Achilles Ion Gabriel, known for his funky, colourful shoes, is now venturing into ready-to-wear. And what better place to launch his initiative than Pitti Uomo, in which he debuted the initial collection for his new gender-neutral apparel, shoe, and accessory line.
The Finnish footwear designer, who has been the creative director of the Spanish company Camper since 2020, produced a grunge-western look with a dark Rick Owens twist, revisiting men’s classics.
Men and women wore suits, leather pieces, cargo pants, denim, and nighties, as well as lace tops in sun-kissed hues. The styles included fake leather pants, a shearling-lined faux fur coat, long leather gloves, and maxi belts studded with metal rings, which resembled a pistolero’s cartridge belt when worn as shoulder straps to support the bag.
The designer has previously created a few outfits for Camper or Camperlab, but rarely a collection of his own. For autumn/winter 2024/25, huge volumes and extremely loose cuts à la Balenciaga, along with big floor-length coats in a gray Princes of Wales pattern or black banker stripes. The mixture with tone-on-tone suits in reimagined designs, such as a suit jacket with wide shoulders.
Coats were split in half, with the bottom section changed into an open-fronted skirt, which was placed over a pair of pants and a suit jacket made of the same checkered tweed. A collar distinguished the conventional men’s striped shirt, and outfits were fashioned of crumpled materials.
