“It all started with a cowboy hat,” said The Attico’s Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini at a resort appointment. Why a cowboy hat? Just because. Inspiration can manifest in inexplicable guises.
There’s clearly a whole cultural narrative behind a cowboy hat, but Tordini and Ambrosio didn’t overthink it. They’re not cerebral designers; rather, they’re fashion animals with a natural instinct for party glamour. Pairing a cowboy hat with a glittery, feathered up-to-there minidress is proof of how The Attico girl can get away with any incongruous styling trick and still look, in their words, “sexy, bold, audacious, free to be whatever she pleases.”
In a moment when party dressing is top of mind, and a veneer of glam and gloss is applied over every collection, The Attico seems to be in a good place. Resort was full of seductive options—think long, moulant columns in liquid viscose pooling at the hem; ankle-grazing, skin-tight tank dresses with generous round décolletage and high slits on the side revealing garter-belted stockings; and spaghetti-strapped ultra-short minidresses embroidered with multi-faceted sequins, reflecting light with the techno sheen of a disco ball.
Tordini and Ambrosio not only keep their girls in party clothes, but also provide them with an equally attention-seeking wardrobe for the everyday. To this end, they’ve expanded the Attico’s vocabulary, adding more articulate tailoring alternatives—like shapely suits with sharp-cut, no-lapel blazers closed by logo-ed hooks and worn over matching stirrup leggings or slightly bell-bottomed tight pants. Rendered in thick sculptural crêpe energized with bright shades of turquoise, flame red, or purple, they look wearable while alluringly figure-hugging.
Duality and multiplicity were at play in the collection, as they are in the fashion conversation at large. Seductive glittering surfaces shared the racks with cozy knitted options (a sequined miniskirt is worn with a twisted ribbed wool top with knotted cut-outs), while oversized, slouchy proportions are opposed to ultra-tight, slinky, molded propositions (like a big blouson leather bomber over another sequined miniskirt).
Today’s complexities aren’t lost on Tordini and Ambrosio. “We live in a sort of cinematic reality,” they said. “Everyday, it’s like women have to audition for a role, like actresses seeking to prove their talent to get a part in a movie. It’s as if we are always under scrutiny, or under the spotlight. Maybe a playful, nonchalant gesture like putting on a cowboy hat for no particular reason just lifts our spirits, making us feel ready to undergo the umpteenth audition, and finally get that role.”
