Pollini (Q7538)
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Pollini is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Pollini |
Pollini is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
2008
creative director
Pollini, formerly a ladylike runway collection, has had a complete overhaul. Since he came to the company, Jonathan Saunders has steered it in a new direction—off the catwalk and toward accessibly priced, younger clothes. This season, the offerings reflect the sportier feeling of his eponymous collection in London. Parkas, bombers, hoodies, and ribbed knitwear are proposed as elements to layer with over-the-head shifts and print dresses and little pleated skirts with enough of a suggestion of kilt about them to be cool.
26 February 2010
"It's about the girls I went to school with, really," said Jonathan Saunders, glancing at the dippy little layered dresses in grunge-era-inspired checks he'd designed for Pollini. "I just love that attitude of girls being able to throw stuff on, and look good as they are." Then he laughed. "Pink gingham. I don't know how I'm going to tell Christopher!" The sheer coincidence of the similar checks in his collection and Christopher Kane's—they are close friends in London—has another level of resonance in Milan this week, because both young Scots have been hired by Italian companies to bring a shot of energy to their brands: Saunders to Aeffe's label, and Kane to Versace's Versus.Saunders is the print and color specialist of the two. His consultancy has taken a while to get into gear, but in a presentation shown on neon-painted racks in a room he'd styled himself, the kind of woman he's addressing came into focus for the first time. Easy, accessible pieces, like screen-printed T-shirts and jumpsuits with faded-out trompe l'oeil pockets and grid-patterned fine-gauge intarsia sweaters, were hanging next to double-layer chiffon A-line shifts with horizontal pleating in the hem. They were displayed alongside a line of checked bags and shoes, accessories being the core of Pollini's business. The palette of pale blue, pink, and red, sharpened up with black, came over as sweet and summery, and the prices, reportedly, are a notch or two lower than previous seasons'. Buyers in the room were liking that.
25 September 2009
Jonathan Saunders has now had a chance to get his feet under the table at Pollini. Last season, he said he'd only had a couple of weeks to prepare his debut show, and this season proved that he's working out what the identity of a house that has its origins in traditional Italian footwear might be. He took a couple of Pollini heritage products—its riding boots and a baroque-print silk scarf—as a starting point for a small collection that brought some of the energy of London design to the Milan runway. Equestrian-themed jackets caught the big-shouldered silhouette of the moment, paired with surreal-heeled suede and leather riding-boot derivatives. Best were Saunders' cute interpretations of the scarf motif—curlicued scrolls used on little silk print dresses or cut out and appliquéd on cashmere shifts—evidence of his talent as a textile designer.
1 March 2009
A new British team has taken over at Pollini, the design label that grew out of an old, established Italian shoe brand. Jonathan Saunders, the Scottish proponent of graphic modernist print, is designing the clothes, and Nicholas Kirkwood—a rising talent with a hot line of his own—the shoes. In a brisk presentation of 27 looks (quick-march, and staged three times so audiences could flow in and out within 15 minutes), the duo framed a breezy snapshot of what's to come. "I started three months ago, so this is just the beginning," said Saunders. "But I just thought it should be light and feminine, with a positivity about it."Saunders worked with dots and stripes, branching into pastel swirls in dresses cut with multilayered skating skirts or standout origami folds (like some of the shapes in his own collection, but softer). Kirkwood followed through with color-blocked suede and patent heels in lime, cobalt, black, and white, followed by high loafers with chunky tassels and inserts of polka dots. The best in the lineup, though, was the crisp monochrome tailoring for day: a jacket with Bermuda-length city shorts and a neat trench in black and white spots, and a gray menswear long-line jacket with collars and cuffs in piqué shirting material. It remains to be seen which tack the Saunders-Kirkwood team will take when they've had a chance to settle in, but if they're smart enough to keep up the quick and effective staging of this first show, they'll be doing time-deprived press and buyers a welcome favor.
23 September 2008
Rifat Ozbek's past is colorful enough to make you wish you'd lived it with him—and so he offers you clothes that make that a distinct possibility. In his latest collection for Pollini, he was inspired by his teenage life as a glam-rocking Central Saint Martins student in London. To a charging soundtrack of vintage Roxy Music and David Bowie, Ozbek offered his own take on the golden years of glitter (necessarily abstracted because no one has that kind of joyful innocence anymore). Was that Amanda Lear's beret we just saw? And didn't that printed culotte suit echo Ziggy Stardust? Quite frankly, if this was your era, Ozbek would have had you at the hello of an obi-wrapped coat-dress with fox-trimmed cuffs and hem. Bowie's early seventies fascination with Japanese style was mirrored in the Kansai-like stiffness of fabrics like silk brocade (cut into huge, flared "samurai" pants) or kimono prints used as a print on a chiffon shirt or as the trim on a tweed kimono jacket.Ozbek wanted to convey a luxurious tone—the cuffs of a tweed coat were wreathed in huge paillettes, its neckline was swathed in flame-dyed fox, the matching boots were orange. But it was really his unholy enthusiasm for a fabulous moment in his own history that energized the presentation. And that was enough to compensate for clunkers like a sequin-bodiced cocktail dress that might have graced Angie Bowie in one of her less glittering nights down at the Sombrero. BTW, shouts out to Erickson Beamon for the jewelry.
18 February 2008
Milan's punishing schedule of Spring shows has turned the week into a big squeeze for everyone—designers, retailers, press, models, et cetera, et cetera—and someone has to lose. It's a shame that scheduling conflicts meant more people didn't see Rifat Ozbek's latest collection for Pollini, because his tribal-techno theme attached itself effectively to the London vibe that has seeped onto fashion's international stage. There was a blissed-out moment in the late eighties when Ozbek offered an all-white collection that captured the second Summer of Love's youthquaking optimism and energy, and he harked back to it here with a sheer-sleeved white shift. There were also new-rave echoes in the accessories (especially the fluoro shoes) and in John Gosling's sensational soundtrack. But, equally, Ozbek has always been a dab hand at integrating ethnic elements into his designs. A bold ikat was a running motif in this collection—in a shift over sheer pants, in chiffon layers as a ghostly pattern, or as a trim on tops and trousers. Africa made its presence felt in leopard-print shorts or the tribal beading on a khaki coat-dress. Ozbek has a real knack for giving interest to simple shapes with such flourishes. Along the same lines, he used a mélange of antique coins as a neckpiece from which to hang one of the shaped tunic tops that were a key silhouette for the collection. Pair that with his cigarette-slim pants in batiked organza, and you've got a look that effortlessly spans elegance and excess.
24 September 2007
Until the Pollini show, there hadn¿t been much allusion, direct or indirect, to the conflict in the Middle East this season. Rifat Ozbek changed that with his second look out: an innocuous-looking short silver shift that on closer inspection revealed an embroidered figure—arms in the air, mouth agape—plucked straight from Picasso¿sGuernica. (Of course, this being Ozbek, a designer who always has a lot going on, and this being fashion, it wasn¿t immediately clear how many in the audience had noticed his cri de coeur.)Ozbek kitted out his power babes with all sorts of military regalia, most of it less in-your-face than that opening salvo. Tone-on-tone frogging decorated the collars and lapels of parkas and coats. A black silk jacquard used for a coat-dress and a jacket-mini combo looked for all intents and purposes like a miniature camo print. Then there were the green, red, and purple berets and the leather bags slung around the hips, fanny-pack style.On the softer side were little dresses with flowers for epaulets and tops decorated all over with chiffon rosettes that were worn with short shorts in a substantial gray-wool knit. All in all, it was a good effort from Ozbek, and those dresses and rosettes were very pretty. (But pretty enough to make you forget the op-ed rumblings of a potential U.S. invasion of Iran, now that Ozbek's brought up the subject? That¿s a different question.)
19 February 2007
"It's short and it's lean," explained Rifat Ozbek backstage at his Pollini show. But to say that is to rather simplify things. This is a designer who's never dreamed up an exotic inspiration he didn't like, and his spring collection was full of them, distractingly so at times. The South Seas gave him tribal tattoo prints for strapless dresses, as well as the feathers that accented necklines; Japan, the origami-like discs that edged the hem of a narrow sheath; and Hawaii, the silver-and-gold brocade that he spliced into narrow strips and tiered to the ground. Did Ozbek take a whirlwind trip recently? "No," he said. "It's all just in my head."All this was accessorized with Philip Treacy's plumed crowns, as well as Bakelite neckpieces and cuffs—more often than not, the effect was overwhelming . Ethnic, as a category, just doesn't have the grip on the fashion community that it did not so long ago. In a season of sixties shifts, though, Ozbek cut one of the best. It came with long sleeves and a stand-away collar that will accentuate delicate collarbones and a slender neck. And no modern-day Gidget will be able to resist an abstract orchid-print sleeveless shift with filigrees of cream embroidery.
25 September 2006
If no connection immediately presents itself between 1960's It girl Penelope Tree and a potentate of the Ottoman Empire, Rifat Ozbek found one in the essential simplicity of their respective uniforms: the shift dress and the caftan. These two items were the alpha and omega of his new collection for Pollini. The dominant shape was the shift, topped by a matching coat of the same length and paired with flat boots or little metallic heels. The combination looked dressy in a Lurex tweed, and urban-easy in chocolate-brown leather. "Short, fresh, young"—that's what Ozbek said he was looking for. He compounded the effect with abbreviated swingy coats in yellow or black mohair.Sienna Miller is in Milan and Edie Sedgwick is on everyone's minds, but a post-show Ozbek was quick to point out that his take on the Factory Girl era was much more glamorous. In fact, he had in mind Truman Capote's "swans" at the author's legendary Black and White Ball (several of the mannequins were masked by Philip Treacy). The decoration, though, came straight out of the recent exhibition of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century caftans at Manhattan's Sackler Gallery. The tulip design from a sultan's robe was duplicated in damask for a shift, coat, bag, and boot ensemble, and the patterns of Ottoman tiles were interpreted in black and gold on a short, high-waist, kimono-sleeve shift. There was a youthquake glamour to this notion that carried through to the jeweled necklines and fur-trimmed collars and cuffs. If simplicity was indeed Ozbek's original yardstick for the collection, his congenital inclination toward sheen and surface inevitably disposed him toward a coat in silk, embossed so it gleamed like an oil slick.
20 February 2006
Rifat Ozbek put a spin on the current upward shift of the waistline by thinkingtoreador!instead of Empress Josephine. Such skewering furnished a fresh device for the opening of his spring Pollini show: a grayish raised-waist silk dress decorated with silver fringed bullfighter embroidery that, on closer inspection, turned out to be made of bunches of safety pins. The Andalusian cross-reference also provided a neat solution for bolero jackets and cropped pants, as well as fluttery-topped double-layered blouses with ingeniously pretty big-shoulder, narrow-torso silhouettes.Details like fine black lace on nude wool brought a new lightness of touch to a show that has sometimes erred on the side of stodginess. Curvy black dresses with a dash of Moorish ribbon embroidery provided aficionados with a flashback to the form that gave Ozbek his first accolades in the eighties. Those good vibes didn't quite manage to sustain the show to the end, though; the Miró-esque teardrop Jacquards looked a tad heavy. Nevertheless, with its lace and woven leather shoes by Georgina Goodman, and funny straw picador hats by Philip Treacy, this was Ozbek's best stab at Pollini so far.
25 September 2005