I'm not the first to coin the title of this post and I won't be the last as this delicious bit of illiteration is frankly too irresistable not to use when it comes to Peter Pilotto coming to Pitti W and taking over a Palazzo. See? It's a word match made in heaven. As per the tradition of Pitti, the invited guest designer for both menswear and womenswear get to have carte blanche over what they do as an event as part of this fabled tradeshow. In the last few years, we've seen Florence's palazzos and gardens decked out in the language of each designer and this season, Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos turned Palazzo Borghese, a lavish abode dating back to 1400, into Palazzo Pilotto.
With the help of their website designer, Jonny Lu, they created projections, wall claddings and carpets to juxtapose against the classical statues, the decadent chandeliers and all the gilt and glitz of a Florentine palazzo. It's a timely transformation as it showcased an array of prints that sees Pilotto and De Vos taking yet another swever in their print language. It may just be a resort collection but it perhaps marks a turning point in how Pilotto translate literal element into evocative digital prints. From nebula to rocks to oceans to Tokyo lights - their source material is vast and far-reaching. For resort however, they played with something more abstract, employing a print generator, programmed by Lu, that randomly creates kaleidoscopic effects. Therefore there's no real tangible source material this time and it's as though the prints that graced the carpets, the walls, the digital screens and of course the collection, came out of thin air, which makes it all the more exciting. It's their own unique take on geometric patterns that have gone before them. There were prints that almost looked like stained glass windows but Pilotto and De Vos of coursehad warped and manipulated them to the point of being unregconisable as such.
Palazzo Pilotto had well and truly brought this Peter Pilotto kaleidoscope to life for me and I found myself wanting not just to reside in this surreally printed mecca but to don as many of these print mish-mashes as possible - stripes, polka dots, glitched lines, flying diamonds, squares - all gradiated in a vast array of vibrant colours. The presentation also taught me that resort clothes also need in-person viewing as I wasn't able to glean any of the details such as the quilt-esque looking silk cloque dress, the nodules of silk thread bead-like embroidery or the circular sequins paired with crystals. These details gave the prints even more movement and verve, as though the squares and dots would come flying out at you motion. If I had stayed there longer and drank a bit more, there would have been some wildly geometric dreams for sure, the sort that stay with you throughout the day in a feel-good patterned haze.
