Leave it to Davide Marello to give a much-needed unfolded jolt of subtlety to Parisian flair. But beyond his apparently far-from-bonkers manifestos and mature sensitivity, the designer’s system of thought is actually quite fanciful; after all, youngsters are able to instinctively grip the spirit of things in much smarter ways than anyone engaging in analytical reasoning. For DAVI’s Fall collection, fourth since its prime dawn, the designer hurls a first-class invite to the otherworldly – tumbling into a journey within the kingdom of the night. Freaky.
Marello’s vision at DAVI exists as a material subconscious: captivating and dynamic-enough, it pushes to a world of placidity and utopia, unraveling a somewhat parallel perception of reality. FW20 draws inspiration from the myth of Hypnos, ostracising the rule of modernism and directing to a mythological façade. Cruising towards the mysterious, the collection epitomizes a profound nonchalance in structure, embossed by husky hues that mold into a new living. It vacillates between the passing of a threshold, fables, tales, and drifts into a somewhat empirical mind-frame where imagination abounds.
This time, Marello seemed even more eager to take us deeper-perhaps even darker, because of all the artsy, crafts aspect and surface-imprinted pattern mixes that interact in ways that felt less-methodized and ultra-free. It kind of worked in Marello’s favor: all those double-inflected layerings and lopsided proportions, comparatively injecting the likes of buoyance and remotely-seditious motifs such as feathers, overlapping stars, and earthy rendition. He seemingly gained a few entry points for DAVI: just look as far as the warm-dusk color palette to nail the enigmatic touch.
But the designer’s approach probably continues to generate curiosity among his fellow commercial tycoons because it feels disassociated from pragmatism in the right way. For the record, he by-lined and produced bi-products: reversible jackets, for instance, combining them with contemporary utility and sedate drama. Is it euphoria? Or novel instinct? Dip your finger in the sauce, you’ll grab the answer.
