For his latest womenswear collection at the helm of Pringle of Scotland, Massimo Nicosia attempted to blend influences from his native Italy with the brand’s Scottish cultural heritage. Drawing inspiration from the architectural work of Ettore Sottsass and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Nicosia designed a Pre-Fall 2014 collection that investigates shape by juxtaposing variations of light, colour, texture and geometry.
The most distinctive aspect of the collection is the combination of fabrics that absorb or reflect light to create varied effects. Merino and cashmere knits contrast with glossy leather, lamé and velvet in a mirroring colour palette where dark hues such as claret, bottle green, indigo, black and navy are (in typical Pringle of Scotland fashion) highlighted by dashes of pure white. Similarly, the rigour of geometric patterns is questioned by mixing straight and curved lines in haphazard patterns of uneven definition and intensity.
Throughout the collection, the brand’s iconic argyle diamonds are rotated and reinterpreted through graphic grid effects: a wool dress features three different techniques to achieve the look, dissolvable yarn creates a laser-cut grid on a wool skirt, a double jacquard stitch forms a lattice on the dress body, a devoré knit stitch reveals smaller grids across the top, and a cashmere dress features diamond argyles knitted with silk thread to create a lace effect. Similarly, the Scottish heritage of the brand is reinvented in a shirt dress with kilt skirt buckled with traditional hardware, in a pintucked merino dress, in the pleated panel applied to a wool sable dress and in the vertical lines of ribbed knitted skirts.
