Going Bananas in Milan with The Rodnik Band

Phil Colbert launched his first solo collection at Milan’s White Club. Entitled “The Rodnik Band by Phil Colbert” and inspired by the Pop Art movement and Marcel Duchamp, the collection combined art, fashion and music and featured both iconically conceptual pieces and ironic yet wearable outfits.

Andy Warhol’s famous banana print was transformed into yellow or black banana-shaped asymmetrical dresses; music instruments inspired drum kit-shaped outfits and prints of colourful eyeglasses vandalised tunic dresses with explicitly erotic black and white prints.

There were also references to Yves-Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress - that Colbert transformed into a Pop Art piece - to Duchamps’ urinal and Staffordshire pottery. The atmosphere resembled that of a Situationist event à la KLF rather than a proper fashion presentation, and perfectly fit the underground spirit of the White Club.       

Photography by Vanni Bergamini