United Standard Men’s Fall 2019
“I was talking about the theme to my friend Virgil Abloh from Off-White. I was like: ‘Imagine a rave party in a factory in Italy where there are people making cars and at the same time there are all these lasers,’” said Giorgio Di Salvo, who, for his first official show, “Factory Progresso,” sought to show the technical streetwear DNA of the brand but also a concept.
For those who managed to get in, it felt like a local family affair, with the crowd emitting whoops as their friends did a turn before taking a pew on one of the bright yellow benches precisely positioned on yellow tape within the space.
Dressed in a black hoodie paired with a black zipped jacket and matching pant embroidered with crossing fine lines of white ribbon, the first guy out — someone you wouldn’t want to meet down a dark alleyway — looked more like a bouncer type. Ditto for the fellow a few looks down dressed in a black high collar leather jacket closed with a logo belt, with contrast white stitching and flap pockets.
Di Salvo focused on simple boxy shapes in industrial materials. That extended to a run of suits made from Cuben Fiber or Tyvek, with the designer adding details like drawstrings at the ankle and patch pockets and collars in black rubber.
More approachable was the streetwear in BMX and metal-head-style tribal flame graphics, while a black ensemble covered in optical 3-D concentric lines recalled David Bowie’s black-and-white Tokyo Pop jumpsuit with bowed legs designed by Kansai Yamamoto.
In the mix were two slogan T-shirts designed in the collaboration with Abloh, a total look made with Kaleidoscope magazine’s Mirko Borsche, and a range of hook-ups with local artists.
Clearly well supported, Di Salvo with the cargo pants with stitching details and spirituality slogans seized the Nineties moment while managing to keep it personal, with friends coming together to celebrate a labor of love, some of them toting supersized bags in photo prints of cocktail shakers.
Launch Gallery: United Standard Men's Fall 2019
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