io ipse idem Fall 2009
io ipse idem Fall 2009

PARIS, Apr 27, 2009 / FW/ — Unveiled in Paris last March 6th at the Espace Topographique de l’Art, Romeo Gigli’s io ipse idem collection shows a woman in search of a new world. Light breezes ruffle her skirt and lift her jacket, revealing a style that is all about asymmetry and design in movement.

Coat necks are imperiously tall to highlight a bewitching gaze; or they fall gently around the shoulders like concentric ripples on a still pond, coming to rest in soft folds. Coats softly envelope the body, caressing but never clinging.

An open-shoulder design sustains the structure of garments in decisive, compact fabrics – often mimicking menswear styles – that fit with her sense of purpose but also rejoice in the natural sinuosity of the female body.

Elegant touches of orange or brilliant red offset otherwise muted colours: warm blues, browns and greys are all that’s needed to enhance sheer beauty of form. There’s no need to shout.

Romeo Gigli’s women let herself be lovingly draped in sensuous skirts and dresses that swing and sway like the ebb and flow of the tide. Discreet slits on front and back give whispered glimpses of breasts and backs. Small narrow sleeves give way to billowing cuffs that swell like lanterns caught in the breeze, peeping from outerwear like budding flowers.

The Romeo Gigli woman carries her femininity lightly. She can wear men’s jackets retooled to suit her style with slit shoulders and draped from the waist to give a wind-swept look countered only by a single lapel.

Romeo Gigli’s new woman loves to experiment. She seeks out form since clothes bend to the whims of the breeze. She doesn’t so much clothe her body as explore its possibilities, going for the warmth of masterfully patterned knitwear.

She chooses a cagoule as a secret place from which to view the world but whose hood can then fall effortlessly in soft folds around the shoulders. Her vest seems to swirl round the body leaving one shoulder bare to enhance the wrap-around effect.

Everything is as if slightly ruffled by a mischievous gust, a gentle breeze disarranging shapes and forcing them to show their effortless fluidity.

Flesh-coloured stockings, light-shaded leather shoes and leather cling to calves and legs in thrall to the natural beauty of the human female form, only to open up, like the garments, in the elegant understatement of subtle slits.

[nggallery id=242]