BALLY @ FW2014/15 Men & Women Collection

BALLY FW2014/15 Women’s Collection creates an essential wardrobe for a real woman with luxury in its purest form. This modern approach is authentically sophisticated. The collection marks a clear direction redefining the brand’s incredible heritage into an innovative language. Each piece equips her for everyday life and adds up to a quintessential line-up of shoes, accessories and ready to wear. Exotic skins, exquisite suede and nappa, the finest wools and cashmeres, twills and tweeds mix together to create a sophisticated tactility in an updated minimal palette. This is a collection of confident, easy going silhouettes that create the perfect wardrobe for the modern woman.

A definitive shoe wardrobe anchors her look. There is a design for her every need: desk to dinner, high luxe to off-duty élan. The season’s heel is stacked and rounded, matched with a delicately pointed or rounded toe, in pumps, ankle boots and knee-high boots. High polished finishes add deep luster to shades of burgundy, military green and black. Blush and fawn hues give a silky look to ponyskin pointed courts. Extraordinary in-house craftsmanship injects fresh vigour into iconic looks and skins. Natural tactility and patterns of ring lizard is enhanced via shades of stone or electric citron in stiletto pumps. A single piece of leather is shaped on a form for days to create a long single-seamed boot that follows the curve of the leg. Bold three-dimensional effects appear on brogue’s seams. Supple cream nappa plimsolls underscore ease and elegance.

  

Bags feature clean lines, minimal hardware, and contemporary heritage signatures. Immaculate leather finishes show their fine grain. ‘Bloom’ is named for its duffle shape with buckled sides that open out like petals. The design features Bally’s updated crest motif, subtly embossed near the handles - a reference to Switzerland’s three mountain peaks. Bally Dottic, an intriguing indented pattern, first seen on men’s shoe style from 1935, infuses fresh texture into the ‘Gentlewoman’ Bag. Structured and square-shaped with a detachable shoulder strap, one levelled angle on its base is inspired by a century-old Bally design detail of gentleman’s corner. Hold-all ‘Sommet’s structured bull grain leather lined in ‘Bally Red’ nappa is rendered modern with its pliable shape left bare except a single buckle closure. A drawstring blush shoulder tote doubles as a folded-over clutch. The structure and polish of box calf gives rectangular clutches and shoulder bags a commanding finish.

Bally men’s collection around the authentic codes of luxury men’s wear to build a quintessential wardrobe. Every aspect of a man’s need in his everyday life is considered to form the ideal modern luxury collection of shoes, accessories and ready to wear. Each piece is meticulously created from majestic materials using Bally’s mastery craftsmanship and consummate construction techniques. The result is a wardrobe of enduring elegance and confident style. Shoes and bags are created with noble leathers and treatments and unfettered silhouettes. Tailoring with timeless proportions is cut from beautiful fabrics that yearn to be worn. Discreet heritage signatures are sophisticated details. This is a wardrobe designed to weather seasons and generations. Wearing the collection are real men, who work in jobs they are passionate about, with families and a lifestyle that is at home within the city or countryside.

An essential shoe wardrobe is at the apex of the Bally man’s style. Distinctly masculine, these shoes are crafted for life’s events: work to weekend, black tie gala to mountain summit. Glass finishes create a tactile patina on oxfords, double monk straps and ankle boots with Goodyear soles in robust rich men’s shades of oxblood, military green and bark – a dark brown. A prized model from Bally’s 1930 archive, the Tusco’s sinuous shape is precisely recreated in Armagnac-hued calf with original design and production techniques. Every top stitch on the sole is secured and indented by hand in Bally’s ‘grain of rice’ stitching technique. Rugged details give a masculine edge: a substantial leather sole and hand-stitched apron front and toecap seams on dress shoe Pinox, and injected rubber tread on goatskin tall buckled boots. Elegance is found in simplicity of supple white deerskin plimsolls. A triangle is sliced off the inner corner of each shoe’s heel reprising a design detail dubbed ‘gentleman’s corner’ invented by Bally last century so dapper men wouldn’t risk tearing their trousers with their heels. This signature trim is reflected throughout the collection.

Focused attention on function mixed with understated clean lines creates a lineup of essential accessories. Every pocket, zipper and buckle has a deliberate purpose. Hardware is refined, lighter and tucked away. Leather is tanned and unstructured to show its natural smooth grain and composure, evident in the tan duffels that slouch just so. Reporter bags equipped with multiple pockets and compartments exhibit a subdued sophistication. Rectangular shaped hold-alls are crafted in diverse sizes for business trips and weekend adventures 12, 24 and 48 hours. Accents are finessed for the connoisseur, a red foil Bally logo on the suede lining of a shopper, a hand-painted contrasting edging is glossy and thick on a messenger bag, inspired by a vintage 1920s courier bag. Sleek, lean briefcases and document holders are slickly constructed, expertly organized and detailed.

   

 The Bally design team has created an ideal wardrobe. Succinct, fundamental, each piece is cherished. Fine fabrics from Japanese, Italian and English mills are cut into classic proportions with sartorial finishes and classic hues. The perfect suit comes with looser leg or straight flannel pant, lined jacket or unlined with patch pockets. Cashmere and wool knits are finely spun to go over poplin oxford shirts, or superbly chunky as shawl neck cardigans and cable sweaters. Staples get the luxury treatment, rare Japanese denim jeans, a suede bomber bonded with cashmere and suede ribbed cuffs, a down-filled puffer crafted from light lambskin. Outerwear is a show of Hollywood cinema style. A camel overcoat and double-breasted check coats wrap up to flawless effect. Shearlings play with textures of spongy nappa exteriors and soft lambswool collars. A jean jacket is given a sartorial touch by bonding its interior with a felted wool suiting fabric. Bally’s historical design story with hiking is captured each season in the Everest collection. For next winter a goatskin hiking boot’s layered rubber tread features a groove where cramps would be fitted, and nylon backpacks are trimmed with rich brown calf inserts and carabiner clips for a luxurious sporty look.

The ready-to-wear wardrobe is curated for a modern dynamic woman. Men’s tailoring codes are found in outerwear and essential suiting: a classic blazer, and a duo of trouser styles, narrow with pleats or roomy. Masculine constructions in refined fabrics transmit a sensual and self-assured elegance. Proportions are precisely balanced: a shortened cashmere-bonded leather blouson, full length unlined cashmere camel and Prince of Wales black-and-white check coats are paired with twill silk shirts, wide-legged high-waist trousers and dense cashmere knits. Knee-length pencil skirts – one in sumptuous pale cream cashmere have high waists so pockets sit coolly on the hips. Evoking the texture of cashmere, feathery feel suede comes in a t-shirt and crew neck military green dress.