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“Garçon means boy” says the waitress in the opening diner scene of Pulp Fiction. But ‘Garconne’, the name of Giorgio Armani’s mainline collection, was a term coined in 1880 by French Author J K Huysmans, to describe women who wore men’s clothing and cut their hair like schoolboys. Armani’s collection was just as specific, and not actually ‘androgynous’ the way we use it now to describe sexless uniform dressing; this was much more of a costume and was full of sex, but for girls who liked girls, in Paris 1880. Using a predominantly black palette with crisp white and ice blue to accompany it, the looks ranged from velvet dungarees with white shirts to short black capes worn with wide leg blue trousers, to sharp, shoulderless jackets over long wide skirts. Belted shaggy coats and sculpted leather jackets made up the outerwear and every single girl wore a hat, but instead of the colourful glitzy hats we saw the day before at the Emporio Armani show, these were 100% identical and black, creating anonymity for each girl and implying a shyness to her sexuality, which was endearing. The teacher’s pet was velvet, a fabric used generously across the collection on trousers, dresses and jumpsuits. Zips ran down trousers, chains hung from waists and giant polka dots landed on flat pointy shoes and black cardigans. The last string of looks were ultra glamorous eveningwear pieces, signalling that garconnes could be typically feminine too when they wanted. Crystal embellished capes, decadent netted dresses and silver crystal bows on black velvet shined brightly under the lights. A strong, consistent collection that presented a different side to women, one we haven’t seen anywhere else this season, Giorgio Armani scored high.
Text: Sarah Raphael
Photography: Mitchell Sams
