Les Copains (Q1183)
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Italian fashion label
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Les Copains |
Italian fashion label |
Statements
2008
creative director
designer
Les Copains is an Italian label known for high-end knitwear in noble fibers and sporty yet elegant outerwear. For Pre-Fall, the collection didn’t stray from the label’s comfortable yet streamlined style. The Les Copains woman is unfussy, but she appreciates quality and a discreetly luxurious idea of chic.Fabrics were rich and tactile, like double cashmeres, mohairs, and baby alpacas; they formed loose-fitting and easy silhouettes, as in a trapeze-cut caban with knitted details or an elongated duster in tones of stucco and dove gray. Touches of Lurex and small sequins were woven into houndstooth wools and mohairs, giving a graceful allure to masculine-inspired pantsuits worn with oversize sweaters or sporty duvets paired with track pants in fluid jersey. The mood was kept balanced and relaxed; a fuchsia three-piece suit gave a jolt of energy to an otherwise calm, controlled lineup. Elsewhere, a tapestry jacquard motif was printed on cashmere for short city coats worn with matching sweaters; they would make for an easy option for the everyday.
3 December 2018
This was purportedly the 60th anniversary show of Les Copains. Yet the press notes said the Bologna knitwear brand was “founded in the 1960s,” which seemed both a little vague and mathematically inconsistent with the whole anniversary thing. Italian Wikipedia said “the late ’50s” which was a bit better, but Les Copains’ own website held no mention of the founding year at all: strange. Before the show, a singer who was said to have won an Italian TV talent show performed a cheesy ballad with breathy gusto. And then came the collection.It was alright. All-white at first, and then strafed with a lot of gold yarned stripes inflected with sequins and some slate gray suede, this was a curious mix of stylized—sort of—nautical pieces and something else hard to identify. It certainly bore little relation to Tilda Swinton’s performance in Sally Potter’sOrlando, which was cited in the notes. Another mystery here was why some of the models wore gray suede cuffs. The knitwear was clearly finely fashioned, but the guiding hand behind its design seemed tentative and parochial, even with such a massive maybe-anniversary moment to live up to. If Les Copains wants to get to its 70th anniversary—whenever that might actually be—it should try harder.
22 September 2018
For Resort, Les Copains showcased an easy-wear style much in keeping with the label’s heritage. Launched in the ’90s as an Italian luxe knitwear brand for a high-spending clientele fond of weekends in Portofino and St.-Tropez, it was mostly about chic sailing-inspired staples, like navy blue loose-fitting knitwear blazers, Breton-striped fine-gauge cashmere sweaters, and comfortable white linen pants—a high-quality bourgeois look for the holidays and free time that could be adapted as a daywear wardrobe for the city. The new lineup tried to capture that same spirit, updated by current style standards.Navy blue was kept as the collection’s foundation, for sporty drawstring pants worn with masculine cotton shirts embroidered with lace or nylon zippered cabans, where frills and striped ribbons added a feminine touch. The signature striped motifs were in evidence in a fluid black-and-white knitted pantsuit or in an elongated linen daydress. Elsewhere, a city parka and an easy-fitting blazer were made in a cotton denim woven with a chevron pattern; paired with loose cropped pants in a shade of indigo, they had a dynamic, urban attitude.
28 June 2018
Stefania Bandiera cited Capucine as this collection’s muse, and her models wore mussed coiffures and cat-eye mascara as an homage to the aristocratically cheekboned French heartbreaker. Some of the looks, especially in the second half of the show, you could easily imagine Capucine getting into: a rib-knit blue coat over a belted pale blue bibbed shirtdress, or a blue wool peacoat over a bed-edged, deepish-V sweater paired with a wide-leg pant. It’s hard to argue with a finely cut camel coat with a printed leopard collar, and a look that paired a rounded-lapelled suede mid-length trench and black rib-knit with a caramel suede mid-length skirt and a patent boot was equally fault-resistant.When Bandiera edged toward more decorated or déshabillé looks (sometimes both), it quickly became less credible that a woman with either the intuitive cool of Capucine or any contemporary perspective other than provincial provocatif would readily cast herself in them. Just one example was an otherwise perfectly fine pair of roomy khaki pants and a coat that was half black suede, half aubergine knit that came teamed with a pale cardigan way, way too unbuttoned. There were other egregious examples. Italy’s gender politics are pretty culturally specific to Italy—everywhere is different and you have to respect that difference—but if a brand wants to resonate beyond its own shores, it should consider the bigger picture.
22 February 2018
Due to a mishap with one of the shuttle buses, there was time to kill before this Les Copains show. Plenty of time—we listened to almost all of the first Massive Attack album—to really linger over the press release.Unlike the soundtrack, the release was sometimes discordant. “Experimental use of tulle” sounded ominous. “Cross-fertilized folk aesthetic” boded ill. And its promise that we were going to see clothes infused with the spirit of Mexico, nautical style, and Millicent Rogers (the last-century socialite and alpha male–scalphunter), read like one of those painfully expensive menus full of ingredients that surely couldn’t get along.Once the bus turned up, the collection proved tastier than the rhetoric. By no means an earth-shattering game changer—oh no—this was still peppered with perfectly fine bourgeois-boho pieces that slowly classified themselves (in this fevered mind) as Etro-superlight. That “experimental” tulle translated into the full sleeves of a weird—but not arrestable-offense weird—whorled white shirt-jacket hybrid worn over black shorts. The “socialite” stuff seemed to be the boyish backless dungarees and cricket jumper–silhouette knitwear over full skirts. The colors, the texture of the knitted and ribboned bodices and jackets, and the jewelry were all—you could see—elevated Milanese fashion Chipotle. If one blanked out the fedoras to focus on the maxi dresses (when they weren’t sheer) as well the boots and the jewelry, this was a Les Copains collection to consider making friends with—or at least acquaintances.
21 September 2017
According to Les Copains’s entertaining press release, Stefania Bandiera’s collection’s muse “exists between a dreamy world filled with stars and butterflies, and the nightclubs where she lives out her fantasies.” I know: You’ll have what she’s having, right?Initially, though, her collection seemed disappointingly tame. A quite fine but intrinsically un-dreamy gray bird’s-eye check overcoat—albeit one worn over a leather bustier, big pants, and a sheer mohair skirt—was a mature but un-fantastic opener. After a few more looks that flirted aggressively with restraint, including a fine full skirt in a check wool mix under an astutely assembled gray cable-knit sweater vest, Bandiera began to exhale.Those fantasies began to seem more fantastical via two tinsel shockers—one coat, one sweater—worn with black blazers over sheer shirts; lace or sheer miniskirts that were powerfully Hermione-Granger-gone-bad; and striped socks accented by coats of arms. Yet this collection, although sometimes locally specific in its revelatory instincts, remained relatively rooted in a reality. The knitwear was really very beautifully and expertly done, although the aesthetic it expressed was less exciting to this eye than it could and should have been.
23 February 2017
When Stefania Bandiera designed her Spring collection forLes Copains, she did the right thing: She thought about the needs and concerns of real women. The only glitch was that the women she had in mind were the female adventurers of the late 19th century—those who had to “conceal [their] truth, wearing male clothes to head out on a journey.” Well, no longer! Now the female adventurer can pick from Bandiera’s variety of silk and linen cargo pants and safari-inspired ball skirts, or hit the road in a crocheted bikini under a transparent tulle skirt, a raw-edged linen vest, and a silk shirt flung wide open at the sternum. For the true tomboy (or perhaps the adventurer who misses her roomy menswear), there were a number of boxer shorts possessing the occasional cargo pocket and paisley print, and even a fly—for show, if not for actual use.Les Copains’s history and prowess with knits played to its advantage: Sheer and sultry beach cover-ups were witchy and alluring in black, with blousy sleeves and short, fluted hems, and a skinny striped knit dress worn over a sheer flowing layer solved a lot of seasonal layering questions in one go. But where Bandiera found the most success was in her slouchy, open-weave pullover knits and cardigans. Paired with loose striped silk trousers and a bikini, they were ready for a decidedly modern adventure.
22 September 2016
Les Copainsis proud of its history as a knitwear brand and, at its Fall 2016 show, creative director Stefania Bandiera aimed to provide a sweater for every inclination. There were cropped black and gray turtlenecks to pair with trousers of a 1940s sensibility (what the designer dubbed a “Marlene Dietrich” cut “mixed with aBelle de Jouridea”); sweeter intarsia pullovers with a pattern of cherries and the occasional puffed shoulder; maxi cardigans and micro pullovers; and intricately embroidered thin mohair sweaters worn as dresses for those who have a punkier yen for their yarn. And while, admittedly, there was something maddening about nearly every perfectly good turtleneck possessing a giant hole running from the shoulder blades to below the bra strap, the clavicles bared by the soft ribbed knits—which were slung across the body in the manner of a ballerina, post-recital—did have a gracefully undone appeal.But for those not in need of a knit? Well, as most under-layers were either entirely or nearly transparent (and presumably that is where theCatherine Deneuvefilm came in), the focus beyond the soft and nubby was primarily on outerwear: double-face satin trenchcoats with ribbed trim; parkas with oversize hoods; and, happiest for trend hunters, several different iterations of the street style must-have du jour, the bomber jacket, seen here as slightly oversize in fur, knit, Prince of Wales check, and jacquard.
25 February 2016
The Far East has been exerting an influence on some of this season’s catwalks. China and Japan are obviously more than booming markets; paying homage to their cultural heritage while enticing a massive customer base with a huge spending potential is on every brand’s radar. At today’sLes Copainsshow, creative directorStefania Bandierawas following the already ripe trend. Backstage she mentioned a muse who was “a modern Madame Butterfly, a contemporary geisha, an educated traveler, an art lover.” Being a contemporary geisha might seem like something of an oxymoron, but Bandiera appeared positively unfazed. Kimonos and samurais, cherry blossoms and peonies, exotic birds and birch forests, Ming porcelains and lacquered reds, camellias and Silk Roads: With the exception of Marco Polo, all the obvious references were present.The collection was built around the elaborate jacquard and knitwear techniques for which Les Copains is known: Circle skirts with asymmetrical hems were paired with folded bustiers cinched at the waist with elasticated obis or worn with thick hand-knitted micro tops; short peplum dresses were cut with an elegant origami draping effect. High-waisted trousers were elongated and fluid; they were topped by short, sporty blousons made with what Bandiera called “virtual, illusory knitwear,” a sort of virtuoso technique of weaving an extremely thin yarn to achieve a delicate, barely there look. They added a modern, energetic spin to a collection that, despite all the overly literal, hypercharged references, looked quite balanced and wearable.
23 September 2015
The '70s are one of the most enduring inspirations in fashion. Recently they have been globally ubiquitous, reaching some kind of saturation level—as if one had been forced to eat too much of the same thing. As a trend they have also been twisted and stretched to capacity in an inordinate number of different directions, most of the time providing just a thin veneer of "cool" references to many collections—often to disguise a sheer lack of original ideas. That said, the '70s were such a groundbreaking time in so many ways that it is impossible to resist their visual and cultural appeal. Stefania Bandiera, creative director at Les Copains, joined the bandwagon today with her own interpretation.Backstage she referred to the usual list of society and movie icons: Bianca Jagger and Ursula Andress were favorites; for once Talitha Getty was not mentioned. Bandiera ticked off all the boxes, throwing Picasso into the mix with his famousArlequinpainting, which served as an inspiration to Yves Saint Laurent for one of his most celebrated collections. The homage was on display in a long cardigan paired with a floor-length skirt in soft mohair knitted with diamond patterns. Other '70s staples were scattered among the lineup: chiffon blouses with billowy sleeves, fluid high-waisted pants, oversize sweaters on elongated skirts.Knitwear—definitely the pièce de résistance for Les Copains—was provided in a variety of textures, embroidered and embellished. Along the way, the '70s feel was somehow lost in translation—combined with masculine elements, it morphed into a more streamlined look. Sparkling Art Deco-inspired custom jewelry came in giant-size replicas of dragonflies and butterflies that were difficult to miss. Pinned on lapels or scattered around necklines, they added a surreal, extravagant twist to quite an eclectic mix.
26 February 2015
Les Copains has always focused on experimenting with innovative knitwear techniques translated into a classic style. The company was founded in the '50s by Mario Bandiera, and through the years a whirlwind of designers has collaborated with the house—Antonio Berardi, Albino D'Amato, Antonio Marras, and Alessandro Dell'Acqua, to name a few—trying to push the brand forward in the fashion arena. Results have been mixed. Graeme Black, who worked on the last collection, has left to concentrate on his own line. This season marked a turning point: Bandiera's wife, Stefania, has been made artistic director, bringing control and direction of the creative team back within the family.Stefania has been with the company for a long time as one of its principal designers, so she understands its DNA. Backstage at the show today, she exuded calm and a polite sense of confidence. She delivered a balanced, wearable collection, pared down and modern, with a play on knitwear textures and exotic patterns. The sporty inspiration (ubiquitous on the Milanese catwalks) was interpreted lightly, as in a billowy black organza parka worn over a white lasered leather top and fluid black track pants, or in heat-fused sweatshirts in knit and silk organza paired with delicate net skirts. A jumpsuit with deep green foliage motifs in intarsia jacquard looked elegant; an off-white minidress in soft laser-cut leather with an intricate geometric pattern had a sleek, polished edge. Overall, Stefania's approach to the house's heritage seemed graceful and pragmatic; the collection should do well at retail.
19 September 2014
Graeme Black has replaced Alessandro Dell'Acqua as the creative director of Les Copains. The appointment was announced ten days ago. Presumably Black was at work on the Fall collection he presented today in Milan before that. However much time he had, it was long enough for him to absorb the 60-year-old Italian houses fine knitwear heritage. There were all manner of sweaters on the runway, from fuzzy striped mohairs and butterfly intarsia dresses to an openwork chenille cardigan tied with a silk ribbon and a shaggy coat in a pattern that looked like a Moroccan rug. A reindeer even popped up on a pullover.As a statement about the companys range, it sort of worked, even if it was conventional stuff. Beyond the knits, Black was unfocused. He showed a few sculptural skirts and, at the other end of the spectrum, some unstructured track-pant-jodhpur hybrids. A passage of separates in flower-printed laminated knits was also in the mix. In order for Les Copains to expand as its owners want, Black will need to refine his point of view for the brand.
20 February 2014