Marco De Vincenzo is making his mark on Etro, adding his own perspective to the label’s signature elements. At a pre-fall showroom appointment, he sounded confident; after the spring show, “the direction seems clearer,” he said. The potion he’s concocting to bring Etro forward is part heritage, part personal idiosyncrasies—a calibrated alchemy.
“If a brand’s patrimony has strong foundations,” he reasoned, “as a creative you move within a perimeter that protects its survival, while at the same time protecting the integrity of your interpretation.” De Vincenzo delights in deep-dives into the archives; this season, he worked on the masculine templates of Etro’s beginnings as well as on its romantic bohemian legacy—two apparently antithetical ingredients laced by the flair for immersive decoration intrinsic to its character.
Etro’s idea of masculinity has always been unconventional, tinged with a debonair, dandy attitude. De Vincenzo picked upon the same vibe in the feminine translation of the classic masculine suit, offered here in oversized renditions, either in tie-like heraldic jacquards or pinstriped, worn over sporty sweats with silk hoods printed in paisley motifs. Being one of the label’s signifiers, the boteh was given an immersive treatment in stretchy knitted tube dresses, paired with long matching stoles; mixed with florals, it prettified the fluid, unfussy silhouettes that are De Vincenzo’s take on the boho look. They looked less elaborate and flouncy than past iterations. “I’m not going radically minimalistic,” De Vincenzo said. “Yet what I’m trying to do is to keep the approach a bit more rigorous, to reduce rather than amplify. I want to challenge myself in staying authentic, both to the brand and to myself.”
