Showcasing a collection inspired by designer Lawrence Steele’s own family roots, the tender new campaign from the Milan-based label stars a group of young friends and lovers
AspesiMilanese label Aspesi has just unveiled its new campaign for Spring/Summer 2022. In the gentle, studio-shot film we meet a young group of friends and lovers – dressed in the label’s clean and elegant summer collection – who talk openly about the people they care about most: each other. Delivered in a free and easy nature reflective of summer months, the heartfelt short is a celebration of romance, friendship, and chosen family.
The simple yet impactful campaign speaks to the down-to-earth heart of the Aspesi label. First founded in 1969 by its namesake Alberto Aspesi, the brand was in many ways ahead of its time in its no-frills approach to fashion – producing clothes under the guiding tenets of functionality and everyday elegance from the very start. Beginning with the humble men’s shirt and a pioneering style of down jacket, and then quickly expanding to full lines for men and women by the end of the 1970s, it’s a brand that has always been rooted in real life: classic, beautifully-cut silhouettes made not only to last but to be passed down through generations.
The brand’s gender non-specific S/S22 offering marks a continuation of these founding principles. This season, creative director Lawrence Steele mined his own family history for inspiration, looking to the wardrobe of his father who was a soldier in the American Air Force. Using the classic trench coat as a starting point, the collection fuses the Aspesi wardrobe with a slightly military feel, playing on ideas of protection and proportion to elevate traditional knitwear, suiting, and outerwear. Shapes are gently distorted – oversized in some places and shrunken in others – giving a contemporary feel, while ideas of rigidity and fluidity are played with through an array of light and weightier fabrics, from silk and cotton to wool.
Hints of military uniform are felt in Steele’s colour palette too – from crisp white and neutral tones, to khaki, military green and rich navy blue. Elsewhere, an enlivening mix of sunny oranges, Yves Klein blue and faded patterns sing of the summer months. Clear and concise, it’s a collection to be lived in and – as the campaign’s group of young friends and lovers suggest as they move, talk and embrace in the designs – to feel at home in, too.
