Etro Releases Documentary on Fall 2023 Fashion Show’s Behind-the-scenes
MILAN — Etro is offering its audience a glimpse of the behind-the-scene action that precedes a fashion show.
Released on Wednesday on the brand’s website, Instagram account and YouTube channel, the “Radical Etro” documentary directed by Beniamino Barrese retraces the preparations for the house’s women’s fall 2023 fashion show in February.
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Rather than revealing a hectic portrayal of those moments, the video stands out for its overall calm mood, its tone set by the soft-spoken narrative of creative director Marco De Vincenzo, who throughout the 20-minute movie shares thoughts on his work and role at the brand, including doubts and expectations before unveiling his second women’s collection for the brand.
“How am I feeling? I am scared of running out of time, to not have the time I need to build a story,” De Vincenzo said in the opening scene. “When you [are a person who] take a long time to change, this race against time is slightly unnatural. It’s the only thing of today’s fashion which I find difficult to accept.”
In another scene, he candidly said that “it’s difficult to be the one who is expected to renovate. Especially for one like me, who is very attracted to the past and looks at it perhaps with a kind of nostalgia.”
“I am here to pay respect, but also at the same time to turn things upside down. It’s a difficult role because respect is essential and yet, at the same time, it represents an obstacle,” he added about his job at the company that put him in charge of its women’s, men’s and home collections last year.
Mixing colored and saturated footage, the video retraces three different moments in the lead-up to his sophomore women’s show for the brand: three days, three hours and three minutes before models hit the catwalk. Throughout these, De Vincenzo is seen involved in the casting process, readying the looks with stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, working on the soundtrack, as well as perfecting the lineup a few minutes before the show. These scenes alternate with an interview of the designer seated at the Etro headquarters in Milan, in which he reflects on fashion at-large, too.
“Fashion is important because it is the very first means we have to express ourselves,” De Vincenzo said. “I don’t rely on fashion too much to communicate who I am, but I really love the people who do that, those who use fashion to communicate their personality. I believe that we do this job for these people, for those who wait to identify with what we do. And I believe this is the reason why [fashion] will never die: because we will always need to dress in a way that represents us, even if we choose to [wear] nothing. That will be a choice, too.”
As reported, for the Etro fall 2023 collection, De Vincenzo fully embraced the company’s rich textile legacy, reviving one if its earliest renditions of the paisley, mixing it with florals, necktie patterns, checks and the gradient stripes that were a feature of his own signature namesake brand. It also spotlighted his fascination with blankets, as he swirled a series of colorful, patterned ones over models’ torsos in a charming styling touch that marked the show.
The collection was dubbed “Radical Etro,” which is also the title of the documentary. “Today to be ‘radical’ means to have the courage to even move backward at times. To reconstruct, to demolish, to make mistakes, to do it all over again,” De Vincenzo said.
“Nobody is interested in selling a product right now. We are all here to tell its story, which is wonderful,” he said in a scene. “It will become a product from the moment it will appear on the catwalk, and it will need to be liked. But this time frame is a purely creative one, it’s almost immaculate. And this is amazing,” added De Vincenzo, who will unveil his new womenswear collection for the brand on Sept. 20.
In sync with the documentary’s strategy of engaging with the audience on an emotional level with storytelling that would go beyond products, last week Etro also teamed with Spotify to take over the “Runway” playlist for the upcoming Milan Fashion Week, with a selection of 61 songs chosen by De Vincenzo.
Available on Spotify’s new hub “The soundtrack behind the runway,” which features selected tracks from creative talents across the fashion cities of New York, London, Milan and Paris, De Vincenzo’s playlist encompasses tunes by famed Italian artists such as Lucio Dalla and Milva and international ones by the likes of Thom Yorke, FKA Twigs, James Blake, Jon Hopkins and LCD Soundsystem, to name a few.
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