For Fall/Winter 2023, Pierpaolo Piccioli takes black tie at face value, a figure of speech for a collection that builds around pieces drawn from every day. Conjecture and cultural capital are inverted - a symbol of masculine power, an emblem of orthodoxy and restriction, our preconceptions of the tie become theoretical architecture for a collection that toys with rules, emancipating meaning. Its ideological conceit is challenged, ultimately contradicted and redefined entirely.
An instruction can become an invitation, a dress code can liberate, limitation can free. Equally, universal symbolism can be open to reinterpretations, redefinition. Archetypes can be re-imagined, and a power in the familiar can come from its rediscovery in a new context.
A societal tool of conformity, uniformity becomes a lens to enhance humanity, to accentuate personae. Homogeny, rather than stripping away individuality, can form a frame for each human being, similarities enhancing differences, amplifying nuance. In the same way that the meaning of black tie is shattered and reassembled with new definition, our perception of uniform is reconsidered, conventions destroyed.
