Simply Abu Dhabi XXXI

1 5 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I ANTONIO GRIMALdI ‘I love diversity and with this collection I wanted to express this concept as far as I could. So I decided to also launch my men’s couture line, making couture not exclusively for woman but also inclusive of men’; this is what Mr. Antonio Grimaldi— a Roman designer—told me backstage while presenting his haute couture collections in Paris. With this collection, one of the best presented during haute couture week in Paris, Grimaldi showed his refined appeal in fashion. Long, bold dresses that were just perfect for an evening and magnificent in their architectural construction. The suits were just ‘wow’. Incredible proportions, women’s jackets that fitted perfectly with shoulders that were powerful, but not aggressive. Personally, I felt speechless when I saw them on the runway, because they felt so right for both the collection itself and for women’s modern wardrobe in general. Have you ever asked yourself where you could find a well-tailored pant suit? Well, Grimaldi might be your answer. With this collection, Grimaldi also showed how he has matured both in creativity and in craftsmanship. All the dresses, whose silhouette was tight and slim fitting, skimmed the body perfectly: the workmanship of several pieces was simply stunning from palettes to little rectangular mirrors hand stitched on an evening gown, giving the model an ultra- strong/superwoman effect, which wowed the audience. For men, black and dark blue suits were classic with details like skeleton hands on the jacket hips (one of Grimaldi’s signatures) or mirrors attached like the women’s gowns. Personally, it’s too early to judge if the men’s capsule collection met expectations but I would love to see more Antonio Grimaldi Men’s Haute Couture pieces, because this project is quite interesting. He is the first to launch the co-ed (men’s and women’s collections launched together) haute couture collections in history. Bravo! In general, there were so many good pieces in the collection that it will be interesting to follow his evolution in the upcoming seasons. He might do something really big! HAUTE COUTURE: it’s all about a dream of inclusion and diversity. Haute Couture collections are the most refined collections known to man: the intricate details, embroidery and beading are literally one of a kind. But this season more than ever, the message that couturiers are sending with their gowns and dresses is one of diversity and inclusion. The diverse casting has seen many black models on the runway, and the different type of dresses created by the designers marks a couture season which highlights more than ever the love of diversity of the designers. That being said, diversity today has a new meaning: nowadays diverse means unique, and uniqueness is a characteristic of humans as well as of couture itself, the highest expression of uniqueness in the fashion world.