Marco Rambaldi twisted a historical Latin expression to adapt it to his vision and used it as the title of his collection this season: Memento Amori (remember to love). It was an exhortation to take care (again) of what is really important. Rambaldi, as part of a collaboration with the European Parliament, wasn’t only concerned with love, but also equal rights, sustainability, and democracy: He reminded people to vote during the upcoming European elections this June through a series of posters hanging at the entrance of his show venue.
The designer translated this food for thought into office-attire-inspired proposals that represented daily life, and also into the sensual details that have characterized his brand since the beginning. The show opener was a pencil skirt made of deadstock eel skin and a dévoré velvet jacket with a hidden Kama Sutra motif—the perfect combination of the two souls of this collection. Unmissable in a Rambaldi show, there was the presence of knitwear in his signature jacquard hearts, but also recovered handwoven crochet, as well as trompe l’oeil ensembles that created the illusion of erotic bodies on garments. In this “recovery approach” some garments from previous seasons stood out, such as the cropped leather bomber overlapped by a removable vest or the caban that reprised one belonging to Rambaldi’s father, slightly renewed in its silhouette to be more contemporary. To complete the collection, Swarovski crystals were applied on tricot with an innovative 3D technique and there were jewels made with Priscilla Anati in the shape of a thorny rose.
