Before long, the project’s scope grew to include womenswear. “I’ve had many women that like the way I dress over the years,” says Pilati. “I guess it’s the care I dedicate. Maybe men see it as an act of vanity, while women see it as, I don’t know, more familiar.”
There’s bound to be women who buy Pilati’s new Zara men’s looks, because they’re made very much in his spirit, especially the full trousers with the exaggerated breaks, but it’s bound to go the other way too, with men buying the women’s. Pilati raves about a super-low cut pair of leather trousers. “I didn’t do them for men, but I would wear them – immediately.”
Elsewhere in the line-up, a tailored black minidress has the shoulders Pilati did at Saint Laurent that were a reference that Monsieur Saint Laurent did in his ’40s collection. “It’s part of my language, what I did at Saint Laurent. It stayed with me, it’s not that I’m stuck with it; it’s part of me now.” A tailleur embroidered with strawberries is another callback to his past. “I did a collection that was about strawberries, but for example on the menswear I embroidered little bananas,” he laughs. “It’s just me.”
Who Pilati is is still evolving. Earlier this month, he announced he’s brought on a business partner to scale up Random Identities and more. “Working on Zara made me feel that perhaps I miss something that is a bit more elevated, you know, compared to what I do with Random,” Pilati said. Random is economised in terms of creativity – it’s one coat, dark fabric, boom, basta. This made me feel how much I enjoy to do a collection.” Pilati’s collaboration with Zara arrives in stores around the world and online on 3 October.
