Andrea Pompilio's name is beginning to be known. He won Pitti's Who's On Next competition his first season out, and as his prize, staged a runway show at the fair last season. He returned to Pitti again this season to present his Spring collection to a full house. He's making his introductions in clothes. Describing his work backstage after the show, Pompilio called the show "very autobiographical." Looking at the miasma of colors, prints, and textures that he sent out, you'd have to conclude he was leading two lives or more. There was much going on in the multilayered looks, many of them accented in highlighter brights, with showpiece socks (a collaboration with a leading Japanese manufacturer) and plastic bucket hats.
Sometimes ideas float in fashion's ether, to which many designers can be attuned. It was interesting to see motifs; terry shorts, mesh; that others have been toying with this season expressed again here through Pompilio's fisheye lens. But even where he has company in theory, his pieces stand on their own in fact. His colors and his flair for the odd set him apart. That perspective wants some honing, but it also confirms him as one to watch.
