In
the Etro
main collection for menswear Spring Summer 2012, "sailors,
playboys and intellectuals all meet up amidst the colours and
fragrances of Provence". Sounds like quite a gathering indeed.
Tony Stark the "genius billionaire playboy philanthropist"
would surely approve.
The assembly
of sailors, playboys and intellectuals is itself decked out in a
brilliant (in both senses of the word) combination of clothing.
Nothing less than what we'd expect from Kean Etro, a maestro of
colour and pattern (John Galliano and Paul Smith lay good claims to
that title as well), whose runways showcase the wildest mix of hues,
checks and paisleys that somehow avoids becoming kitschy. Bringing
these groups together may simply be an exercise of artistic license,
an excuse to bring together even more patterns and styles of clothing
for creative purposes. Yet there may be something more lying beneath
the aesthetics. Marcel Proust encouraged us to reach a suitable level
of receptivity, with which we can learn as much from a soap
advertisement as from a pensée
by Pascal. Let us now attempt to do so from a fashion collection.
