5 brands of the past disappeared from the radars and that we would like to see reborn

Just enough to rekindle an old flame? Perhaps very little if we talk about great epic loves wrecked in Tourbillon de la vie. Rummaging in fashion memories it is not difficult to intercept certain liaison indelible. Certain glories of a distant past, archived, but continuously paid out rather than sacked. Let’s talk about dormant brands, to whom, who knows, perhaps it would only be enough a lymphatic kiss to be awakened by deep sleep. So impactful at the time that they can raise even the question today off-limits per Antonomasia: What if it worked again? How would it be?

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Of course, it is useless to emphasize that the side effects of the “heated soup” could be manifold. The bar of very high expectations involves the risk of not being able to generate the walled interest or, worse, to damage that crystallized image in gold times. To give it a test are several historical brands relaunched by new owners without success. For example, the legendary maison Poiret, opened in 1903, closed in 1929, restarted by the South Korean giant of retail Shataregae in 2015 with the appointment of Yiqing Yin as artistic director, and finally capitated in 2018 after only two fashion shows. The challenge? Not only to spot a new strategy, but above all the right creative team. And here Schiaparelli docet, with the relaunch in 2012 by Diego Della Valle and the rise in fashion-radar From the arrival of Daniel Roseberry to the helm in 2019.

Zendaya at the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show.

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Even if in 2025 deludes us to live in the past, it seems to be the only possible way to face the present, it is not just about basking nostalgia. But of re -impact the archives of those brands which, in reality, would already have perfectly sense of existing, as they are free from temporal angles that can relegate them in a limited era. We have selected five, to which, in our opinion, it would be worth giving another today chance.

With the relaunch on site announced about two years ago by Bidayat, Alsara Investment Group company founded by Rachid Mohamed Rachid, and related rumors who saw Alessandro Michele at the time as a possible candidate for the creative direction (while today the most recurring name for the coveted position is that of Pierpaolo Piccioli), Walter Albini is definitely at the top of the list of Comeback on the catwalk most desired by fashionists. Considered by most the authentic standard bearer of the “Made in Italy»Coming for the first time creative design and industrial production with the presentation of his first line in 1971, Albini has never lost his freshness, so much so that we can easily translate it into our times. Former art director tout courtfirst customs clearance, the unisex fashion concept with the autumn-winter 1975/76 collection develops the total lookchanges the geographical location for the presentation of its collections from Florence to Milan and does not fear the scandal in reflecting the extremist terrorist movements lexicalized in the balaclava. Do you sound family? Life and art blend in a global vision: overflowing installations of mannequins who wear masks of his face, Peni exhibitions, he himself sitting naked over a mountain of clothes like a “Venus of the pret-à-porter “ To which today only the Tinsl Hair would miss. For the series, Once to Genius, Always in Genius.

Walter Albini, 1973.

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Another giant of the Made in Italy And the first actual fashion designer, Gianfranco Ferré looks at the body exactly like a “space to dress”, faithful to its six principles of dynamics: composing, reducing, emphasizing, recaliting, deconstructing, exciting. A modus operandi Son of his training in architecture and summarized in the perfect cuts, in large volumes, in the sophisticated quality pre quiet luxuryas well as in the dreamy intuition of its eternal white shirts couture. To extreme rigor, its buildingsà-porter They add a poem and a sweetness that can still bet on the millimeters of the smallest seam. Where narrative and stylistic consistency is sought, Ferré’s vision goes beyond the trends without effort. Quietly defraunable to some experimentation AI.

Jerry Hall and Gianfranco Ferré, 1985.

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Among the fashion houses more in hype In the 10s and 20s of the last century, Callot Soeurs laid the foundations for theHaute Couture modern in combining crafts and avant -garde. Think that in 1916 Vogue us He defines the four Callot sisters – Marie, Marthe, Régina and Joséphine – even as “the first of the powers that govern the destinies of a woman’s life and increase the revenues of France”. The trademark is the innovative use of materials: exotic fabrics, Chinese thirst, Indian brocades, golden lamé at Louise Brooks, approached with unparalleled Savoir-Faire In historic pizzi of the eighteenth century, intricate embroidery, beads, fringes. From the women’s fashion revolution in full Belle Époque to the contemporary declination in the key boho chic It’s a moment.

Callot Soeurs evening, around 1920.

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We cannot fail to mention Madame Grès’s poetic minimalism. Since the opening of his fashion house in 1942 he has imposed himself as the undisputed teacher of the draper, abolishing cuts and seams to transform the silhouette female in that of a classic goddess. Reserved, mysterious, fromallure Sacral, “The Sphinx of Fashion” has bewitched the future designers of the entire globe with its pearly gray silk jersey, the Uber-chic Moulagethe deeply conceptual aesthetic. That even the post-apocalyptic Rick Owens venera venerate: “I love his confidentiality and his almost severe moderation. He had a monastic and at the same time sensual approach. I’ve always wanted to be a version à la Sid Vicious by Madame Grès, “he told Financial Times. And how not to crave a transposition 4.0? Angelina Jolie is already at the forefront.

Madame Grès, spring-summer 1963.

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To be specified immediately, the brand that bears its name today is not entirely dormant, albeit only the production of licensed accessories has remained. A thin consolation, if we think that in 1987 Christian Lacroix was appointed by the CFDA as the most influential stylist of the moment. Moreover, each catwalk of Arles’s boyfriend cleans a theatrical work from the subtitle More is more. Ergo, impossible not to be enchanted by it. Inspired by eighteenth -century BariCchisms reread in a pop key upsets the silhouette with pompous skirts and forgotten corsets, pounding them in its typical palette golden. There are no market limits or logics that keep in front of the velvet, feather-feeding pott-poorers, rouchesBroccati, hearts and crosses poised between sacred and profane. A taste for folkloristic excess, which overflows from the eyes, overflows from the years, so as to end up straight on the red carpet of the current news. See Rihanna. What can I say, if the maximalism in fashion is back, the need to daydream has never gone.