This article first appeared on Vogue.
“Many poets have said it much better than I can. And nearly all of us have felt it, or long to feel it. What I’m talking about is that feeling when your world lurches beautifully: when an existence that had seemed fixed and predictable suddenly moves, becomes almost a little blurred, and it makes your heart beat faster and your stomach flip.”
As he gesticulates from a banquette in Milan’s Sant Ambroeus, Lorenzo Serafini is discussing the galvanising emotional earthquake of romance. He adds: “What seems strange to me is that today, when romance comes up in fashion, it is mostly a nostalgic value, almost like a period piece, but never modern or for the future. But I think that because romance is eternal, it must also be modern. So what we’re exploring is this: what does it look like to be romantic but also progressive — a woman who lives in love and the now?”
The suddenness of romance’s emotional earthquake effect coincidentally mirrors Serafini’s own current professional state of potential-filled tumult. Or as he puts it: “It has been a very intense few months, and very exciting too.” Last September, Serafini was gearing up for his 10th anniversary at the helm of Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, a label that started life back in 1984 as the diffusion line of Alberta Ferretti. Then, in what Serafini insists was a “total shock” to him and almost everyone in the company, Ferretti herself announced that she was stepping down from the creative directorship of her mainline label — which itself has been showing in Milan since 1981. The following month, Serafini was unveiled as her successor and immediately set to work on his debut collection in that role. “So it’s really been non-stop.”
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On Tuesday, Serafini presents his first Alberta Ferretti show. Its location is Palazzo Donizetti, the Art Nouveau-inflected 1920s pile that has acted as the company’s showroom since 1994. Serafini is no stranger to the place: in his role at Philosophy, his studio was based on an upper floor of the building. “The capacity is going to be a lot smaller than at Alberta’s shows,” said Lorenzo, “but I wanted to invite the audience into our Milan home in order to say that while the person coming out after the show is new, the identity of the label remains as strong as it has been for over 40 years.”
As Serafini shows me pictures of the collection’s toiles, he says. “I’m working to stay true to the spirit of Alberta while translating it through my own vision and instincts. Alberta really spoke to and understood her customer’s desires. She was rooted in the real world, but also she shared their dreams and their fantasies.”
