Military parka gets a new lease of life thanks to Italian designer’s luxe twist on an old classic
Meet the visionary who’s made a must-have of the humble parka, as seen on fashion royalty including Gigi Hadid, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cara Delevingne
The fashion world’s latest obsession with the military parka can be credited to one woman – the designer and creative director of Mr & Mrs Italy, Geraldina Bassani Antivari. Singer Rihanna started a fashion phenomenon when she was spotted wearing a technicolour fur-lined parka that Antivari designed for the brand three years ago. Now a growing list of celebrities, including Gigi Hadid, Olivia Palermo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cara Delevingne, Soo Joo Park and Kate Moss, have become fans of the brand, while the parka is ubiquitous on the catwalks of almost every major designer brand.
Mr & Mrs Italy has done for the parka what Moncler did for the puffer jacket – and all in a relatively short time. The brand was founded in 2007, but was taken over by a private equity firm six years later in hopes of taking it to the next level. In 2014, Antivari was appointed creative director, with the task of bringing the brand to a new audience.
“One of the first things I told them, when I was interviewing, was that it’s not about me, it’s about the mission,” Antivari recalls. “The product was cool but it needed to be developed and not in a fashion way. If you start a brand this way you end up not creating a product but something that only has a short shelf life. I wanted to take the whole fashion side of the project and put it into an everyday reality for every customer.”
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Although only in her 20s at the time, Antivari brought with her an impressive résumé. Born and raised in Italy, she hails from a family of entrepreneurs and artists, although, she realised early on that a career in art was not for her. Instead she chose fashion and studied at Central Saint Martins in London before being hand-picked to join women’s footwear line Aperlai. Other stints followed in the menswear and womenswear markets, before she decided to launch her own line of ready-to-wear. By the time she joined Mr & Mrs Italy, she already had extensive experience in several facets of the industry.