“I have a lot of friends who are DJs and, in listening to their music, I started thinking about the concept of remixing,” said Antonio Berardi of the catalyst behind his Spring collection. It was this idea—of reframing an original so it becomes new again—that got Berardi’s engines firing. To successfully remix something, one must rely on engrams, supposedly how ideas are remembered, moments fleeting or otherwise, and a sense of temporal hybridization. On the runway, this all boiled down to, essentially, a remastering of the designer’s dogmas—new suggestions on lingerie details, graphic tailoring, and unconventional sensuality. Corseted tops opened up into billowy blousons on the back and down the sleeve. A double-peplum effect pantsuit featured a pretty ombré treatment of silver-flecked florals; Berardi rather dreamily called it a palette of “half-colors that can pretend to be another.”
There were times where the remixing skewed into oddball territory—bejeweled sleeves, for instance, connected with a free-flying swath of fabric around the back. Then again, other instances struck more refreshing notes—see a lilac frock applied with tassels (a strange new take on the flapper dress) or embellished stirrup-shinguards, fastened over Jimmy Choo for Antonio Berardi heels. If at times the collection felt a bit scattershot, it’s because it was supposed to relay a work in progress—or rather, a work that will remain forever in progress. (How benevolently Sisyphean.) “I like the idea that nothing is ever, or should ever be, truly done,” concluded Berardi.
