DESIGNER ROMEO GIGLI

After losing the right for his name, I’m happy that Romeo Gigli came back to fashion with his new label Io Ipse Idem (the me of always is never the same me as before). Romeo Gigli is one you could consider as a poet in fashion. His works are always romantic, dramatic, ethereal and modern. According to him , he takes inspiration not from the human body itself but from the essence of the personality inside that body can convey. He became of the most influential designer with his emphasis on muted but vibrant colours, languid lines and texture and new take on exotic cultures and historical influences.

Romeo Gigli was born in Bologna, Italy and came from a wealthy aristocratic family. His childhood was saturated in art history and over 20,000 antiquarian books in his father's library. This is one of major influences in his works. There are always some historical references in his designs whether the sloping shoulders that echoed the images of Madonnas from Florentine paintings, Edwardian inspired coats and jackets from his menswear, elaborate beading, draping technique, and the use of luxury fabrics such as velvet, brocade, and silks. Gigli also travels around the world in different exotic countries and collects exotic items for inspiration. National costumes and ethnic clothes and ornaments from this places attract him. You can say that’s were his African –inspired batiks, tie–dyes, the use of shell, horn leather, animal skins and other multiethnic components of his designs originates from.

His first collections in 1984 provoked excitement among the fashion crowd. During the time when everyone was designing big shoulder pads and tight fitted clothes for women, Romeo Gigli’s unstructured designs brought a refreshing air of romance, drama and simplicity. His different approach to feminine body uncovers it without undressing it and he undresses it without uncovering it. His bright colors and interesting construction like the opening of the necklines, for the using of the knots in the dresses, the new function of the tassels, the fringes and the embroideries fascinated the fashion world. People call his style unique “a balance mixture of renaissance grandeur, Japanese avant garde, oriental luxury and street edge ”.

Throughout his career, he perfects the textile selection, utilizing the newest technologies for producing fabrics and he obtaining influence and inspiration from the different cultures. There is a great Japanese designer Rey Kawakubo influence on his designs especially in regards to silhouettes . The shapeless and big volume cuts are one of special mark of Kawakubo’s design. But Gigli simplified the Rey Kawakubo design and added a Milanese sensuality to them. Also Romeo Gigli is first designer who started to offer his works in combination with the clothes of other his colleagues. In his boutique in Milan, for example, are sold clothes that are a mixture from the trends “Romeo Gigli”, “Jean Paul Gautier”, “Sibila” etc.

He found clothing as fascinating as fine art. One season after a fabric-buying trip to India, Gigli came back and ripped out everything in his showroom to put up a display of saris, just for people to come and look at.

In 1991, England's Bath Costume Museum chose one of Romeo Gigli's creations as its 1991 dress of the year, it was a midnight blue velvet
Pantsuit with a blouse of streaky sunset strips and a gilt-embroidered cummerbund.

Romeo Gigli produces clothes that are always subtle and sophisticated. He blends a spectrum of muted colors with a fluid sense of cut and drape to give a feeling of balance and harmony. An intelligent balance of all elements of design and choice of textiles makes Gigli's work uniquely sophisticated and beautiful. His subtlety of touch and soft sculptural forms have influenced all levels of design from the High Street up, and his work has continued to develop along his self-assigned tenets of harmony and balance, always retaining a feeling of sensuous luxury.

IO IPSEM IDEM MEN SPRING/SIMMER 2010