17 Nov

“Tropical Paradise” by Emanuel Ungaro – The Spring ’23 Collection was inspired by Paul Gauguin’s artistic explorations of Tahiti. Gauguin himself, inspired by the depiction of an untouched Tahiti by Pierre Loti in Le Mariage de Loti, and suffering from an inveterate wanderlust, traveled to the island in 1891 to reinvigorate and reenergize his artistic fortunes.

He would succeed toward that latter end beyond measure, cementing, through his examinations of the land, its people, its color and its character, his status as one of Europe’s great artists.

Upon landing, however, he started his immersion in this “authentic” culture while distancing himself from standard European conventions, resulting in a fresh, dynamic vision bold and innovative through its embrace of luxuriant color, non-traditional techniques, and native iconography. Here was an art liberated through its exoticism, stark in its contrast to convention and using Oceanic iconography reflected in portraits of idyllic landscapes and of beautiful women from French Polynesia.

The Ungaro collection epitomizes an exotic, sexy, and tropical beauty, which Kobi Halperin infused with a palette of bright colors and flowy fabrics, prints and eyelets. This Spring 23 collection pursues this spirit, which itself recalls Gauguin’s yearning for the Tahitian idyll.