Yonathan Carmel wanted to evoke dusty vintage finds, and his creations, despite some sharp lines, succeeded in appearing filtered through the dappled light of an attic. He was seeking to create the antithesis of fashion in the seasonal sense with his spring collection, and carved a distinctive aesthetic in the process. “I tried to do something that is not contemporary and not very now,” said Carmel of his collection, designed entirely in Italy for the first time. “When you do something that feels like now, it becomes old very quickly…It doesn’t feel like it belongs to now, but it’s happening now and I’m making it now,” he said.
Carmel once again played with vintage references, creating sharp shoulders, cropped jackets and covered buttons with draped and tailored silhouettes that were an understated nod to ’80s power-dressing, many paired with pointy-toed boots. Harem pants in gold brocade, strapped at the ankles, were paired with an ecru cotton bomber with ribbed details in one of the more dramatic looks. A barely-there crinkled organza slip with a hood in ethereal white was styled under a buttoned vest. Deadstock ivory silk was used to craft an asymmetric gown with sculptural knots highlighting a shoulder and the opposite hip, while old silk ties were reinterpreted as lightweight blouses or draped wrap skirts.
The designs were created instinctively, he explained, preferring the memory of the body to the rigor of patternmaking to sculpt his silhouettes, although admittedly his tailoring training served a helping hand here. “It’s very calming, it’s the opposite of a machine, it’s low-tech, like something you studied from your grandfather,” he explained.