Quira (Q8965)
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Quira is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Quira |
Quira is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Quira’s fall presentation was held at the Oratoire du Louvre, a rather solemn location that framed what Veronica Leoni called “a raw, crude, textural collection.” The tension between abstraction and physicality, control and release is what makes her designs so compelling; here, she went for a more rigorous approach than in previous outings, indulging less in the “instinctive vitality of the creative gesture,” and focusing on a more edited, almost architectural method of construction.Leoni is part of a wave of women designers that clearly understand how women feel and live the act (and the meaning) of dressing. She offers ease and complexity in equal measure—or better said, she makes complexity look easy. While her point of view is strong, it allows ample room for self-representation, and to “own the garment with a spirit of interpretation.” Leoni is building an expressive take on classics, pivoted on a decisive, slightly severe tailoring language, with defined shoulder lines sustaining streamlined coats, fitted feminine blazers and elegant masculine tuxedos. As a counterpoint, she introduced a dash of impromptu creativity, allowing spontaneous styling gestures to play, modify or adapt—short askew-hemmed skirts shaped as triangular kites could be softly adjusted around the hips regulating their length; coats had loose side panels that could be wrapped or folded as protective capes; the collar on a white crisp poplin could elongate into a decorative cravat. “I like when the look is a bit undone, organic, not too virtuous,” Leoni said.The collection’s artsy visual portfolio was shot by model Guinevere Van Seenus, a friend of Leoni; she agreed to a series of self-portraits, also capturing choreographer and performer Imre van Opstal. Said Leoni: “Guinevere owned the narration with such emotional intensity and empathy, it felt almost physical.”
2 March 2024
At today’s first presentation in Paris, Veronica Leoni said that “Quira is still surfing the waves of the LVMH 2023 Prize,” where she was one of the finalists. The boost the label has received both in media exposure and commercial viability has been crucial, and Leoni is enjoying the attention.She is an experienced designer with a string of prestigious consultancies under her belt; her style is confident, with a rigorous consistency that for spring she wanted to loosen up, in favor of more instinct and ease. Her forte is the tailored construction of outerwear: here that was kept lighter, unlined and malleable. While not particularly keen on a body-revealing approach, Leoni tried her hand at the feel for sensuality suggestive of summer. White cotton voile, sheer organza, velvet and silk satin replaced the thicker holding-up-volume fabrics she usually favors. Airy textures gave shape to fluid, ruffled-back column dresses with drawstring closures, layered one on top of the other; draped sarongs worn with tucked-in masculine shirts, mineral-dyed in transparent tones of rosewater and lilac, had both delicacy and edge. They were one of the collection’s standouts, together with a long, elegant red velvet ’40s frock with a contrasting white adjustable panel at the back that could be let loose and floating like a train or tighten up to emphasize the waist.Sensuality and rigor came together in a black tailored overcoat, with half-moon-shaped, raw-edged cut-outs at the breasts, exposing a glimpse of the lining and the skin underneath. “It’s a take on anatomy that I find interesting to explore,” said Leoni, who seems to be after a fluid, more feminine and free-spirited attitude. It could be an interesting direction to evolve into, to give Quira more range.
1 October 2023
The brainchild of Italian designer Veronica Leoni, Quira is one of this year’s LVMH Prize finalists. On a Zoom call from her studio in Rome, Leoni said it came as a surprise to be included in the final selection. “A start-up project like Quira doesn’t necessarily grow following the rules the industry today mostly adheres to. It makes me feel optimistic that its challenging path has been acknowledged.”Leoni knows a thing or two about the inner workings of the fashion system. Her pedigree comes from having worked in close proximity with Jil Sander and Celine’s Phoebe Philo; for both she was head designer of the knitwear line. Moncler’s Remo Ruffini put Leoni in the top creative position for womenswear at Moncler 1952; currently she’s consulting with The Row for both men’s and women’s collections, working closely with the Olsens. “In Quira, there’s a sort of coexistence of all the differences, both geographic and stylistic, of the creative directors I’ve had the privilege to collaborate with,” she said. “But it’s a coexistence of experiences, rather than of aesthetics.”The designer’s Italian roots give the three-year-old Quira its spirited quality, an expressive, instinctual peculiarity that translates into a “maximal minimalism,” as Leoni calls it. The sensibilities of her mentors have been distilled into a “guerrilla project” that embodies her personal take on contemporary femininity—rigorous yet spontaneous, sensuously severe, simplified and essential with hints of audacity. Her “devotion to Made in Italy” supports an imaginative complexity of construction that doesn’t detract from a strict, almost exacting approach. There’s inventive freedom in her disciplined design, although “the leash is quite tight,” she said, “when it comes to editing and to respecting the essentiality of the ingredients of my style. I’d call it equilibrium rather than minimalism.”In the fall collection, Leoni further honed her take on the modern wardrobe, infusing it with a sense of poised newness while staying eminently wearable. An undercurrent of Philo’s unconventional artistic classicism and of Sander’s classy purity can be felt, but the overall look is Leoni’s. The clarity of shapes is twisted with intriguing plays on cut and construction, while considered details (which she calls “little hidden secrets”) provide each piece with edge and a unique character.
“Challenging my creativity, allowing moments of discomfort to happen helps push the process towards unpredictable solutions,” the designer explained. One of the best looks in the collection—a deceptively classic skirt suit—provided a template for Leoni’s modus operandi. The masculine strong-shouldered jacket was cut in a spiral shape to accommodate the hips in a soft, almost drapey movement; the box-pleated skirt was vertical and strict, made from dense, compact wool in a severe shade of uniform-gray. “I wanted something that recalled ’50s couture, and also 18th century volumes, and to inject some unexpected folk into the silhouette,” she offered. “What I’m after—it’s style, not fashion.”
3 April 2023