It is not rare to spot connections between specific catwalk shows and recent art events or exhibitions, but Delpozo's S/S 19 collection, showcased during London Fashion Week, was indirectly well-time with the first Venice Glass Week.
This festival celebrated different artists and designers who work with glass through installations, workshops, lectures and guided visits.
Delpozo's Creative Director Josep Font was tuned on the same wavelength since his S/S 19 collection moved from an Italian artist well-known for his colorful Murano glass pieces - Fulvio Bianconi.
Bianconi worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, collaborating with famous brands, from publishing houses to companies such as FIAT, Marzotto and Pirelli.
After the Second World War he was commissioned by the Gi. Bi. Emme company to design perfume bottles and began working with glass manufacturer Venini in Murano, an experience that eventually led him to launch unique collaborations with local artisans.
Among Bianconi's iconic pieces there are multicoloured patterned designs and ethereally fragile "fazzoletti", that is vases shaped like handkerchiefs.
Connoisseurs of Bianconi's ouvre will undoubtedly spot in the ruffles decorating Delpozo's jackets and dresses echoes of Bianconi's handkerchiefs; in other cases Font referenced Bianconi's patterns in casual trousers, shirts and tunics in striped silk georgette, or borrowed the abstract glass motifs locked inside Bianconi's vases to mould the shapes and silhouettes of his coats and dresses.
One floral dress that appeared towards the end of the show seemed to have a strong connection with the red and white dress of one of Biaconi's glass sculptures.
Glass was the main reference behind light summer knits and weightless evening dresses with transparent silk tulle panels or with translucid organza with pink neon motifs, but it was also evoked by light natural fabrics such as linen for practical and functional garments, matched with embroidered gladiator sandals with transparent vinyl and resin shards.
Flowers - the second inspiration for this collection (Font usually combines in the same collection at least two different ideas) - materialised as floral patterns in a wisteria palette, in sequin embroideries and in the headpieces representing the branches of a wisteria tree.
As a whole this was a less architectural and more graphic collection compared to the previous ones, but the way Font interprets an idea or an inspiration through fabrics, shapes and silhouettes, remains intriguing.
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