Pablo Coppola talks us through his latest collection for the Swiss luxury lifestyle brand
In order to do this collection we asked ourselves the same questions over and over: ‘Who is the Bally man?’ Would he wear this? Is it real? Do we believe it?… These are simple questions, but ones that came up all over the process of this collection and, to be honest, it is fundamental for me and my team to constantly remind ourselves that ultimately we are creating products with a very specific end use.
The concept of a tightly edited wardrobe for a modern guy was the starting point of last season, in this case it is kind of a continuation of this – but with a decidedly loose and casual attitude.
Proof of this in the more relaxed fit of the clothing – just look at the tailoring, it’s especially noticeable on the double-breasted boxy jacket.Trousers looser on the hip and cropped or casually rolled…
Last season we focused all our energy on presenting the perfect white nappa sneaker – this time we wanted to infuse our dress shoes with some innovation, so we created the lightest rubber sole to make our signature Goodyear construction, making the last narrower and more elegant. On other shoes we created a sleek hybrid, mixing classic men’s uppers from our archives with chunky sporty soles (also from our archives). In fact, the notion of taking inspiration and design elements from our archives is very natural to us, I could not turn my head to the amazing knowledge Bally has gathered over the years. And although not in a literal way, the archives are always at the back of my mind.
“The concept of a tightly edited wardrobe for a modern guy was the starting point of last season, in this case it is kind of a continuation of this – but with a decidedly loose and casual attitude”
As an accessories designer at heart, no look is finished until the smallest detail comes into the equation, and bags in unexpected colour combinations make a classic Prince of Wales suit unpretentiously fresh. My favourite bag from the women’s collection (the Bloom) has a second life here as an oversized duffel, in supple grained leather. Leather-trimmed canvas luggage and totes where instrumental in reflecting a crisp and light attitude whenever paired with simple but luxuriously made sneakers.
The general intention was to achieve a certain notion of familiarity, as if all these pieces belonged to you already… a controlled mix match of texture and functionalities that I hope could appeal a modern guy.
