It hasn’t been easy going through life as Jezabelle, a name associated with immoral, promiscuous and controlling women, but this season Jezabelle Cormio leaned right in and built a whole collection around it.
“I’ve never met another Jezabelle before, but I’d like to. I’d be interested in comparing notes,” said Cormio, who was dressed for the show in a pair of 18th century French revolutionary’s culottes from one of her old collections.
This designer certainly loves a concept. For spring 2024 Cormio focused on family life, with babies and little kids appearing on the runway, while last season’s theme was girl power and the challenges that female athletes face.
For spring, Cormio described her looks as “pop-punk idols,” and said the thread that joined them was fear. “Women being afraid generally, and men being afraid of women” is how Cormio related the mood, while inspirations ranged from Joan of Arc to Amy Winehouse to the Italian rapper and singer-songwriter Madame.
The show took place in a warehouse near Linate airport with dusty floors and chairs placed in the center of the room. Models didn’t walk, but instead darted past guests as fast as racehorses.
There was no music, only different voiceovers lampooning traditional female stereotypes and highlighting some stats about Italy, including this: More than 70 percent of the fashion workforce is made up of women, but they hold fewer than 25 percent of leadership positions at the industry’s top companies.
The clothes, as always, were laid back and mixed sweetness with subversion.
Cormio worked a fishnet fabric (a mainstay of every Jezebel’s wardrobe) into a long-sleeve minidress layered over a T-shirt that said “Boo!” and transformed sparkly jersey into silvery, jockey-style underpants.
Although the styling was messy and the models grungy-looking, there were many treasures here.
Highlights included long, striped T-shirt dresses with butterfly sleeves and little corset fastenings; a white denim skirt with frills at the bottom and a floppy bow at the back, and cool, zip-front vest tops with embellishments, and holes bigger than one-euro coins.
Yet how many customers actively seek out concept clothing when they hit the shop floor, or start scanning e-commerce screens? The guess would be very few. They want clothes that make them feel and look good.
With or without Jezebel, and all the personal and political statements, this was a smart, interesting, commercial collection, and that’s all that matters.
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Source: WWD