoot, others in sandals — wore suits with boxy jackets, sleeves and trouser legs rolled; wide-leg jeans, and loose, drapey cardigans. There was pattern everywhere, from blurry Ikat on trousers, tops and jackets, to more traditional plaids and checks for languid linen suits. Colors were inspired by the blue of the sea, as in an indigo denim safarilike jacket. Let’s hope the man on the street takes note.
