Albino Teodoro (Q2575)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Albino Teodoro is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Albino Teodoro |
Albino Teodoro is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Albino Teodoro indulged his penchant for sculpted silhouettes for fall. An architect by training, he has a natural understanding of well-built volumes, underlined by precise lines and shapes; his cutting techniques are skillful. Teodoro usually favors couture-quality fabrics; they support the play on construction that is at the foundation of his style. Yet there’s nothing hard-edged or too conceptual to it—the subtle sensuality and glamour takes the edge off any obvious architectural reference.Black seems to be the current season’s color of choice, ubiquitous on the catwalks. Teodoro opted for it to give his collection depth and a dash of mystery: “Black is absolute,” he said at today’s presentation. He wanted to work on an almost archetypal purity of shapes; a deep, dark hue seemed the natural choice to erase the superfluous and let a forceful linearity surface. From a hybrid cape-trench to tailored evening pantsuits, on a shift dress with sculpted asymmetrical ruffles and a column number dripping in liquid sequins, black tinged the collection with a sophisticated restraint.Tailoring had sensuality and sharpness in equal measure. Soft corsets were juxtaposed over masculine blazers or crisp poplin shirts, suggesting a gentle erotic undertone. As for the theatrical gestures Teodoro favors, they were in evidence in an evening dress in scarlet silk faille, majestic and sculptural yet looking as light as air.
20 February 2020
Albino Teodoro is one of the many independent designers who are increasingly filling the ranks of Milanese fashion. Choosing to go at it alone is difficult on many levels, but it gives designers freedom of expression and the possibility to carve out their own creative vision. For Teodoro, this choice has proven successful so far; his clientele and his business are expanding in a sustainable, organic way.For Spring, he worked on a compact collection which had a less sculptural feel than usual. He traded the architectural, rigorous approach he favors for more sensual, languid silhouettes. Inspired by East Asian art and neoclassical curlicued stuccoed decorations, he had them reproduced on large foulards in light cottons and silks, cut into roomy caftans with exquisite pleated details, or into beautifully elaborated draped column dresses, slightly disheveled and undone.The designer is never literal in his references; the sense of exotic sensuality infused in layered, ruffled long dresses in see-through chiffon was counterbalanced by sharp, ’90s-inspired tailoring. A fine example was a black tuxedo, its billowy sleeves and see-through back made of sheer black organza; it seamlessly blended rigorous cut and feminine lightness.
19 September 2019
For Resort, Albino Teodoro joined the bandwagon of fashion designers referencing photographer Slim Aarons’s gilded rendition of the privileged lives of the rich and famous. This reviewer has seen more mood boards plastered with pictures of C.Z. Guest, Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley, and the like than can be counted. But nostalgia for a time when sophisticated, carefree life was almost a fastidious art form is always a potent aphrodisiac for designers, so be it.Albino referenced the sense of elegance Aarons’s images exuded; the lean, precisely cut couture-like volumes he favors would have been at home in one of Truman Capote’s swans’ wardrobes. Although he infused a modern, practical ease and breezy vibe into the collection, he stayed true to his architectural construction and tailored approach. Day dresses were standouts, offered either tiered, floor sweeping, and billowy, or cut like a masculine shirt in striped poplin with plays on asymmetries.Evening had a chic glamour, with elongated, fluid lines skimming the body and a sensually restrained construction, such as the desert rose satin one-shoulder column dress ruched on the side. It would look lovely on one of the young celebrities who are choosing Albino for red carpet options.
30 June 2019
Albino Teodoro presented a small Fall collection in his showroom on the last day of Milan Fashion Week. Inspired by the designer’s love of old-school couture masters Balenciaga and Patou, it was centered on elegant occasion dressing with a side order of impeccably tailored daywear.Albino is an experienced designer with considerable tailoring skills. His coats and pantsuits are cut with chic precision; a refined color sense adds to the sophisticated equation of his style. He favors grown-up but not bourgeois, feminine with a hint of double-entendre— think Bourdin more than Avedon. He has a modern eye for neat construction, but he isn’t clichéd or banal. Women look good in his clothes. One wonders why a designer of such talent doesn’t perform on a larger international stage. But this is just one of the many unsolved mysteries of fashion.For Fall, the designer focused on uniform-inspired outerwear, referencing the strictness of noble portraiture. Double-breasted coats and peacoats in brushed wool cashmere were cut straight with aplomb, while the sharp tailoring of masculine pantsuits was mitigated by vibrant hues of lagoon green or bougainvillea pink.The bright color palette presaged a more decorative note in the evening offering. Elaborate, aristocratic heraldry visuals were suggested in the curlicued motifs printed on quilted silk twill blanket capes, on long padded robe coats worn over matching tunics, or else on a chiffon blouse with an asymmetrical side panel worn over slim cigarette pants.Couture-inspired flourishes were apparent in the asymmetrical drapings on taffeta column dresses or blouses paired with matching slim pants in vivid tones of cobalt blue and fuchsia, as well as in the ruched sleeves of a black evening blazer and the ruffled shoulders of a short black tunic layered over a white skirt.Elegant tailoring and occasion dressing seem to be back in favor. It could be a good moment for Teodoro to successfully expand his collection, taking it to a more consistent, upgraded level. It’s up to him to solve one of the many mysteries of fashion.
25 February 2019
If he hadn’t chosen a career in fashion, Albino Teodoro would have become an architect; this explains his penchant for sculpted, neat shapes with a couture-ish flair. Not surprisingly, his favorite designer is Cristóbal Balenciaga, who had a sublime talent for sumptuously unadorned silhouettes. At the opposite side of the designer’s inspiration spectrum is couturier Jean Patou’s quintessentially French style: feminine, seductive, a bit frivolous. Teodoro blended the two influences into Pre-Fall. “I worked on simple shapes,” he said. “Then I added a touch of sensuality and a youthful spirit, as if a girl were playing a grown-up woman.”Fine-tuning Balenciaga-inspired contoured lines and softer feminine accents was actually an exercise that Teodoro handled rather smoothly. Cases in point were Prince of Wales–checked trapeze coats cut with precision, their round donut-shaped collars lined in a graceful shade of pale pink. In the same vein, a short cape-dress in black double cashmere had an elegant, sculptural flair yet looked fresh worn with bare legs and high-heeled pumps.A lover of interior decoration and antique wallpapers, Teodoro found an archival William Morris–inspired floral pattern that he translated into the iris-print motifs gracing elongated feminine dresses and dusters in fluid crepe de Chine. A sensuous, frivolous feel was highlighted in the ruched sleeves of a see-through blouse in black plumetis. But the Balenciaga-esque severity somehow kept creeping in; a strict tailored suit was cut in a dry, stiff, grid-printed cotton call Vatican canvas, which is actually used for priests’ cassocks.
30 January 2019
Ukrainian artist Alexey Kondakov takes images, scenes, or fragments from famous classical paintings and smacks them right in the middle of contemporary urban tableaux. Think Bouguereau’sSong of the Angelstaking place on a subway train or Hans Holbein the Younger’sThe Ambassadorsset in a louche bar. The appropriation debate endlessly going on in fashion and art clearly does nothing for Kondakov. Designer Albino Teodoro seems equally oblivious to the topic, so much so that he chose Kondakov’s work as an inspiration for his Fall collection. “I worked around my favorite fashion themes: couture construction, masculine tailoring, the ’60s, feminine shapes, geometry, color. I wanted to put them in a modern context,” said the designer backstage.The focal point of the collection was strong tailoring, which is one of Teodoro’s best assets. Coats were substantial, cut sharp and highlighted with interesting color combinations, such as a tangerine wool city coat, shoulders squared, lines perfectly aplomb, belted with a baby blue removable sash. Another example of the designer’s fine cutting skills was a masculine coat in macro Prince of Wales checks, worn with a pink paillette shift, a merino wool turtleneck, and beige leather booties with a chunky heel. It looked right.There were various good pieces in the collection: a navy cape with an asymmetrical hem was sporty yet elegant; a masculine checkered pantsuit worn with a huge white puffer strapped at the shoulder struck the same cool note. Yet, the pièce de résistance was a series of balloon dresses of various lengths, made of a sensational digitally printed brocade. They were seriously glamorous showstoppers—if only the show’s stylist would’ve dropped the incongruous, ill-fitting tweed knee-high boot-sock hybrids, worn with strappy patent leather sandals. Perhaps it was intended as an out-of-context conceptual gesture à la Kondakov, but it only detracted from the grown-up, sensually chic allure of those perfectly cut, opulent-looking dresses.
21 February 2018
Japan and China featured quite prominently as inspiration on Albino Teodoro’s mood board for his Spring collection, which looked all but literal. His style has a grown-up, chic, modern bent, which keeps every exoticism well at bay. “It was just a starting point, a suggestion,” he explained backstage. “I didn’t want the collection to be pinned down by too many references. I hate categorizing.” He was more interested in exploring the beauty of imperfection—quite a philosophical topic, no less.Thank goodness a collection is just a collection—at the end of the day, the clothes do the talking. In this case, they looked polished. Teodoro, leaving references aside, focused on his customary good tailoring, adding an interesting play on volumes and refining his folding techniques. His style clearly revolves around occasion dressing. If you want to look well put together for a cocktail party while wearing an interesting conversation piece your girlfriends will be jealous of, Albino is your guy.Fabrics had a luxe vibe and were substantial enough to hold in place the folding and draping play that formed the core of the collection. Teodoro tried to give it a natural, graceful twist, making shapes softly sculptural and keeping volumes in balance. Colors had a bright vibe. Fabrics were dyed with natural pigments: Cadmium, ochre, and lapis gave textured silk jacquards with floral motifs a subtle, seductive shine.
24 September 2017
Albino Teodoro mixed historical Mitteleuropa references with a ’90s spirit for Pre-Fall. During a recent visit to Vienna, he found in an old library a few original drawings fromVer Sacrum(meaning Sacred Spring in Latin), the official literary magazine of the Viennese Secession. Published between 1898 and 1903, its advanced typography, layouts and illustrations served as an influential template for many publications to come. Its contributors were writers of the caliber of Rainer Maria Rilke and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and artists like Koloman Moser, Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff, just to name a few.Albino translated voluptuous botanical patterns into a graphic wallpaper-y print which was used throughout his well-edited collection. It was blown up into a huge rose motif proposed in stark black and white, or in deep tones of purple and midnight blue; or else in a shade of porcelain blue set off by deep black. Since the printed patterns had a rather strong impact, shapes were kept simple yet sophisticated. Albino favors a grown-up, refined aesthetic inspired by Haute Couture masters like Cristóbal Balenciaga: Voluminous shapes are enhanced by the purity of lines and the use substantial, luxurious fabrications—techno faille, radzimir, silk gauze. Trapeze dresses were kept less severe with delicate ruched collars; the feminine flounces at the hem of shapely coats were cut with gentle precision. Albino designs for a cultivated customer: he doesn’t really court millennials. You won’t find sweatshirts or track pants or any kind of disposable fashion in his collections.
19 January 2020