Pierre-Auguste Renoir & Marchesa FW RTW 2016

(Red Roses, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

As I was browsing Marchesa's Fall-Winter Ready To Wear 2016 collection, I was overwhelmed with the unexplainable desire to connect it in some visual way to the works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A strange inkling indeed, as the collection itself doesn't have anything to do with Renoir himself and isn't even (supposedly) connected to the Impressionists.

However, Chioma Nnadi said on Vogue that the main inspiration for this collection was horticulture and the works of "Edwardian artist John Singer Sargent, a man renowned for his paintings of high-society women." Now, both of these things definitely can be seen in this collection. However, I must say that subjectively, the fluffy-cloud like dresses and the colors of nature in this collection took me to a whole different direction- to the Impressionists, and especially to Renoir. While Sargent was an artist who painted mainly "luxurious realism", I was inclined to look more at the natural- horicultural side of the show.

Marchesa is actually a rather problematic brand. Many say that the gowns do not have enough complexity in them and look like stuff that has already been done before. However, I do like some of their works, and I think that sometimes the anti-aesthetic tones of modern art can travel through mediums and manifest themselves in bad attitudes towards "pleasant" things. Now, regarding Renoir, I must admit that while I used to dislike his works in the past because I thought his art resembled too much "candy wrapper art", now I actually admire him for that very same airy-fluffy feeling you get from his drawings.
Let's look at some of the comparisons that came to my mind consisting of Marchesa and Renoir!

            

(Jeanne Samary by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

         

(Portrait of Madmoiselle Irene Cahen d'Anvers by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

               

(Child With a Whip by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

 

 (Roses in a Vase by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

    

(Piazza San Marco by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

                 

(La Loge by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

                 

 (Young Girl in Pink and Black Hat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Marchesa FW RTW 2016)

As you can see I am quite intuitive about the mental connections that I make here, but hopefully it made some sense to you. I think that the secret really is in the combinations of soft colors, the abundance of flowers and that unexplainable magical fluffy feeling you get from Renoir's paintings that makes you feel all dizzy and fuzzy inside.