AMICI-BACI
Amici-Baci was founded a few decades ago by New-York based designer Batia Rutenberg. One foot in Milan, the other in Florence; her hands are in Tel-Aviv and New-York where she manufactures her two clothing lines, Baci and Amici. She very nicely greeted me herself in the booth. Italy, she told me, is her deepest inspiration, the romantic language through which fashion, design, style, food and wine take on lighter and more beautiful meanings. She concludes that, with her clothes, she aims at translating the “Italian Way” to her customers worldwide. La Dolce Vita ! Her amazing personality, I have to say, really transpires through her garments. The Baci and Amici women is a women at ease with her romantic urban condition. Hence the emergence of delicate patterns in pieces of this effective wardrobe with neoclassical lines.
An arty coat can be seen in Batia’s booth alongside a very rich wardrobe inspired by Italian waits-hugging dresses. As the designer says : “In fashion there is one simple rule: What’s hot is what’s Italian.”
The Amici collection is slightly more experimental and uses very rough or extremely fluid fabrics, giving an impression of spontaneity and effortlessness to the one wearing an ensemble.
Above, a stunning block print single button overcoat with matching cigarette trousers. The shawl collar and curved hem that hits at the knee are illustrations of the brand’s stimulating ambiguity : not uptight, but elegant, not countrified but serene and attractive.
