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Welcome to My Boudoir: Blumarine’s Butterfly Beauties Symbolized Liberty and Transformation in a Collection that Inspired a Certain Joy de Vivre

Image and Video Credit: Blumarine

Click here to see the Blumarine RTW Fall/Winter 2021/22  collection

Picture the scene: a slumber party, but not your average pyjama affair ….. no – this is a seriously glamorous sleepover, complete with gorgeous girls draped across a hot pink curvaceous bed with all the paraphernalia that girls need for pampering and glamorizing – heart-shaped mirrors, pink hair driers, powder puffs, Schiaparelli-pink mobile phones and other delicious goodies. Oh, and did I mention these girls are decidedly dressed for fun?

A lacy cut-out top over a pastel pink furry skirt, with lace-up stilettos and matching furry bag

I’ve been a fan of Anna Molinari’s Blumarine since Italian fashion’s decadent Nineties. It’s telling to me that new creative director Nicola Brognano delved deep into the Blumarine archives for elements that would recreate the brand’s heyday, the Nineties. The quintessential ultra feminine Anna Molinari touches that we’ve come to know and love were all alive and well in this boudoir-inspired collection: fur collars on cardies, lingerie-inspired slip dresses, animal prints, chiffon, lace edges on skirts and dresses, finely knitted twinsets, sequins, rhinestones and floral prints.

A fur collar on a teensy floral-printed cardigan is very characteristic of Blumarine

Yellow fur over a leopard print dress

This collection’s ‘butterfly’ theme was to be seen in many of the looks: on belt buckles, chokers, shoes and even knitted into the design of some of the clothing. Fur, as always, played a key role in Blumarine’s repertoire and this collection had its fair share of the fluffy stuff: collars, bags, earrings and even a furry miniskirt! (We believe that the furry pieces this time round are faux.) Pastel-shade aviator glasses and cheeky berets on the models worked well to reinforce the sexy boho look. A striking feature, too, were the strappy dominatrix-esque lace-up thigh high killer heels in various shades.

A red flower-embroidered lace dress ups the ante

A knitted lavender two piece. Note the butterly motif knitted into the top and applied to the stilettos!

As is characteristic of this young-at-heart brand, the colour spectrum never strayed too far from pastels and primaries, with the occasional injection of leopard print or a touch of an ‘off’ colour like aubergine. Sexy sequin dresses, frilly chiffon blouses, ribbed pieces, fur miniskirts and cute playsuits all vied for attention in a collection that shouted with joy.

A frilly pastel pink chiffon dress accentuated with red killer heel boots

Lace edges on this aubergine lingerie-inspired dress are characteristic details of Blumarine

A poison green fur shawl lifts this little red dress

This luxury label with its cult following – the likes of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid – needs to just keep doing what it’s doing. This is Italian fashion at its frivolous, playful best and gives one fernweh to the Nineties and Vogue Italia under the creative direction of Franca Sozzani – an era of unadulterated fun and extraordinary creativity in fashion. Blumarine was undoubtedly part of the vocabulary back then, and evidently still is.

Ps: Note that there was never the need to mention the word ‘loungewear’ once in this review. What a relief.