When I first reported on the Australian Merino Wool Protege Project, there was some protestations at the less than savoury production process of merino wool.  Alas I'm afraid that I couldn't ignore the results of this project despite the slightly unethical note to the core of the project, especially since some of my favourite designers are involved.  Last week on Thursday at the Palazzo Corsini, in Florence, Kristian Aadnevik, Sandra Backlund, Jean-Pierre Braganza, Ioannis Cholidis and Julian Louie presented their Merino wool creations that were guided by their mentors Donatella Versace, Franca Sozzani (of Vogue Italia), Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Smith and Francisco Costa.  Diane Pernet's coverage (here, here and here) also enticed me to heap some words on the outcome of this project.  It goes without saying that Sandra Backlund of course felt right at home with this project with her experience with woolwork.  But it was the other projects that I was interested in seeing to see how they would use this 200 yr old material. 

Jean Pierre Braganza in particular designed pieces that best represents how Merino wool can be innovatively incorporated into pieces that you could throw on everday, looking distinguished but not outlandishly so.  A mix of Merino wool and wool crepe inserts along with a play on volume translates into softly moulded and structured jackets, coats and dresses.  There is a pleasing masculinity to the pieces that is evokes the best of 1940's wartime feminine strength and 1980's power dressing.  JPB's sharp cutting skills are fully maximised here as the contrast between the shiny leather inserts and the matt wool fabric are really highlighted.  I'm not sure what sort of guidance Karl Lagerfeld offered Jean Pierre Braganza but it seems to me that the collection is very much signature of JPB's past work and as I said before, he designs a quite unordinary sort of daily uniform and this is a slightly more classic version of that uniform with the addition of miles and miles of merino wool.