For her S/S19 collection for Forte Forte, Giada Forte conjures the tranquil charm of Italy’s Aeolian islands
Though inhabitants of the Aeolian islands, an archipelago off the Mediterranean coastline of Sicily, will occasionally be woken by the shuddering rumble of Stromboli, a still-active volcano, life on the islands is altogether more sedate: their near-transparent waters and vertiginous cliffside villages attract a continual stream of holidaymakers over long and lingering summers. Such Aeolian summers are recalled by Forte Forte’s Spring/Summer 2019 collection; white linen tablecloths in the sunshine, bleached shades of pink, coral and fuschia, and the distant hum of cicadas, were the some of the vignettes imagined by eponymous designer Giada Forte in its creation.
Distant locales are no stranger to Forte: her collections are made up of pieces you might usually have to travel the world to collect – a woven raffia baboushka slipper, habotai silk robes, satin kimonos, and the like – though each is in fact conceived and made in Italy, where Forte lives and works (Forte Forte is run alongside brother Paolo). This is true of her jewellery, too, which seems to be accumulated from a miscellany of far-off climes: fluttering organza earrings, shaped like the petals of a flower, plaited macramé necklaces, and those adorned with shells, their edges dipped in gold.
Or brass hoops, with stamen-like spokes, each embedded with a strass rhinestone, inspired by the procreative pistils and corollas of a flower. Such is their appearance that they could have come from another century entirely, and yet are just as well-suited for our own – as they are for endless summers, which Forte Forte conjure, time and again.
Hair: Hirokazu Endo using Bumble & Bumble. Make-up: Mattie White using Lord & Berry. Model: Priscilla Cheseaux at Storm Management. Casting: Troy Casting at D+V Management. Set design: Laura Little. Manicure: Robbie Tomkins at Premier. Photographic assistants: Ellen Egan. Styling assistants: Priyanka Makwana, Sarah Carone, Grace Naef and Antoine Caballero. Set-design assistants: Frank Styles.