Welsh designer Paolo Carzana is still relatively new but has already amassed some clout: he is a recipient of the British Fashion Council NewGen award and has BFC support money to put on shows, and is also an artist in residence at the Sarabande Foundation, the arts foundation supported at the bequest of Lee Alexander McQueen.
His vision is fairly singular, much like McQueen. While promoting his Fall Winter '23 collection entitled "Queer Symphony," he said, "It’s mainly related to this idea that everything I was ashamed of as a kid is now my strength. Up until I was 17, I would literally pray every night to wake up straight, and pray to be normal. And every single day, I was bullied in school, when I didn’t even know who I was."
It is a shared story among many of us in the gay community, one I have heard many times...surviving emotional, psychological, and often physical abuse and attacks to emerge on the other side, despite or probably because of it all, with a hunger and drive to create something beautiful, to express a force that could not be taken from us. I can attest to the truth of this from my own personal experience. So I feel great tenderness toward, kinship with, and interest in the creations of Paolo Carzana.
His sartorial vernacular is made of delicate fabrics tied and stitched together that seem like creations from some dream world, as if those wearing his garments should be lounging around on marble terraces in bright Pre-Raphaelite splendor, or in a lush production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." (In fact, he showed his SS '25 collection in the garden of his own home in Hackney, seen
here.) The cuts feel like they are memories of historical clothing, like tattered remnants of a far-away homeland after a shipwreck, and his beautiful sheer, ripped, ruched tops and trousers seem like they belong on wood sprites, elves, fairies. There is a hushed beauty to the silhouettes and construction of the garments that casts a spell.
The cherry on the cake of his brand is his earnest commitment to sustainability. He uses deadstock or recycled fabric, and he uses plant dyes and spices to color his fabrics, including black walnut, Himalayan rhubarb, wild cherry bark, turmeric, tea, hibiscus, and apple wood.
And for this SS '26 collection at London Fashion Week titled "The Last Pangolin On Earth," he set his usual sprites and spirits loose in the Reading Room of the British Library! Apparently he spent hours there this summer immersing himself in historical reference books showing prints and drawings of animals and sea life that humanity has driven to--or near to--extinction...hence the title. After the show, he told Sarah Mower at Vogue, "Really my focus is on the genius of mother Earth, and the monster of humanity and how we are working and treating the planet. It’s always been a big conflict to me to use animals as inspiration in terms of fashion, because I’m vegan. So my obsession with this collection was finding a way to honor nature and its preciousness in a way that was really abstract. I try to question what we call supernatural—usually it’s about being on another planet, or somewhere else. But so much of what is on our Earth is super nature—supernatural colors that you can't believe, and the textures of plants and a world of things that were created." It is precisely this touching earnestness and authentic narrative, as well as the gentle beauty of his creations, that caused several show-goers to shed a tear or two.
Carzana's collections are co-ed, and regular readers know I usually post only men's clothing, but these garments are so magical and ethereal and, really, a-gendered, I am showing looks on both men and women. It is all swirling with charm and beauty...
https://www.paolocarzana.com/
