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If Erik Bjerkesjö – the other young designer who showed at Pitti Wednesday evening – represents the minimalist extremists of male dressers, Andrea Pompilio flies the flag of the other half. Furry pompoms, frills, checks, stripes and endless colours defined the designer’s autumn/winter 13 collection, which took the idea of the modern dandy to new heights. Written in the first person, the show notes outlined the pre-date dressing ritual of a fictitious Pompilio wearer, complete with Patrick Bateman-esque sentences like “I slide up on my loose fit dry jeans, button up my multicoloured small checkered pattern shirt up to the detachable collar, pull over my sweater”, and it didn’t take long to realise that this show, more than just a collection, was a portrait of a very specific kind of man – a new generation of post-metrosexuals, who treat men’s attire like an art form, or possibly a healthy obsession. There were pimp elements such as the swag coats and the clashing prints and 60s rebel elements in the cuts, but most of all the collection harked back to an era closer to Beau Brummell and Co. and all the men who followed suit. Chuck Bass certainly didn’t live in vain.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
