Empowerment and Elegance by PRISCAVERA A/W23
A collection shaped by the brand’s roots: complex tailoring for minimalistic results and an ongoing investigation into the shifting boundaries of empowerment, sensuality and elegance.
The PRISCAVera woman is emerging from the night and into the workday bringing along the same bossy attitude, materialised in suiting, work clothes, and off-time attire. She is shedding her party clothes and walking into the day, at once assertive and care-free. The mood of the collection this season could be described as “liquid armor”, a shield to face the cold weather and everyday life, head-first. The collection combines casual looks, office attire and evening-wear, with a modular approach that makes most pieces interchangeable through personal styling. These follow three thematic threads: “bossy gothic”, “bare minimum sex appeal”, and “back to the office”, with repeating silhouettes transformed by different textiles.
The PRISCAVera woman has a contemporary identity in the sense that she knows everything is in flux–she dresses for herself, but she is also aware that clothing is communication. PRISCAVera takes a cheeky approach to fashion’s hazy nature: authenticity can coexist with fantasy, approachability is in the eye of the beholder. I can be the real me one day and the other me the next.
The brand’s signature development of logo prints sees the introduction of a denim jacquard in familiar silhouettes: a newly shaped corset, a low-rise pannier miniskirt, baggy trousers and matching jacket with lace-up details. Mesh, a continually investigated textile in the world of PRISCAVera, comes in a softer variation with a green tartan print, while contrast stitch suits, skirts and corsets in black and white walk alongside a system of hounds-tooth garments. For evenings, coppery metallic and luminous pink silks, a metallic silver lurex and velvet burnout make up a series of semi-transparent liquid tops, slip dresses, trousers, button-up dresses and shirts with ultra-feminine shapes and details like key-holes and knots. On off-days she spends her time in velvet rugby shirts and tailored cotton shirts with lace up details that match boxer shorts or trousers.
This season is an all-encompassing approach to the different lives of the PRISCAVera woman: perhaps she goes to the office and she certainly dresses up sometimes, she asserts her femininity without necessarily suffering the cold weather, she pays attention to the details, but she doesn’t overthink them either.
Her clothes are her allies, and they go wherever she goes.
PRISCAVera was founded in 2015 by Prisca Vera Franchetti in New York City. Characterized by impeccable quality, PRISCAVera speaks to a feminine that embraces human dualities and dives into the absurdities of contemporary life with a defiant sense of freedom and humor.
Craftsmanship and silhouettes rooted in Franchetti’s Italian upbringing, form the backbone from which she experiments and shapes her witty designs.
Employing bold prints developed by the designer herself and always at the cutting edge of color and fabric, PRISCAVera strikes a balance of its own between the classic and the futuristic.
A Numéro Netherlands Q/A session with designer Prisca Vera
How does your international and cultural background influence the design and aesthetics of your brand?
I grew up in Italy and I left when I was 18 so I think that I learned the value of being a bit laid back, sometimes this can be a bit of a problem for me when I am like ‘do it tomorrow, don’t worry’. It’s very chill but I think it can hold you back a little. I think when I moved to New York I learnt how to make fun of myself and have some irony. Being in New York City is very busy and it pushes you a lot. So I think I have found a good in between.
Why did you choose the New York fashion scene as the home and development of your brand?
When I started the brand I was 25. I think that I needed a push, I was a bit uncertain to be honest. Sometimes I thought about going back to Europe, Italy specifically. I was thinking ‘don’t do it yet, wait a bit’ but then I came here on a holiday and everybody around me had this energy and saying that I should do it.
What were your key inspirations for this collection?
This season, for me, was about going back to where I started. To be completely transparent, there were a lot of limitations, financial and Covid happened which held me back. I think that this season was really about going back to the roots of why I started what I was doing. For me, as a woman especially, it was really about what does it mean to get dressed and why? How do I want to feel in the moment? Do I want to go into the office and feel really powerful or do I want to go into the office in sweatpants and feel really chill? What do I want to say about myself? Nearly every day it is different. So I think it was really important for me to take a more psychological approach to it?
What was your creative process like in creating this specific collection?
I always start with color. It used to be very important for me to have a narrative but this season felt like it was less about what sells, it felt more like let me go back to why I am doing this and what is the message that I want to put through. The concept was really first and it wasn’t a storyline, it was just looking within and having a conversation with myself and how I want to build my wardrobe.
Interview by Patrick Boyle & Thore Damwerth
SHOW CEDITS
Styling Delphine Danhier
Make-up Susie Sobol
Nails Naomi Yasuda
Hair Evanie Frausto for Cutler Salon
Shoes Designer Collection
Lighting Bob Ross
Music Lukas Heerich
Production RREEPPLLIICCAA
Movement Direction Emma Chadwick
Casting Madeleine Østlie
PR Gia Kuan Consulting
Special thanks to Topo Chico, Les Belles, Shiseido
