January, 23rd, 2019

CALÇADA COUTURE

CALÇADA COUTURE
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They slide when it rains. They slide under the dust. In full sun, they dazzle you and sometimes they twist your ankle. But what are the cobblestones of #Lisbon? In black and white, basalt and limestone, they cover every sidewalk of the city. Draw waves, boats and conquests. The designs can be geometric, figurative or specific depending on the particular location and the tastes of the time. Talk about adventures and luster of yesteryears. They are called calçada portuguesa; nicknamed “concrete of the poets” and they are photographed with tenderness or better sewed with painstaking love like the couture @AlexanderMcQueen. #McQueenSS19 trapped in postcards of dresses so free in the alleys of #Lisboa’s undulating pattern of Avenida da Liberdade or designing symmetry in #Chiado. All day long, an army of skilful craftsmen roams the city to bend down the sidewalks by hand. Kneeling in the rain, sweating under the sun, the “brigade des paveurs” never rests. They has too much work. Fill in the holes left by the weather with a simple glove and hammer. Often the men of the brigade take a wooden stool with them, often they have the pants stretched to the rope. With a quick and precise gesture, they split the limestone cubes in half and bury them in the sand tirelessly. One after the other and start again. For years, they have arranged them artfully to testify to the cultural Lusitânia richness of the city. They are artists, proud, the brotherhood of the #calceteiros. But time was right for them. From 400 souls in the early twentieth century, they are 20 nowadays. Replaced in a slow burning fire by less skilled but faster workers, dressed in the hurry and covering #Lisbonne with a thick cream-colored uniform layer. It feels couture to me. The calceteiras of couture are les petites mains, never petites but grandioses. They are an esprit de corps caught too in a slow burning fire of saudade. Yet we will be under their dedicated spell. Always will. Always be. You do not trample on a work of art with impunity, especially chez #AlexanderMcQueen. “L’âme d une maison est aussi celle de ses artisans.”
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#ALESSANDROBERGA | L’ÉDITOR
#PARIS #PFW #MODEDIPLOMATIQUE (at Alexander McQueen France)
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