The Invisible Manused to make garments with an authentic sportswear feel. The ‘look’ would
be completed with white jeans in a fairly coarse cotton and sloppy mohair
sweaters in the same jewel colours as the outerwear. Of course, one reason
why velvet is not normally used for outerwear is that it is a delicate fabric
which is easily crushed. One of our suppliers developed a cloth which looked
exactly like velvet, which has a woven and cut pile, but was in fact a ‘flock’,
i.e. the effect of a pile was recreated by bonding tiny particles of ‘velvety’
substance to a waterproof backing cloth. The jacket shown was one of three,
which were designed to have more or less the same proportions, cut, details
and constructional techniques as some authentic military garments from our
archive. Some modifications were made for ease of movement, some details
were simplified because they were too ‘heavy’ and the garment was given a
quilted lining for warmth, but the impact was achieved by the faithfulness
of the styling of the velvet garment to the military original. It was a velvet
parka.
Figure 5.1a and b.Two ‘giaccone’ designed for by Weekend MaxMara ranges
Autumn/Winter 1997 (Figure 5.1a) and Autumn/Winter 2000
(Figure 5.1b). Photo by Cesare di Liborio.