The hazy Florentine sky provided a fitting backdrop for Marine Serre’s cinematic SS25 collection. As this season’s guest designer at the prestigious menswear fair Pitti Uomo, she brought the fash pack to a hillside mansion with vast, idyllic gardens that looked down onto the city.
Set on creating a full menswear outing originally, the opportunity to show in Florence – marking her first catwalk outside of Paris – inspired the former LVMH Prize winner to expand her output into a fully co-ed offering littered with her signature crescent moon motif.
To an experimental live string quartet came a procession of sartorially striking leather trousers, shirts and trench coats in lipstick red and purple (with duffle bags and briefcases to match). The golden age of Italian cinema was a strong starting point for the designer, exemplified via the strong lines of her men’s tailoring and the grandeur of her womenswear, which included billowing taffeta skirts and evening dresses carved from upcycled denim, vintage lace and sofa covers.
A striking men’s overcoat was appliquéd with flowers made from deadstock scarves – upcycling has been a pillar to Serre’s growing business since day dot – while one ball gown was Frankensteined together using old hiking rucksacks. Pretty impressive stuff.
Serre dedicated the collection to “citizens of the world”, casting models of over 20 nationalities in a message of unity and togetherness. “Nothing is political as everything is political. For this show, more particularly, I decided to spread a message of peace,” wrote the designer, who bookended the collection with a series of couture-inspired, all white looks. The final dress came stamped with the slogan ‘Radical Call For Love’, which was the title of Serre’s 2016 graduate show, a response to the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks the year before. “Life is part of what inspires artists, if not the main inspiration. Today I cannot create without sadness looking at the world around me. The collection symbolises a call for peace and bond.”
Photography courtesy of Marine Serre.
