MUSICAL FASHION: BAND OF OUTSIDERS S/S 2012 AT PITTI

Pitti special guests Band of Outsiders presented their Spring/Summer 2012 menswear and Resort 2012 womenswear collections last night with a show inspired by musicals.

Text by Anna Battista

“We’ve been looking at things like musicals from the ’50s and the ’60s and the masculine ideal that is represented by guys like Gene Kelly and George Chakiris, who starred in Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s West Side Story. We were also looking at references borrowed from American sportswear from the early 1980s and inspirations linked to films such as Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan,” explained Band of Outsiders’ creative director Scott Sternberg about the brand’s Spring/Summer 2012 menswear and Resort 2012 womenswear collections showcased last night during Florence’s Pitti.

Like ballet performances or films, musicals are undoubtedly a great inspiration for fashion designers and Sternberg, who ranks among his top five musicals not only West Side Story but also Sweet Charity and Funny Girl, wasn’t immune to the emotions and enthusiasm musicals can generate through their dance routines and visual perspectives.

It was only natural then for the label to opt for a show that heavily relied on musicals and that featured the dance routines and soundtrack of West Side Story, with groups of dancers re-creating in a peculiar setting – the historical Manifattura Tabacchi, a tobacco factory built in Florence in the early ’30s and a perfect example of Italian rationalist architecture – a choreography that called to mind the movements and the style of the Jets and the Sharks, the New York City gangs in West Side Story.

Yet control of the streets wasn’t the main point behind this musical-inspired presentation since Band of Outsiders’ gangs were mainly interested in having a great time while showing the new collection to the audience.

For what regards menswear, Sternberg took inspiration from the classics, coming up with men’s suits handmade in Brooklyn, reinventing the polo shirt through the “This Is Not a Polo Shirt” collection, aimed at looking at a preppy staple and trying to make it fresher (and designing also the Pitti staff polo shirts), adding also more basic pieces such as shirts and tank tops that referenced sportswear.

All the looks were accessorised with boat-shoes created in collaboration with iconic American brand Sperry (Sternberg has been working with them for the last 5 years) in pastel shades borrowed from musical costumes, or recreated in a more modern version, in bright and bold yellow, orange and green nylon and with no leather strings.

“We have been using Italian fabrics to make the menswear collection, shipping them all the way to Brooklyn, because we love this factory we’ve been working with, but we’ve also been producing some of the men’s looks in Europe,” Sternberg explained to Zoot. “We’ve actually been looking a year and a half for a special Italian tailor that can bring some quirkiness to our designs, but we still haven’t found one.”

The show, that Sternberg claimed was every designer’s “little boy’s dream”, also featured pieces from the other two lines, Boy by Band of Outsiders and Girl by Band of Outsiders. The former moves from classic menswear and included garments from the traditional male wardrobe adapted for women via body-conscious silhouettes (think sear-sucker shirt dresses) and fresh takes on classic men’s styles, like street versions of the tuxedo with a sleeveless jacket and a pair of drop crotch trousers, matched this time with shoes created in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik.

In a way the palette for many men and women’s wear garments seemed to be lifted from Irene Sharaff’s costumes for West Side Story and for William Wyler’s 1968 version of Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif (remember the bright colours of the costumes for the train scene and the song “Don’t Rain on My Parade”?).

Yet there was one main difference: famous musicals became ingrained in our collective memory for their styles, costumes, songs, lyrics and dance performances.

Despite this presentation was loud, joyful and exuberant, it was hard to find extremely original pieces in the collections showcased. And while it is great to know that it is even possible to perform vigorous dance movements in Band of Outsiders’ clothes, there was something missing in the collections, probably that climatic and heart-breaking emotions that make a musical absolutely memorable.