VS Spring 25 “Sprezzatura” - A dash of chalance, with spirit
By Lucien Willey
VS has returned with their spring 2025 show, once again, under the theme of “Sprezzatura”. This Italian concept, of effortless elegance, of concealing great effort beneath a mask of nonchalance, sometimes phrased as “studied carelessness”, wasn’t entirely achieved here. It was obvious that the VS team put in a great deal of effort into almost every element of the show, nothing appeared careless. The VS team wore how much they cared about the show on their sleeves. The theming may have been Italian but the methodical effort on display here would please the most stereotypical of Germans.
The pastoral Rufflets Country House hotel would not have been my choice for a breezy Italian fashion show (even one conducted with Teutonic efficiency). The place is so British it’s almost a cliché, established in 1924 and still waiting for an Agatha Christie murder mystery to occur in its parlor. However, the midcentury-modern events space on the side provides a space both unique I’ve never seen another fashion show use it) and strikingly intimate (I was frequently worried I’d accidentally poke a model with my pen as I took notes).
For a show as daring as VS, the lighting and music felt conservative. If you’ve been to any of the other fashion shows in town you’d know what to expect, at least at first: a well darkened stage, strategic lighting and well-DJed music at a volume that you could feel almost as well as you could hear. My first clue that VS and their creative director, the sly Ines Tramarin, had a musical trick up their sleeve was when I held the door open for a girl with an instrument case on my way through the hotel lobby. Still, I was slightly surprised when, during the brief half-time intermission, a music stand was carried to the podium at the center of the runway, and the audience was treated to a beautiful and spirited live violin performance! Here, Vivaldi was a palate cleanser and a scene-setter in between brassy big-band music, upbeat and up-tempo tunes, and melancholic pop chosen to accompany each walk along the runway, tightly tailored to the choreography and emotions of the runway like a fine Italian-cut suit. Most of it wasn’t wildly different from any other show, but the distinct attention to detail deserves credit.
Every part of the show was impeccably executed but if I had to pick just one element of the show to elevate above the others it would be the choreography. India Kolb, the head choreographer, and Ines Tramarin, the creative director, put great effort into incorporating the Sprezzatura theme into every second of the show’s choreography. Each section had opening and closing walks to bookend their theming, and I won’t mince words: these were brilliant. One segment alone had five male/female model pairs conducting fourteen lifts with easy, simultaneous grace to Adele’s Love in the Dark. Another had the female models dancing in leotards with fluid coordination while the male models positioned in such a way that they resembled nothing more than a Parthenon of telamons (the male cousins of caryatids), the sculptural ideals of beauty that served as temple columns in the ancient world.
The clothes themselves were far, far more diverse than the Autumn show. The eveningwear opening was a shot across the bow, with power-dresses that implied cocktail-party mastery, and men's shirts from Dr. Frankenstein’s Savile Row phase, bizarre mismatched of fabric that combined to breathe new life into an often-staid garment. The choreography matched this energy, with the female models affecting a stiff-backed elegance and a serious strut to match the sharpness of their attire, while the male models paired their own shirts’ above-caring vibe with affable semi-slouches, as they moved up and down the runway with a casual, languid rapidity.
If VS took itself too seriously, some of the brands displayed in the first half would have come off as a bit comical, almost like playing dress-up. Seasalt Cornwall’s cowboys-and-fishermen look springs to mind. Instead, they came off as individualistic fun. This “I-feel-like-wearing-this-why-should-you-care" spirit feeds into the je se ne quois of any best-dressed list. Similarly, the Alchemy London women’s suiting, breezy trouser and vest combinations in classic fabrics that might get some side-eye from HR were infused with a confident, modern personality that entirely sidesteps accusations of social media trend cliche, and instead provide a well-studied riposte to the masculine stereotype of what a suit tailored in London could be, with a little bit of ‘80s flair.
The second half of the show was far more casual in style with late 60s-early 70s inspired looks abounding. Gender-neutral denim jackets with elaborate patterns stitched onto the back, cropped knits, and bell-bottoms contributed to a vibe that could best be described as “A24 adaptation of Pamela des Barres’s autobiography” (look it up, it’s a heck of a story). It had a sort of idealized Sunset Strip rock and roll spirit, the platonic ideal of Whisky A-Go-Go. Then came the dresses, with vintage “housewife” dresses followed by dresses in the same fabrics but re-cut into eveningwear styles, more decisive and dramatic, reclaiming the “housewife” aesthetic from cultural objectification with pizazz.
This only scratches the surface of what was presented, with chitty-chitty-bang-bang-esque corduroy-and-leather jackets, elaborate floral silk pieces, slinky Y2k party numbers, and the impossible achievement of making golf shop merch look good composing just some of the show’s creative smorgasbord, where every third piece felt like it was hiding a wry reference.
Last, but certainly not least, I believe VS deserves some credit for the relative diversity of their models. Don’t get me wrong, every one of them, men and women, were ridiculously good-looking people, but there was a diversity in body shapes of the models that made the clothes feel like they were being worn, as opposed to just displayed. The individuality of the models on the runway was enhanced by India’s choreography, a synchronized rotation of models in and out of focus to a constantly-shifting and impeccably chosen atmosphere and tempo.
While the phrase Sprezzatura is Italian first appeared in 1528, VS 25’s approach to it is best compared to the famous English dandy Beu Brummell, who was famous for “devoting endless hours of effort and care to look as though he didn’t give a second’s thought.” Alas, try as they might, the VS committee never fully achieved perfect Sprezzatura. They failed to hide that they cared, that they put in work, put in effort, put in those hours and enjoyed them. They gave more thought to the art of style and the simple question of “how can I make this look good” than to any external judgement of “they’d think I’m trying too hard”. If we return to the definition of Sprezzatura as “studied carelessness”, the VS spring show reflected the team that made it, well-studied and wry, entertaining, artistic, aesthetically brilliant, sometimes meditative, sly and surprising, occasionally provocative, but never careless. There’s an irony here, that a theme of nonchalance delivered us a show that reminds us of the virtues of a dash of chalance. That’s half the fun, after all; there’s no such thing as trying too hard if you’re enjoying the process, and in St. Andrews, there’s no such thing as overdressed.