There might have been worrying winds of crisis hitting Milan Fashion Week, but Gaetano Navarra’s audience was pleasantly surprised by the designer’s new collection that mainly featured well-sculpted trouser suits, skirts matched with blouses and dresses.
Of Spanish origins, but born in 1970 in Bologna, Navarra first gained experience in his family’s knitwear factory. Since starting his own men and womenswear lines, the designer perfectly learnt how to balance his family’s teachings and traditions with his personal ideas and innovative pattern-making techniques.
His A/W 09 collection, characterised by austere and rigid lines, had a touch of Blade Runner futurism combined with rigorous architectural inspirations. The emphasis was on the pagoda shoulders that were used as a trademark design throughout the collection, even in garments with no sleeves. Trousers had a relaxed silhouette; sheath dresses and coats looked as if they were made by interweaving hundreds of chunky woollen strips; crinoline whalebone structures were used to detach the jacket’s basque from the body and to mould armour-like shoulder motifs or wave-like embellishments on the skirts.
Though rigid, Navarra’s silhouettes were never static: soft ruffles and draperies formed flowing motifs on skirts and dresses creating a sense of movement, while his one sleeved tops made by draping metres and metres of fabric around one arm, called to mind in their construction grand Baroque architectures. For the evening Navarra opted for a full-on urban glamour mixing sparkling silver beaded tops and skirts with jackets decorated with geometric motifs made using recycling plastic bottles.  
A touch of futurism was added with accessories such as metal studded leather gloves and felt helmets or cloche hats partially covered by oversized velvet and felt roses supported by a metal wire structure.
The variety of materials Navarra chose revealed his passion for combining different fabrics. For this collection the designer worked with wool, felt and silk and employed astrakhan - traditionally used to make coats and jackets - for his architectural skirts.

Dazed Digital: What is the main inspiration behind your new collection?
Gaetano Navarra: There is a dominant theme throughout the collection and that’s the pagoda-like shoulders that I used in all the garments - from the jackets to the dresses - even when there are no sleeves, and in the pagoda motif that decorates the padded hips of skirts and dresses. I also used a lot of hot-pressed scale pleating, laser cutting and different knitting techniques. The colours are dark and intense, a typical Autumnal palette of black, midnight blue, camel and a lot of grey, in different shades - from charcoal to dove and foggish grey - with just a splash of burgundy.       

DD: Is there a garment that for its construction and design you found hard to make?
GN: The cropped jacket with plunging neckline that opened the catwalk. Pattern-wise this jacket was particularly difficult to make.

DD: In all your catwalks, you always pay a great attention to details accessorising your outfits with futuristic or avant-garde hats for example. Would you like to work on an accessory line one day, collaborating with another fashion designer?
GN: I would be very keen on doing it, even though collaborations do not happen so often. I think it would be even more interesting if I could collaborate with a designer from another country. It would be intriguing to see what we could come up with.

DD: Who is Gaetano Navarra’s ideal woman?
GN: A woman who wants to look strikingly different from other women, but who likes to wear practical and functional clothes at the same time.

DD: Who has been the greatest inspiration throughout your career?
GN: Fashion journalist Anna Riva who writes for the German edition of Vogue. She followed my career since my early days. Her feedback on my creation has always been very interesting and inspiring.

DD: What’s the atmosphere at Milan Fashion Week?
GN: It’s definitely not the best, but I think we must get on all the same and look forward to the future, keeping our feet firmly on the ground while opening up to new markets. Russia has for example become a very important market for my label in the last few years and, from this season, the label is also available in Japan.   

DD: Among the designers who recently showcased their collections at the New York and London fashion weeks, is there one you particularly liked?
GN: Marc Jacobs. He’s always able to bring into fashion fresh ideas and exciting messages, that’s why I usually find really fascinating watching what he does.