“A fabric must tell a story. I want texture and softness. My clothing doesn’t set out to provoke deference, if anything it wants to make friends: I see, I touch, I buy and I make it part of my every day”. This is the kind of woman addressed by creative director Alessia Santi who, in her Manila Grace collections, affirms a sense of style charged by contaminations and interactions, breathing life into enlivening creations. As down to earth as the colours she chooses for her frequently deconstructed shapes, the designer revels in dyeing and re-dyeing fabrics, braiding them together, knotting and mixing them.
The result is a contemporary wardrobe including apparently simple informal garments hand in hand with elaborate detailing and haute couture undertones. Hand-crafted finishing, unpredictable cuts and fluid forms contribute to spontaneous-looking clothes, where prints express a timeless society and knits – featuring strongly in every collection – evolve through mixing unlikely colours and materials.
