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A colorful fruit salad, enriched with tradition and seasoned with modernity. This is how Andrea Incontri’s first collection for United Colors of Benetton, presented this Sunday at Milan Fashion Week, could be described. The designer, a newcomer to the brand, has combined the Italian heritage of knitwear with a vibrant color palette and fruity prints, has given his magical touch of minimalist elegance, has added many accessories and the proposals for next spring/summer are served.
“Benetton is part of my cultural heritage, part of my personal journey. And it was never just a fashion brand for me, but a design culture brand. In my profession as a designer, design goes beyond fashion,” Andrea Incontri told the Observer. “I want to honor the history of the brand and at the same time make it extremely contemporary.” The parade was scheduled for 10:00 am on Sunday. Milan is the capital of fashion from September 20 to Monday 26. There is no rest or weekends during the days when the proposals for the next hot season are presented. The stage was a Benetton store, the models arrived on the catwalk on escalators and paraded through a tour among guests. The “Be Everything” collection began with many knitted creations, complete looks, made up of overlapping pieces, there were also cotton shirt dresses, pieces in denim, tweed, Vichy prints and recycled nylon in fluid shirts, tops, shorts and windbreakers. The entire collection conveyed a relaxed, comfortable and practical vibe, sometimes even transporting those looking to the beach, with the help of stripes and flip-flops.
The collection is based on the pillars of the brand: fabrics and colors and, in the middle, an authentic fruit salad emerges, through colorful prints with cherries, pears and apples, both in micro and macro sizes, as well as in clothing and accessories. .
What do we find, after all, of the Benetton heritage in this new collection? “Coherence with ‘high definition’, that is, repeating a theme to highlight a concept and communicate it well. Only in this way is it possible to transmit an incisive and unequivocal message to the final consumer”, explains Incontri. “This spring-summer I focused on a few basic elements, starting with knitwear, which is essential. There are many jacquard patterns, fully printed styles, mouliné yarns, thus highlighting one of the most important elements of the brand”. And he adds that he also worked on another of Benetton’s pillars, “color, the great protagonist.” Vibrant shades of red, green, and yellow produced contrasting plays with pastel shades of pink, blue, and also neutral tones such as beige. Stripes are also an important signature of the brand and their presence was noted in this collection.
The designer says that he later developed “the makeup, the project of jeans, sweaters, underwear, leather goods and accessories with different cuts that adapt to each morphology and each look.” And, in fact, the commitment to the total looks of the models that paraded was noted, with a series of accessories that reinforced the messages of the collection, with a multitude of handbags, as well as glasses, scarves and hats. Some of these garments, such as handbags, eco-leather sneakers, caps and sweatshirts, can already be found in stores from September 15, as part of a capsule collection, called “The new Benetton uniform”.
Andrea Incontri’s starting point for this collection was to ask himself: “What is healthy today?” And, after reflecting on industrial perfectionism and the naturalness of the organic, what we saw on the catwalk turned out. And what do we find as the designer’s signature? “Stylistically, I embody “less is more” and focus on the essence of the brand. A clear, recognizable, pure essence,” he says. “What I try to do, whether for children’s, women’s or men’s looks, is to work with the same criteria, creating a transversal message through perfectly recognizable elements and applied to all product categories.”
United Colors of Benetton was created in 1965, in Treviso, and continues to balance itself between a presence close to the general public and among the major international luxury brands at Milan Fashion Week. Andrea Incontri arrived at Benetton in 2022, to take on the role of creative director of the women’s, men’s and children’s collections. He says he is “very proud to have received this invitation” and that the understanding with the company was very natural. But the designer brings much more to the brand than creativity. “My key elements are present across the board. I believe a lot in architecture, in brand strategy. I don’t just design a collection, I always think about its structure, with a very practical approach. And I always think a lot about the way all of this is communicated. If there is no effective communication, the message is lost”, explains the designer, a graduate in architecture, who likes to bet on the principle of functionality in fashion.
Incontri, born in 1971, already has two decades of experience in fashion and accessories design. She has a brand to her name with womenswear and menswear, and has already collaborated with major names in the fashion scene including Missoni, Max Mara, Jil Sander and Tod’s. “My previous personal experiences, for which I am very grateful, also made me realize the importance of reaching the consumer, who is the main protagonist of this story. It is the end customer who generates this brand development opportunity. Customer loyalty is the most important thing. I always think about the commercial offer, the final price, the practical side, all crucial elements of Benetton’s DNA”.
Perhaps that is why the parade took place in a brand store, more precisely in the Benetton store on Corso Buenos Aires, a bustling and commercial avenue in the city of Milan. A proof of the importance of the stores in the company and also a way of approaching the public. Incontri “reinterpreted the layout of the place”, explains the brand, and the result was an almost completely blank space, like a clean canvas for both the collection and the guests with their colorful looks, in the spirit of the brand. The benches of mirrors and the large windows that overlooked the street stood out, where those who walked along the sidewalk stopped to watch the show, in a kind of third row of public, but outside the store.
Inside, guests and friends of the brand, the press and many influencers joined. For example, in the front row were international fashionistas Olivia Palermo and her husband Johannes Huebl, as well as Anna Dello Russo, creative consultant for Vogue Japan. From Portugal, it was Luis Borges, Bárbara Inês, Mariana Machado and Catarina Maia who contributed to the colorful atmosphere with their looks.
Even with Italy mired in a complex election weekend, Milan Fashion Week hasn’t slowed down. And, in addition to the closed-door parade with proposals for next season, Benetton’s heritage is very present in Italian culture and in the memory of Italians. In the square where the Duomo is located, in the heart of Milan, a long line of people in front of the Royal Palace tried to get tickets for the exhibition “Oliviero Toscani. Professione Photographer”, which ended this Sunday, September 25. The poster for the show was one of many iconic images he did for Benetton campaigns. In fact, among the 800 photographs on display, some of the images he created between 1982 and 2000 could not be missing, helping to make Benetton “one of the best-known brands in the world.” The exhibition was the largest ever dedicated to the photographer in Italy, in celebration of his 80th birthday, and demonstrated that Toscani’s work is still alive and inspiring and that the campaigns he signed for Benetton remain a landmark in popular culture. .
The Observer traveled at the invitation of United Colors of Benetton.
Source: Observadora
