FASHION’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION: PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE ITERATIONS OF THE BLUMARINE GIRL 

“Would you rather be described as hot, pretty or beautiful?” This is the question posed to a group of bewitched twenty-somethings who are finally hearing their beloved podcast gurus IRL. The crowd is split, unlike the two hosts who breakdown why pretty is the obvious winner (hot has an expiry date, beautiful is too much pressure, pretty is approachable and timeless). But what about powerful, formidable, dangerous… terrifying?  

Nicola Brognano is guiding the girly Blumarine ingénue into grown-up territory. In her latest incarnation as a gothic marine creature, she is slinky and erotic with a new liquid silhouette and a grunge undertone to her romanticism, arriving just in time to join a wider discourse about the retelling of old stories.  

Spring/summer 23 riffs off Disney’s 1989 take on The Little Mermaid fairy tale, mutating its iconic imagery into a bold palette of sea blue and scarlet mixed with oxidised denim and metals. ​The introduction of an older, sexier, multidimensional Blumarine girl chimes with the 2023 remake of the Disney classic which supplements the voice of an unseen Jodi Benson with Halle Bailey, who owns her spotlight and is unafraid to clap back at internet trolls. The difference between the two is part of a wider societal shift in the dialogue surrounding womanhood and femininity, a new language is forming, one in which Blumarine and Brognano are fully fluent.  

THE WOMAN IS NOT ONLY SEXY AND MISCHIEVOUS BUT ALSO STRONG, DETERMINED, EXTREMELY ROOTED IN THE PRESENT.

–  BLUMARINE

Gone are the ethereal Lolita dresses cut from delicate silk chiffon in favour of gauzy mesh and peek-a-boo crochet, the rose corsage is joined by a gothic cross, the diamantes swapped for burnished studs. The Blumarine girl is no longer a sweet simmering Lolita, she is a modern dark mermaid unleashing a tidal wave of confident sensuality with every flick of her tail.