No. 21 (Q7182)
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No. 21 is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | No. 21 |
No. 21 is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
The Charm of Irregularity could serve as an apt title for N.21’s pre-fall collection, as Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s repertoire consistently leans on the ambiguity of contrasts, juxtaposing bourgeois with louche, insouciance with propriety, and grunge with decorum. Yet the designer avoids veering into unsettling or controversial extremes, keeping his rebellious spirit in check. He’s a gentle subversive. “I’ve curated a collection of irregular ensembles,” he remarked during a showroom appointment; the irregular (yet rather pretty) wardrobe combined hints of vintage with “wrong touches of couture” and a nonchalant vibe, “as if a young girl had rummaged through her mother’s closet, piecing together outfits haphazardly.” It didn’t appear so haphazard though, Dell’Acqua is a skilled stylist.The “so-wrong-it’s-right” playlist of improbable pairings comprised a classic masculine striped poplin shirt tucked with a fabulous sequined pencil midi skirt, or a chunky reversible black jumper layered over a romantic flimsy nude chiffon frock. A cropped ’60s gold brocatelle jacket à la Chanel with rhinestone buttons looked cool styled with a beige pleated cotton canvas skirt, while a slender ’30s-inspired black velvet evening gown was offset by a trailing faux-fur stole for an extra touch of glamour.By his own admission, Dell’Acqua is allergic to trends; he designs clothes that are wearable while feeling au courant. His pieces are also fairly priced—in a luxury market where exorbitant pricing has made high fashion unaffordable for most mortals, his approach is not only refreshing, but truly commendable.
19 December 2024
Beneath Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s reserved demeanor lies a rebellious edge. “Fashion feels too flat, too conventional right now. There’s a reluctance to challenge or be challenged,” he remarked backstage. For spring, he drew inspiration from the images of the “modettes” in the 1960s, captured by queer Swiss photographer Karl Heinz Weinberger. With their subversive individuality, they resonated with Dell’Acqua’s ongoing quest to break free from “fashion’s predictable conventions.”As a pragmatic designer, his rebellious spirit took on a gentle and wearable form. This season, his blend of “opposites attracts”—high and low, couture and casual, sequins and canvas, bourgeois and grunge—was distilled into an edited collection with lots of covetable pieces. Modern and unfussy, yet with dashes of spark, it had charm, without feeling overworked. Dell’Acqua is a master of nonchalance.The opening look set the tone and hit a current trend: a sporty, oversized parka with a leopard-print hood layered over a cocktail dress adorned with shimmering embroidered sequined florets, paired with a football team scarf and clear high-heeled mules. This juxtaposition of styles, seen on several other runways this season, points to the apparently haphazard mix of signifiers that increasingly shapes today’s fashion codes—a meticulously curated form of stylish chaos.Dell’Acqua typically gravitates toward a palette of muted nudes and beiges, contrasted with black. However, this time he embraced vibrant hues, showcasing a bold yellow anorak paired with a soft pink pencil skirt and lipstick-red accents, as well as a hot-pink duchesse opera coat with a couture edge layered over a sequined sheath. Despite these flashes of color, the finale—a sheer black ensemble that left little to the imagination—was a clear nod to Dell’Acqua’s erotic sensibility. After all, a leopard never changes its spots.
19 September 2024
Alessandro Dell’Acqua went for a full-on celebration of dichotomy for resort. He has always touched on contrasts; playing the bourgeois against the rebellious, the proper opposing the louche, and the bon ton tinged with the slightly trashy has been a consistent knack of his throughout his career. This makes sense if you think of his Neapolitan upbringing; the energy of a city is so full of dramatic contradictions that a 1954 comedy, shot in Naples and starring Sophia Loren and the Neapolitan comedian Totó, was calledMisery and Nobility, aptly describing the city’s dramatic soul.Nothing can be further from couture’s spirit of rarity than the casual, quotidian style of current fashion. Dell’Acqua tried his hand at merging the two ingredients, concocting an easy-to-wear collection of covetable pieces, where flourishes of couture blended with the nonchalant, laid-back attitude he favors. Thick handcrafted cotton cardis worn over silk duchesse miniskirts shaped as boulles, as well as attractive black minidresses with huge knotted bows at the front made the case for his couture-versus-casual POV. Introducing a further discordant twist, white cotton tops shaped as the elasticated hemline of masculine boxers peeked out from ultra-short dresses in smooth, sensuous faille, while masculine shirts in precious silk duchesse clashed with slouchy oversized cargo short sin crisp poplin. “Fashion today is about finding a balance between opposite directions,” said the designer. “There’s a free space of experimentation, where imperfections can coexist with the beautiful. That’s what I like—being free of making mistakes.”
10 June 2024
Alessandro Dell’Acqua rummaged in his archive of vintage fashion magazines and found himself drawn to the glamorous looks from Italian couturiers of the 1980s —Pino Lancetti, Andrea Odicini, Sorelle Fontana, Mila Schön, a congregation now fallen into oblivion that at that time catered to the jet set and the well-heeled. He wasn’t driven by nostalgia though, rather by a desire for subversion. “I just followed an impulse to dismantle those bon-ton clichés”, he said. The collection was called Anarchic Glamour.Dell’Acqua isn’t a subversive, yet he’s allergic to any restrictions of freedom, and what’s politically correct makes him cringe. His battle cry against today’s conformity and limitations was to flip the narrative and advocate for “liberty in non-libertarian times.” When the world seems to be closing in on us, he said, fashion has the expressive power to protest, disrupt, and somehow turn the tables. The secluded Haute Couture salons, sanctuaries of privilege, were metaphorically stormed with irreverence, and replaced by a modern take on their rarefied codes of passé sophistication.Templates of bourgeois dressing such as le tailleur, the cocktail dress, the little black dress, the opera coat, the balmacaan, and the fur coat were given a humorous, cheeky spin. The classic chic black suit was dismembered into a small, almost diminutive embroidered jacket worn over a skirt reduced to two rectangular side-less panels barely kept together by thin technical ribbons. A two-piece ensemble à la Chanel was made from extra-thick, heavy bouclé tweed cut into a midriff-baring little jacket, paired with a matching midi skirt wrapped awkwardly around the hips; on an almost sarcastic note, a huge flat bow held together the plunging neckline of an otherwise monastic black double crêpe tunic. Elsewhere, a tight, sheer sequined pencil skirt peeked out incongruously from a chunky, roomy handcrafted Norwegian jumper. A miniskirt suit in faux-fur squirrel was so minuscule, it looked as if it were made for a leggy doll.To emphasize the unconventional vibe, models of diverse genders were kept makeup-free, hair undone and shaggy, legs bare and occasionally unshaved. Sturdy brogues or pointy slingbacks were intricately laced up as sexy corsets. An air of “nihilistic eroticism,” slightly louche and walking the trashy-chic line, wafted over the collection. “I’ve played with the orthodoxy of glamour,” said Dell’Acqua, “I’ve tried my best to make glamour as unglamorous as possible.”
21 February 2024
Menswear has taken a gentle route to move forward, as the codes of masculine representation overlap with those ascribed to the feminine identity. Gentle was precisely how Alessandro Dell’Acqua defined the attitude of his men’s fall collection, where contrasts coexisted, played out with “quiet conviction.”Blurring binary references is increasingly becoming unavoidable practice for fashion designers, and Dell’Acqua applies his own no-nonsense yet rather cool approach. Elements and solutions he has already explored in women’s collections were reprised here and rendered in attractive unisex pieces. A grungy checkered caban and hoodie were veiled by black georgette; crisp shirts were softened with see-through lace intarsia or jazzed up by the spark of shiny crystals; and long wool opera gloves added quirk to a romantic sweatshirt with chiffon overlay. Elsewhere, a mohair jumper jacquarded with a ladybug motif, an omen of good luck, had a fragile vibe.The overall attitude was slouchy, slightly undone, both delicate and mischievous. Wrong pairings looked surprisingly right, as in a workwear jumpsuit in satiny cotton worn over a white shirt and a tie. “Making mistakes sometimes is the only way to move ahead,” summarized Dell’Acqua. “Being gentle doesn’t mean being weak.” Indeed.
11 January 2024
Alessandro Dell’Acqua has the art of harmonizing polarities down to a T. His pre-fall collection read as an exercise in idiosyncratic styling, playing on apparently irreconcilable elements to gently break the rules of symmetry. “I don’t like going for predictable standards,” he said at a showroom appointment.Without courting subversion, Dell’Acqua has a way of shuffling the cards of everyday dressing, injecting wardrobe staples with newness and tasteful cool. Punk and bourgeois, sexy and demure, polished and undone are contrasting references that he regenerates in each collection. Adding a layer of blurred gender codes further jazzes up his disciplined yet free-style mélange.“An experiment in cohabitation,” is how the designer described his pre-fall m.o. Classic black-and-white textured tweed was infused with sequins and rendered into a casual bomber-and-miniskirt suit; grungy checkered wool was layered with black chiffon and cut into a zippered blouson, paired with roomy, slouchy chinos in sturdy khaki cotton. On the same note, fluffy mohair jumpers were tucked into bow-shaped ultra-minis in luscious duchesse. Tube skirts dripping in silver sequins looked cool worn with an oversized padded jacket, while a sexy bustier top in wool lace came with side pockets as if it were athleisure. Slightly eccentric, with plenty of attractive specimens, the collection made the case for Dell’Acqua’s consummate flair for blending wearability and undone, sensuous quirk.
11 January 2024
Alessandro Dell’Acqua was born and bred in Naples, a city which is as enchantingly beautiful as it is a maddening, alarming jumble of chaotic layers, a magma of contradictions. “It’s a mix of fine aristocratic taste and utter misery,” he said backstage before the show. “For me Naples isn’t an experience but the place where I grew up. I know its soul by heart.”Naples is erotic and carnal, and Dell’Acqua wasn’t afraid to play with its clichés of in-your-face sensuality and natural flair for drama, filtering them through the lens of the modern, easy, sensuous appeal he favors. Contrasts are what Naples is all about, and the collection somehow emphasized its clash of classicism and modernity, optimism and darkness, rigor and lightness. “Naples is also about weddings and funerals, what’s more contrasting than that?” said Dell’Acqua. “They are both occasions for the most incredibly theatrical, over-the-top celebrations.”Black and white featured prominently in the collection, which had a light, svelte and upbeat feel to it. Little bra tops and neat ingénue minidresses in white organza or lacquered white lace played against black satin slender pencil-skirt suits, short A-line dusters and provocative negligees in see-through chiffon. Slipdresses in tulle mesh dripping with supersized round silver and gold sequins hinted at the seductive, carnal, brash attitude Neapolitans of all sexes and from all walks of life are known for. Sensuous persuasion is a local sport, a sort of second nature; lust for life is worshipped as a religion. Dell’Acqua poured all these suggestions, memories and feelings into his playful collection. He concluded: “You can hate Naples, or love it to bits. Indifference is never an option. As the famous Italian saying goes: ‘See Naples, and then die.’”
21 September 2023
Alessandro Dell’Acqua is allergic to categorizations dictated by the mainstream. “Sportswear was everywhere until a few seasons ago, now it’s up to tailoring to become ubiquitous,” he said at a showroom appointment. “For menswear, this rings even more true.”It’s a fact that sartorial choices seem to be inescapable today, with suits of many shapes and sizes available across the fashion latitudes. To avoid a too obvious rendition of the trend without denying its wardrobe impact, Dell’Acqua touched on tailoring only tangentially, while applying its rules of construction to more relaxed staples. Bowling shirts, varsity jackets, twin sets, and Fair Isle jumpers were designed to look like trompe l’oeil but were in fact not, the idea was to treat casual clothes in a more elevated way.Dell’Acqua’s take on menswear is gentle; here, he added discreet yet perceptible sensual touches to the boxy shapes of poplin shirts and to the woolly textures of oversized sweaters. Dark florals were printed onto lambswool twin sets, metallic sequins embroidered comforting cardis, and broderie Anglaise added a sweet touch to necklines. Elsewhere, the tweed of a boxy cropped jacket was woven with gold threads and palm trees decorated openwork tank tops. The rigidity of formalwear was smoothed, giving the collection’s few suits an attitude of soft, almost feminine nonchalance. “I’m really not up for sartorial propaganda,” he said.
15 June 2023
Alessandro Dell’Acqua had lightness on his mind for resort, not only as a summery feel, but rather as a disposition of the spirit. “I wanted to be transported just by a mood,” he said at a studio appointment.For Dell’Acqua, summer nights call for the sensuous feel of a flimsy chiffon dress on the skin, or for the liquid ease of a bias-cut slip in silk charmeuse, as languid as a vintage number from the ’30s or ’40s. He isn’t fond of nostalgia though, so his approach was erotic rather than romantic; looks were kept a bit disheveled, as if put together in haste, without much care about beingsoignée.You don’t expect hard-edges from Dell’Acqua; his approach is quintessentially feminine and seductive. Here, he played on transparencies, as in skirt suits, pajamas, and little dresses with ruched details, which he alternated with lingerie slips encrusted with Chantilly lace or with bias-cut dresses with long trailing hems pooling around the ankles. The slightly vintage flair was mitigated by a laid-back attitude. “I like it when it’s nonchalant,” he said.Dell’Acqua’s pragmatic side syncs up with the slightly unconventional. While eminently wearable, his collections offer solutions that are never bland, either for day or evening. The play on contrasts between the androgynous and the feminine kept the looks attuned to theair du temps, giving his take on seduction a more nuanced detour. A good example was a black tailored smoking pantsuit with a slouchy attitude, worn with a pristine white shirt featuring both a bow tie and a string of pearls. On the same note, a severe masculine car coat in black canvas was proposed as an opera coat for evening, studded with tiny embroidered palm trees in shiny black crystals. While drawn to a sense of evanescence, Dell’Acqua balanced the collection with solid, realistic options. He said, “lightness shouldn’t be synonymous with inconsistency.”
9 June 2023
The husky voice of Monica Vitti in Antonioni’sDeserto Rossowas the sensuous opening note of the No. 21 show, leaving no doubt about Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s affection for the Italian filmography of the ‘60s. On his moodboard, images of Vitti’s shaggy blond mane appeared alongside those of the brunette gamine Jeanne Moreau, another Antonioni muse, starring in the movieLa Notte. Her little black slipdress, worn slightly undone with moody nonchalance, served as a sort of template for what Dell’Acqua defined as “the twisted bourgeois clichés” he explored throughout the collection.For Dell’Acqua, the bourgeoisie of that time was (rather accurately) a social milieu where the façade of pristine elegance concealed pits of emotional despair, ennui, and hidden eroticism. All the codes of bon-ton propriety—the twinsets, the small chic coats with fake fur trimmings, the little black dresses—were literally turned upside down by his tongue-in-cheek take.Pale cashmere twinsets were worn backward or buttoned askew; strings of pearls were veiled under the layers of a black chiffon blouse; and a body skimming dress was made by layering two luscious slips, one of which was left casually falling off as if put on in haste after a secret encounter. On a similar note, opera coats in masculine micro-checked wool with schoolgirl velvet collars opened unexpectedly at the back via concealed zippers, revealing bare skin, while crystal-studded brooches in the shape of scorpions were used to fasten Shetland cardis paired with sexy pencil skirts.Concise and attractive, the collection read as an ironic critique of bourgeois clichés. Yet Dell’Acqua is a smart designer, who loves fashion when it’s real and wearable; here he offered lots of appealing choices. He believes that this a time where a new sense of elegance has to find its place. “Let’s finally talk about clothes,” he said. He sounded serious, with not a hint of irony, or nostalgia.
23 February 2023