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A Grungy Take on the 1930s

Alessandro Dell'Acqua's cool girls in smeared make-up and greasy locks furiously raided the catwalk, looking fantastic in haphazard layerings of glorious hand-me-downs.
No.21 Autumn/Winter 2016 | Source: InDigital.tv
By
  • Angelo Flaccavento

MILAN, Italy —  Style as individualist collage might be fashion's current mantra, but Dell'Acqua is no mere follower. Fashionistas are short-sighted, but he was actually here before many, right when No.21 began to take off a few years back. Today, it was interesting to see the designer being irreverent. He clearly wants to move on and break the formula. The grungy take on 1930s languor worked. There was a kind of dirty energy that felt raw and appealing. There were also quite a few references — Prada's tropicália, tellingly — but that is just part of the modus operandi of contemporary fashion designers: appropriation as creative form.

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