Plan C SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR
“When the border between Italy and Switzerland was suddenly closed because of the lockdown, I was spending winter break in Engadin [Switzerland] with my kids. So I couldn’t come back to Milan,” said Carolina Castiglioni. “I got stranded in the mountains.” There are certainly worse ways to spend quarantine. “I know I’ve been privileged to spend time in such a beautiful place,” she acknowledged during a safe-distanced appointment at her label’s headquarters. Making the best out of the situation, her spring 2021 collection was a sort of grateful ode to the time she spent in Celerina, a small village near Saint Moritz, taking long walks and bicycle rides with her kids in the forest and along the lake.
To keep memories of this extraordinary moment, Castiglioni, who’s an accomplished photographer, took pictures to chronicle the immersive feeling of being surrounded by such glorious natural landscapes. The images—from the melting of winter snow to the blooming of spring flowers in fields—were translated into collages, becoming patchwork prints that gave the collection its visual character.
Plan C was born as Castiglioni’s personal take on style: a bit tomboyish, utilitarian. And imaginatively practical in a very Milanese way. Artsy, feminine flourishes are occasional and non-ostentatious, yet her reserved demeanor reveals a certain self-confidence. Bold block colors, oversized volumes, and silhouettes with a radical twist are testament to the strength of her design convictions. The simple yet structured shapes she favors were proposed for spring as a focused take on her style staples: geometric-cut. Roomy tunic dresses with functional drawstrings; masculine shirts with detachable details; deconstructed outerwear with a light, inventive construction. Responsibly sourced fabrics were fresh and crisp to the touch, while retaining the substantial feel necessary for Castiglioni’s generous volumes.
Castiglioni wanted to give the collection an optimistic vibe; besides creating patchwork shirts and dresses with her digitally reworked prints. She chose uplifting colors to communicate the feel-good energy she experienced during her full immersion in nature: “When I arrived in Switzerland. It was still winter. When we left, trees and fields were lush with green,” she explained. The chromatic spectrum spanned from snowcapped-mountain whites to forest greens and sunny oranges; herbarium prints were graceful nods to the bouquets her kids collected during their walks.
That spirit of wanderlust is captured by a short movie Castiglioni is presenting during Milan Digital Fashion Week. Shot by filmmaker Luca De Santis, it retraces the places where Castiglioni spent her lockdown, creating, through Google Maps Street View’s visual language, a sort of sentimental map of her (rather blissful) quarantine.
See every single look from Plan C SPRING 2021 READY-TO-WEAR Collection in the gallery, below :
source: Vogue
