Favourite Piece
My Favourite Piece: Florentina Leitner
This month we spoke with NJAL designer Florentina Leitner about her murder mystery inspired bag from her recent collection.
Why did you choose this piece?
The piece I choose was the starting point of my collection "No Clue". It is a trench coat with attachable umbrella sleeves. And it is the piece that represents my collection most.
What makes it stand out amongst the collection?
This coat is the most extreme piece of my collection. I manufactured huge buttons, working with the Belgian artist Benny van den Meulengracht-Vrancx, which truly makes the piece outstanding. Also the umbrella sleeves make it one of my favourite pieces.
Explain the origins of the design. What were your initial inspirations?
The idea behind the whole collection was to create five different characters inspired by the game "CLUE" and old murder and mystery movies from Agatha Christie. The first silhouette I wanted to dedicate to Inspector Gadget, which is why I worked on this trench coat look.
Why did you choose the specific fabrics, patterns, colours?
I used a classical trench coat fabric in cream so that you still have the classical trench feeling. I also wanted the umbrella sleeves in their natural material—nylon. I created a print for the umbrellas inspired by 50s paintings of flowers and old lace pieces. For the closing of the coat I wanted very big buttons and after talking to my artist friend, Benny van den Meulengracht-Vrancx, we decided to make them out of clay in a pastel pink. In the back of my coat design I attached a "body bag". With the body bag I wanted to create the mystery murder feeling and illuminate this greater feeling that the detective is looking for the missing body.
What is the story of this piece and how does it work to tell your collection's overall story?
The story I wanted to tell with this piece and the whole collection is the story of a murder scene. The look was inspired by classical movie detectives like inspector Gadget, Miss Marpel and Hercule Poirot.
