Stefano Pilati for Random Identities F/W 2020.21 Milan

[tricotineacetat]

It’s fashion babe it’s not that serious. You can like what you want. Given the master he is, it’s not unfair nor matter of fact for us to expect better than what is being presented and to state that.

Fair enough, but you do realize that designing a collection for an independently financed private venture that relies on providing clothes that can generate a realistic sell through is something very different from designing for a major brand that include much different resources, strategies etc.? It's the same tiring complaint overheard when people ditch Olivier Theyskens' relaunched label where they expect one long stretch of theatrical gowns that are only generating PR buzz.

Times have changed since the early 2000s, nobody can maintain a collection unless they are actually selling to a customer. I commend the fact that Pilati is making an effort to offer clothes that people can actually buy and not add to the long list of designers that will sell you a hoodie or t-shirts for hundreds of euros like Vetements.

 

[Machinegumm]

As with so many of his collections, I end up liking Stefano's outfit the most.

 

[Lola701]

Stefano’s menswear for YSL was very elitist. He is really his own muse in that aspect that his lifestyle influence his style a lot.
And in Paris, he really lived a very privileged, precious and bourgeois life. His style went from Italian Dandy to something very much edgy in terms of silhouettes and shapes. Men who bought his clothes were Artists, fashion people...etc. The commercial success of his YSL t-shirts,belts and sneakers was totally different from the reality of his business in menswear. He was doing very niche menswear for a very big name at a time where the Hedi Slimane influence was still big (Raf Simons, Margiela, Tom Ford, Thom Browne or Rick Owens were still very niche) for major brands like Gucci and Dior and Lanvin had it moment.

In a way, it’s understandable that his vision of Berlin feels very « Starter-Packish ». Here is a man who discovered a city in his late 40’s/early 50’s and left his own life to create a new one literally. He was living near the Élysée Palace guys!
I think that the fact that nobody chased him after he left Zegna actually hit him more than he would admit. It’s weird to hear about Berlin in 2018/2019 because it was THE city in the early 00´s and it has helped Hedi Slimane create influential, timeless collections for Dior...

Stefano’s version of Berlin is cliché but I think that it’s actually why he went to Berlin. It’s a cultural shock and radically different from his Parisian lifestyle. And I think that he likes the idea of being controversial again...His new clique doesn’t go to The Montana and doesn’t party with Olivier Zahm and Nicolas Ghesquiere.

It’s so weird to be disruptive and very conventional at the same time. That’s maybe why I don’t see RI as a permanent project. He only has a 4 years difference with his former mentor, Tom Ford, and I don’t see him being with his German clique at 60.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ The best of his YSL men’s was stunningly bespoke to the point of couture, but always with a modern edge that keeps it HF: The sort of design that’s an investment as well as an effortless statement of high fashion. This is why I find RI sort of a cheat coming from him.I get that he’s designing from a certain culturally-specific perspective. But it’s very much in the vein of fast-fashion. He’s not making the effort that someone of his calibre is capable of. This is like Gaultier’s collaboration with Supreme, where it’s ll surface and flash, without the skilled construction and tailored experience we’ve come to expect.

So once the pieces are separated from their styling and point of reference, it’s all very basic— unless I’m interested in a button-down with a lingerie-bra print on it (an idea that was so much better executed by past Gaultier collections BTW). I just don’t see anything fresh with RI. Frankly, even the styling which sells the brand, feels and looks heavily retro and nostalgic to me: More regressive than progressive for someone of his stature.

But this brand isn’t targeted towards me; it’s for a 19yo who’s very much defined by a city’s specific culture they’re a part of and wasn’t born when OG Helmut was at his prime. I respect the decent price points in that sense: There was a one-size pleated floor-length dress from A/W 2019 that was very simple and dramatic— and also very affordable at less than $200usd. This sort of reasoning is very serviceable.

(Is he wearing his classic YSL chesterfield at the end???)

 

[Nomar]

I definitely agree with everyone else here that the whole 'Berlin clubbing' thing with RI is really cheesy and overdone. However, if you look past that I think it's great that Pilati is producing interesting pieces at a very reasonable price point.

To me, RI is one of those brands where you probably won't like everything in a collection and might even hate most of it, but you'll find maybe one or two really nice things.

 

[donyan]

I wish Fashion Designers would leave the Clubs alone. Referencing a certain underground culture, or using empty political slogans on expensive Designer Pieces has always seemed like an anachronism to me at best, a dishonest appropriation of alternative culture at worst. No Collection has ever become better by shrouding simple and banal clothes in the mystery of rebellion and alternative culture.
Give me the mastery and creativity of Rick Owens or Helmut Lang, or the honest simplicity of Lemaire or APC. Or just go to RoB.

 

[bc collector]

Referencing a certain underground culture, or using empty political slogans on expensive Designer Pieces has always seemed like an anachronism to me at best, a dishonest appropriation of alternative culture at worst

So you're basically throwing out of the window 90% of the fashion offer existing today, with all its preposterous streetwear creds - and, btw, I'm right there with you on that.

 

[Lola701]

I definitely agree with everyone else here that the whole 'Berlin clubbing' thing with RI is really cheesy and overdone. However, if you look past that I think it's great that Pilati is producing interesting pieces at a very reasonable price point.

To me, RI is one of those brands where you probably won't like everything in a collection and might even hate most of it, but you'll find maybe one or two really nice things.

I think the real strength of Random Identities is that it’s the place where we can buy an interesting, well designed suit at a decent price.
You can only buy pieces at those prices in sample sales for well designed pieces.

As much as the kids like Raf Simons or Virgil Abloh, their quitting propositions are not really timeless or well designed ( in Abloh’s case).