As we wander the showroom, Blazy pulls a bag off the shelf. “You see the craftsmanship,” he says. “No stitches.” The basket weave of this particular bag tapers through a single brass ring to a thick rope-like handle meant to be worn over the shoulder. Each one must be hand-knitted, meaning no two are identical. “That’s luxury,” says Blazy. This bag, Blazy tells me, turning it upside down, was inspired by the Italian cartoon character of Calimero, a chicken who carried his belongings on a string. “It’s the bag that opened the show,” he notes.
The first show, in February, was heralded as a triumph of traditionalism and innovation. The opening shot: a young woman in a white T-shirt, relaxed blue jeans and sensible black heels, walking down the runway with a Kalimero bag slung over her shoulder. Or so it seemed: the pants, delicately tight, were actually soft leather, embossed with layers of ink for the look of blue jeans. Was this high-concept irony? Or was it just what it seemed: a timeless street look, not modest, full of sex and function, with the luxury that only the wearer knows?
The entire collection shone with a similar duality. On the one hand were the dazzling, daring flights: the thin trousers of supple leather, which moved like silk; jackets cut like shirts; patchwork fur coats made to look like the terrazzo floor at Milan’s Malpensa airport; baleen-like extensions on a classic skirt. On the other hand it was a collection of irresistible clothing. One coat has dynamic, half-moon sleeves; another jacket, meanwhile, is plain and simple. (“I’m attracted to the fact that it looks completely undesigned,” Blazy says. “It’s… a very well-made jacket. And that’s enough.”) The clothes come alive in profile. In preparation, Blazy studied Italian Futurism, particularly the work of Umberto Boccioni, and pondered Alberto Giacometti’s The Walking Man. “We wanted to be bourgeois from the front, not over-designed – but then when you look to the side, scream!” he says. “This is our territory, silhouette.”
As he takes me around the showroom, showcasing his latest innovations – a shoe inspired by toxic mushrooms; his attacks in deep yellow and green – he keeps returning to the bags. One is called JJ because, when he put it on the floor and held the belt, it reminded him to walk John John. Another is inspired by a helmet – not worn on the head, but hanging from the hand, a powerful sporting pose. “It’s a mix between sophisticated and very playful,” says Blazy. His apartment in Milan is a monument to a more personal aesthetic. “It’s a funny story,” he says. “When I got the job, I went online to see what was on the market and saw this apartment for rent. I’m like, ‘I’ve been there.'” He called the number and was told he could come see her there and then. “I walked in and said, ‘I was here maybe 15 years ago, when Raf was at Jil Sander’. It was his place!” He took it immediately.
