By Brian James and Leigh Maynard
Paolo Carzana fully announced the arrival of his eponymous label with a lockdown collection entitled “Another Day”, which was presented as part of London Fashion Week’s Discovery Lab programme in June 2021. It heralded the emergence of an exciting and enthralling new talent who had learnt his trade interning with industry doyen Walter Van Beirendonck and iconic luxury brand Versus Versace while studying for his bachelor’s degree at the University of Westminster.
I DEDICATE THIS COLLECTION TO QUEER LIVES TAKEN FROM US BEFORE THEIR TIME
Paolo Carzana
An artist in residence at the internationally renowned Sarabande Foundation, the creative incubator funded through a bequest by Lee Alexander McQueen, Carzana’s next collection SS23s, “Imagine we could be the ones to change it all”, took its title from a thought jotted onto a piece of paper in the dead of night. Its gestation also richly benefited from the Sarabande ethos, which enriches and encompasses all who inhabit its creative sphere. Having viewed Pasolini’s seminal cinematic masterpiece La Ricotta (1963), Carzana was struck by the parallels between how the religious authorities portrayed in the film were consumed by power and wealth and the motivations which drive the fashion industry. The assemblage of pieces that he gave us for S223 was a reaction to the tensions which exist between art and commerce, faith and feeling. It was a collection imbued with artful elegance. One comprised of beautifully cut sculpturally free-flowing pieces, the designer’s response to hierarchical, authoritarian structures and the trauma that exposure to such systems can induce.
The inspirations for Paolo Carzana’s A/W 23 collection “Queer Symphony” are encapsulated within the written word, which constitutes the collection’s press release. Working with multimedia artist and poet Matilde Cerutti Quara, this paean opens with the line, “I want to be hope for you”. It’s a message of hope that reverberates throughout this poignant but life-affirming and joyous poem. A poem which pays heartfelt homage to the designer’s Welsh identity, Italian heritage and the freedoms afforded by his current London life. One which sees him continue to reference his childhood experience of organized religion through its redolent use of religious imagery. An experience which inculcated this queer child with a deep sense of shame and guilt. A trauma that he has said resulted in him praying every night until he was 17 years old that he would be straight when he woke up in the morning. As he says, it’s a symphony of all those queer voices that have struggled and fought and those queer lives taken too early.
Ultimately, however, it is a symphony of hope, both empowering and empathetic. A celebration and reverence of queer life and identity. One whose key tenet is perhaps best summed up in the line, “I want to be hope for you if you are other than anyone else”.
“Queer Symphony” is a manifesto of love, inclusion and diversity which reveals itself in the garments which form the designer’s A/W 23 collection.
Notably, this collection of such evocative, magnificent beauty has been artfully created from a relatively small studio at the Sarabande. And perhaps at only fifteen looks, they are comparatively diminutive in the standard size of today’s collections. But they are fifteen considered and compelling looks in intense hand-dyed hues of burnt umber, pale pink, saffron yellow and purple conjured from nature’s pigments like wild carrot, meadowsweet, chamomile, onion skins, Longwood and madder. The designer’s dedication to such a palette comes through skills honed during his MA years at St Martins, where he worked tirelessly to create colour from plants, food waste and spices reinforced by his commitment to preserving nature and the environment.
Each garment has a delicacy mirroring nature’s beauty, formed through sumptuous layering; bias-cut coats are paired with rippled and ripped slim-fitting pants, silky shorts layered over organza, and shirts in natural, textural finishes with frayed edges. In AW23’s creations, every garment feels like a work of art that matches the profoundly moving prose and sentiment expressed in the poetry that evokes and announces it. Through the various expressions, whether words, textural and sometimes gravity-defying silhouettes or visceral hues, there is a kind of alchemy – yet one that results in an ultimately very wearable collection.
Though he has only created a few so far, Carzana’s collections are unmatched in aesthetic. In both their beauty and symbolism, they are unrivalled by his visionary dedication to manifest love through the fusion of craftsmanship and storytelling. The angels in organza flanking the collection, created with the assistance of designer Nasir Mazhar, are the mastheads of that representation – and the auspices of all those lost voices taken too soon, those like the silent mentor in whose foundation Carzana creates. And for all who wear clothes by this exceptional young designer of notable intention, that expression is conveyed to all who surround them. In a time when challenges face us in several forms, whether a creative, small business or a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Carzana himself represents all the good change and the beauty that can come from a love of people, the planet and exquisite and visionary design. He is, indeed, the hope he seeks to be.
Photo Credits :
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: PAOLO CARZANA
STYLING: MATTHEW JOSEPHS
CASTING DIRECTOR: TROY CASTING
HAIR: CLAIRE GRECH AT STREETERS USING ACT+ACRE
MAKE UP: CRYSTABEL RILEY AT JULIAN WATSON AGENCY USING HAECKELS
SHOW CONSULTANT: CALUM KNIGHT
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR: ETHAN JACOBS
SHOW NOTES: MATILDE CERRUTI QUARA
MUSIC: MAGNUS WESTWELL (FEAT. HFORSPIRIT)
PR: AGENCY ELEVEN
PRODUCTION: BLONSTEIN
