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The Black Belt is a Spring/Summer demi-couture collection built around the physical translation of emotional states.
The project explores fragility, fear, solitude, nostalgia, anger, hope, anxiety and love through silhouettes, colour, material contrasts and a recurring black belt.
Across daywear, special-event and couture languages, the collection moves from contained everyday pieces to more dramatic draped constructions, turning the belt into a sign of memory, constraint and protection.
The project starts from a question: can emotions become something visible, tangible and wearable?
Developed after a period of isolation and uncertainty, the collection gives form to different emotional passages through garments that wrap, hold, compress, release and expose the body.
The black belt appears throughout the collection as a recurring symbol: a sign of mourning and memory, but also a gesture of control, protection and resistance.
The palette is inspired by metals: gold, silver and copper are used as fluid, precious and malleable tones.
Black anchors the collection and reinforces the symbolic presence of the belt, while forest green introduces an idea of life and rebirth.
Light-wash denim softens the metallic tension, bringing freshness and contrast into the more constructed pieces.
The collection is built around luminous and fluid materials, mainly silk satin and chiffon, used to create draped, reflective and emotionally charged surfaces.
These softer materials are contrasted with denim, knitwear and stretch gabardine, creating tension between fragility and structure.
The black belt works as both a construction device and a symbol: it closes, holds, interrupts and defines the body, becoming the visual thread that connects the entire collection.
The silhouettes move between containment and release.
Some garments are held tightly by belts placed at the waist, chest, wrist, ankle or neckline; others open into long flounces, trains, draped panels and metallic surfaces that fall around the body.
This creates a gradual emotional crescendo, from controlled daywear silhouettes to more expressive demi-couture constructions.
The first sequence translates the emotional language of the collection into more grounded silhouettes.
Tailoring, denim, hooded shapes, short volumes and belt details introduce the idea of constraint in a daywear wardrobe.
The garments remain wearable, but each one is interrupted by symbolic details: side belts, bound waists, controlled volumes, long ties and metallic surfaces.
The second sequence moves toward a more fluid and scenographic language.
Ruffles, chiffon, satin, draped tops, long sleeves and metallic trousers create garments that feel suspended between occasionwear and emotional exposure.
Here the belt becomes more visible and theatrical, crossing the body, holding the bust, closing the wrists or forcing the fabric into controlled movement.
The final sequence brings the collection into its most dramatic demi-couture expression.
Long dresses, asymmetry, metallic draping, detachable volumes and embroidered surfaces create a stronger sense of ritual and emotional release.
The black belt remains present, but the garments begin to expand around it: the body is held, yet the fabric escapes.
This section focuses on selected garments from the collection, showing how emotional states are translated into construction, draping and symbolic fastening.
The developments highlight tailored daywear, side-belt closures, denim contrasts, tiered flounces, metallic satin, asymmetric draping, empire construction, detachable embroidered volumes and the recurring black belt motif.
They are intended as proof of design thinking and product interpretation, not as a complete industrial production package.
A tailored daywear look where classic construction is interrupted by denim contrasts and a side belt fastening.
The jacket is developed with a fitted silhouette that opens toward the hem.
Denim is used on the lapels and straight sleeves, with double-needle tobacco topstitching creating contrast against the main body.
The closure is shifted to the side through a belt, turning a functional fastening into one of the collection's recurring symbolic gestures.
tailored jacket | denim lapels | tobacco topstitching | side belt | fitted volume | daywear constraint
A special-event look where a tiered top is held and opened by a belt construction across the bust.
The top opens at the front through a belt placed across the chest.
An interlaced construction creates the shoulder straps and continues toward the back, while the front is shaped around the bust.
The body of the garment develops into three levels of rotated and gathered flounces, left free and open at the centre front to create movement and exposure.
belted bust | interlaced straps | gathered flounces | open front | tiered construction | special-event volume
An evening dress where asymmetry, metallic draping and a belt-defined neckline create one of the collection's strongest emotional silhouettes.
The dress has an asymmetric neckline shaped by the belt motif and opens at the side with an invisible zip.
The body is constructed with bicolour fabric panels gathered on the side and draped across the figure.
The train is brought toward the front and fixed, creating a mermaid-like volume. A draped sleeve on the right arm is gathered into the seams, extending the movement of the fabric across the body.
asymmetric neckline | belt motif | bicolour draping | side gathering | mermaid volume | draped sleeve
A demi-couture closing look combining an empire jumpsuit, decorative stone straps and a detachable embroidered skirt.
The jumpsuit is developed with a gathered and draped empire bustier, supported by an internal bustier structure.
Decorative straps are built with set stones, while the wide trousers are closed at the bottom by ankle straps with a double-belt motif.
The detachable skirt uses the same double-belt motif and is placed slightly toward the hips. It is gathered and rotated to create volume, with a scalloped embroidered hem and a dégradé embroidery moving upward in set stones and gold thread.
empire jumpsuit | draped bustier | stone straps | ankle belts | detachable skirt | gold-thread embroidery
The black belt is treated as the visual and symbolic core of the collection.
It appears as fastening, interruption and tension point, holding satin, chiffon, denim and metallic surfaces against the body.
Rather than acting only as an accessory, it becomes a construction device: it compresses, redirects and transforms each silhouette.
