Class Readings: Walter Albini

Walter Albini: Style in Fashion

   In the 1970's, Walter Albini had a key role in the revolution of Italian fashion and international ready-to-wear. Albini was the first to initiate a series of innovative reforms in Italian fashion that responded to the changing market. These innovations included freeing the designer from the anonymity of the world of production and treating him as a creator in the world of high fashion and recognizing the need for the fashion industry to provide styles and images, so that it could reach new market segments. Albini really showed the change in relationship between stylist and the fashion industry during this time. He worked closely with fabric manufacturers and enhanced the presence of the designer in industrial production by being a somewhat freelance designer, creating collections for multiple manufacture brands. He also helped create specialized companies in different sections of industry, so that they could collaborate to produce a collection with a recognizable brand name. Their was also the idea of dividing the workload between a very expensive, limited sales line, as well as a more commercial collection that actually is the moneymaker. He revolutionized the pret-a-porter style so that it has the elite voice of high fashion without the uniqueness that is unwearable. In his 1973 interview with WWD, he said “I hate high fashion. In fashion today there isn't anything new. What's new is in the cut of pret-a-porter. Today it is funny to put fashion along side clothes that are wearable.” Known as the “pret-a-porter man,” Albini created a mix between high fashion haute couture and pret-a-porter fashion that was hard to rival. He broke boundaries in ready-to-wear with his “total look” designs and created “anti high-fashion” high fashion collections that were unlike anything else in the industry. His synergy between style and life were a common theme among his clothes. It was interesting because each collection he created was represented in his house during that time. When he created an urban, working clothes collection for Trell, his house became a high-tech abode with metal furniture, grey tones, and urban technology. Depending on the collection he was working on, his house would transition into that style. Every total look he created was of course a radical change from the one before. Accessories were also key to his looks. They weren't just an extra piece but rather they added and impacted the whole style. In his Venice collection, the clothes were only sold complete with the accessories.

   Walter Albini was an internationally successful stylist that updated looks from all different periods and revolutionized the idea of a “total look” ready-to-wear design. He changed the preconceived idea of a stylist and brought his revolutionary ideas to the forefront of the fashion industry during the 1970's. His entrepreneurial skills have yet to be matched by any other stylist worldwide.

By: Caitlyn Schultz