VITELLI Spring Summer 21 collection at Milan Fashion Week

The young Italian fashion brand Vitelli is made with 100% reclaimed yarns, with a non-gender orientation and a zero-waste ethos.  All the attributes that many fashion names across the world today aim to address.

Vitelli’s eighth “Gioventù Cosmica” collection launched during the recent Milan Fashion Week was inspired by the history of Italian youth culture “stile Italiano” through the filter of the present, according to founder Mauro Simionato (creatie director) and Giulia Bortoli (knitwear director).

The Milan-based knitwear brand is entirely made in Italy, produced by local craftspeople, and family-owned local mills. All garments are knitted, looped, printed or embroidered in Veneto, in the northeastern part of Italy. 

Since 2019 VITELLI works towards a 100% sustainable production cycle: the “DOOMBOH” line is entirely made with 100% reclaimed yarns from neighbours’ production leftover, felted together into clothes and then used for creating non-gender collections with zero waste; other reclaimed or waste materials such as dead-stock silks are collected locally and used as a canvas for knitwear hybrids.

The concept of the collection references the culture of Italian tailoring and classic elegance,

reinterpreted and revisited with a psychedelic touch of Cosmic Youth and the early ‘80s. The

dressed- up 3-piece suit is created in a classic pinstripe entirely ton sur ton where the shirt, jacket

and trousers are produced in the same shade and weight of silk. 

Key pieces can be mixed and

matched in courageous combinations with the collection’s outerwear and jackets, influenced by workwear and uniforms, created in jacquard silk. In fact, suit jackets are made from silk fabrics not typically used in apparel but instead meant for home furnishings or ties, for a deluxe version of ready-to-wear.   

Deconstructed military uniforms and navy jackets are embellished with knitwear, the signature touch that deVines each garment, for example in a decorative band of a cotton/Lycra blend that adds an embossed effect to the silk sleeves. 

 

The choice of silk in floral-themed

prints and various patterns is linked both to the search for naturalistic elements and abstract

motifs which combine on the garments to create a look immersed in a current of multiple cultural

references and influences.

There are 24 looks in the new collection, proposing a new lifestyle range that is the result of collaborations between the brand and its seasonal partners, including Bloke, whose own collections are entirely handmade in Lagos, Venetian footwear brand Marsèll and Milan-based active-punk brand, Rayon Vert.  Additionally, Vitelli engaged with the London incense brand Cremate to produce a special line of knitted headwear and a new scent.

For the first time the attention is shifted also to silk suits, pants and jackets, shirts and blouses 

.

Italian tailoring is mixed with embroidery made with knitwear yarns on traditional machinery. 

The decorations are reminiscent of seaweed and coral navigating sinuous waters, whose shapes allude to an upside-down perspective of oceanic creations that become terrestrial.

In this collection, conventional knitwear becomes structural, as cuffs or banding used to adorn the

garments from the pocket flaps to stitching details. Knitting and crochet are applied to accessories and “Doomboh” needle-punch techniques embellish many of the collection’s looks.