Once the spotlights on the San Remo stage had been turned off and the countless controversies that followed had subsided, the time had come for an analysis of what was seen in terms of fashion trends. There is no denying that for an insider, attentive to trend phenomena, the song festival cannot go unnoticed; the well-kept and carefully studied outfits of many top brands descend on the steep staircase that gives access to the stage. My reflection would like to focus on Chiara Ferragni's communicative discourse, trying to explore what she wanted to tell us through the work of the Dior and Schiaparelli fashion houses, keeping strictly distant from any controversy that she provoked with verbal discourses.
To do this it is necessary to try to enter the sophisticated coding and decoding mechanism of the communication product set up by the Milanese influencer. It is necessary to equip oneself with the tools that allow the interpretation of the narrative codes, encapsulated in the looks that followed one another during the two evenings of presence. In fact, the task of Chiara Ferragni's communication is, and has been, to package in the best possible way a discursive rhetoric that the workers have the task of decoding at a deeper level than that of the meaning of verbal language.
The first release, that of the “Pensati Libera” stole was certainly sensational and created a short circuit of interpretations. Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first artistic director in the history of Dior, created a black satin dress taking up the "Corolla" style, one of the most significant of the New Look revolution implemented by Christian Dior at the end of the 1940s. But what is it Was it the “New Look” if not the hyper-feminization of forms? The silhouettes of that era were characterized by the emphasis of the bust and hips through the creation of a wasp waist, shaped and high chest, round hips with a wide skirt that fell below the calf. A revisitation of a style that had been archived by Mademoiselle Chanel together with whalebones, guêpières, waist cinchers and meters and meters of fabric from the long pleated skirts of the late nineteenth century. The New Look was enormously successful but sparked endless controversy; it was considered offensive towards women, almost an invitation to nineteenth-century social stereotypes.
“Pensati Libera” acted precisely on this interpretative mechanism, in some respects oxymoronic, which is one of the most important signs of fashion in recent years, strengthened even more by the last prime time release in which Chiara Ferragni freed herself from a tulle skirt supported by a sort of crinoline cage inspired by the works of Jana Sterback. In 1989, the Czech artist created an aluminum structure similar to a gigantic skirt, mounted on self-propelled wheels and controlled via remote control by a second person, a sign of loss of control over her own movements, and ultimately, over her own essence as a woman . Chiara Ferragni, freeing herself from the skirt/cage/crinoline structure, emphasized this gesture of liberation.
The second evening, dedicated to the Schiaparelli maison, was if possible even more iconic. Less known to the general public than Dior, Schiaparelli has been a maison closely linked to the world of art since the beginning. In particular, Elsa Schiaparelli's interactions with great surrealists such as Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalì, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. Daniel Roseberry, creative director of the maison, full of surprising and innovative ideas, has created a common thread between surrealism, the original style of the maison, the recent fashion shows and Chiara Ferragni's looks.
A gold armor sculpted on the influencer's bust combined with a light blue satin petticoat, a symbol of sacredness and motherhood, undoubtedly represent the perfect continuation of the clothes created by Elsa, such as the "Lobster Dress", rich in symbolic meanings and considered a ante-litteram feminist manifesto. Other clear references to the origins of the Schiaparelli maison were the long velvet dress with plunging neckline and necklace representing parts of the female reproductive system (similar to jewels already seen on Schiaparelli's latest catwalks) and the corset with embroidered pearls in the shape of abdominals, reference to the iconic "Skeleton Dress", created by the designer in collaboration with Salvador Dalì.
All excellent ideas to enrich and stimulate the imagination of creatives.
Rossano Bisio
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