After showing in Paris for the first time for SS20, Telfar left New York behind for another season, this time landing in Florence as Pitti Uomo’s AW20 Special Guest designer. Naturally, the show was a production, with all the drama we’ve come to expect from a label which, over the course of the last few years, has turned the idea of the traditional fashion presentation on its head. Ticket lost in the mail? Here’s everything you need to know.

THE SET WAS PRETTY MAJOR

Taking over the historic Palazzo Corsini not far from the banks of the River Arno, the space was bathed in red light with a huge circular banqueting table at its centre. Strewn across this were the remnants of a dinner the label threw, with discarded bones, petals, candle wax, and fruit basically everywhere.

...AND SO WAS THE FRONT ROW

Which included the likes of Solange, Kelela, and Michele Lamy. Also making an appearance was Grace Wales Bonner: who flew out to Italy fresh off the back of showing her own AW20 collection in London on Sunday. 

A LOT OF PEOPLE PERFORMED

At the centre of the banqueting tables a number of musicians played. First up was Standing on the Corner: the NYC experimental jazz collective founded by Gio Escobar, who was soon joined by Carrie Stacks on piano. Soon after came Boychild, before rising star Hawa, in a pair of Telfar’s iconic cut-out jeans, brought the show to its crescendo.

TELFAR IS BRINGING BAROQUE BACK FOR AW20

For AW20, the label is cashing ‘baroque ornament and silhouette with humble material and form’, or as the press notes put it, think ‘a lapsed Medici on spring break in Miami’. What exactly did this entail? A more refined collection than that of previous seasons, with flamboyantly tailored pieces featuring heavily: Victorian nightshirts were tucked into high-waisted trousers, pussybow blouses were paired with wide-legged denim jeans, and slim-fit tracksuits emblazoned with the brand’s logo were pushed into knee-high leather boots, lending the models that wore them a kind of Renaissance-era knight, but make it 2020 edge. “At the end of the day I’m designing for myself, like I want to wear that stuff!” Clemens explained backstage post-show. “It’s always a thing that I wanted to have but couldn’t buy.”

THE ‘BUSHWICK BIRKIN’ IS GOING NOWHERE 

...and next season it comes in metallic finishes. What more is there left to say? Sign us TF up.