The Nonsensical Artist

Nonsense. Absolutely nonsense. That's what Etro's fall collection was all about.
It was inspired by the Dadaist 'artists' which arose after World War 1.

Dada Art Defined: A European movement in the arts that flourished from about 1916 to 1920 and beyond. Based on the principles of deliberate irrationality, cynicism, and anarchy....and, of course, the general rejection of the laws of society. Its followers used non sequiturs and absurdities to create artwork, literature, and performances which defied intellectual analysis.

The Dadaist Cabaret Voltaire, founded in Zurich in 1916, started the process of fusing cabaret and fine art. This development reached a climax in 1920 at the First International Dada Art Fair, where the local Dadaists broke down the barriers between these two art forms with their performances. Dada art presented revolution in a humorous way, but with serious intent.

Using an early form of Shock Art, the Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects (renamed as "art") into the public eye. Marcel Duchamp performed the most notable outrages by painting a mustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa (and scribbling an obscenity beneath) and proudly displaying his sculpture entitled Fountain (which was actually a urinal, sans plumbing, to which he added a fake signature).

The word Dada means "hobby horse" in French but others feel it was just baby talk. It was meant to mean absolutely nothing. That's what Dada was all about - Nothing.
More about Dadaism

Confused? Basically, Dada is revolutionary and most importantly, the anti-mainstream. And like Dada art, many fashionistas go against mainstream fashion (intentionally or not, it depends).

Etro was utterly confusing. And like Dada art in the past, could be off-putting to some.

So here's the fashion post proper. Swirls, swirls, swirls. Patterns clashed unabashedly. I don't really know what to think of this collection. Messy? Crazy? Whimsical? Anti-... what?

Socks with shoes, Japanese embriodery on red velvet, Dominos on bracelets? (right)

Patchwork print after patchwork print.
Flora with the Asian touch.
Flecks of metallic.
Gloomy flowers, Crazy Corsages and what's this?
Nothing matched and I absolutely hated this patchy mess.
Unflattering cuts that make no sense.
Berseck.

I can't even write a proper post about it. It's simply too confusing and would take too much effort. Every trend was dumped into a fashion cauldron and given a big mix, giving rise to the marriage of the strangest ideas. The seperates would do much better if they were, well, seperate. The patterns were mixed so haphazardly it is too hard to make sense of it. However, I don't doubt the ability of Veronica Etro to produce great pieces.

I did appreciate some of the accessories (not the domino bracelets though), like this bag below:


It was a mix of shapes. colours, leathers but unlike so many of the iffy outfits, this worked for me.