For several months now, ballet has been asserting itself with renewed centrality in the contemporary cultural imagination. Even in the wake of TimothĂ©e Chalamet’s controversial statements speculating on its slow decline, the public debate has been rekindled with vigor, leading critics, artists and audiences to decisively reaffirm the vitality of this discipline, which is far from extinct. We ourselves have retraced its historical trajectories, deeply intertwined with the Italian tradition, continuing to explore multiple declinations of it to demonstrate how ballet and opera remain living arts, participated in and surprisingly loved even by new generations.
Testifying to the relevance and ability of these forms to dialogue with other languages, from art to design to fashion, is the work of London-based designer Saul Nash, an emblematic figure of a new interdisciplinary sensibility. A designer and dancer, Nash founded his eponymous luxury activewear brand in 2018, building a sophisticated bridge between performance, movement and menswear. His creations, technical garments designed to indulge the body in action, reinterpret athleisure in a contemporary key through sustainable production rooted in the territory.
Particularly significant is his ability to integrate movement into fashion shows, transforming them into true performative devices: an approach that is also echoed in Italy in Michele Rizzo’s work for Magliano, where choreography becomes a critical and narrative language. In this sense, Nash represents only the latest, and among the most incisive, examples of a fertile intersection between fashion and dance, today an active source of artistic direction, inspiration and experimentation.
It is no surprise, then, that this week acclaimed choreographer Wayne McGregor chose Nash himself to design the costumes for his new show at the Royal Ballet in London. Titled Wayne McGregor: Alchemies, the project hosts the world premiere of Quantum Souls, the choreographer’s new creation, for which Nash designed costumes with a distinctly futuristic character. “The costume design was a true collaborative process between Wayne and myself,” Nash said. “It was critical to build characters, but also to evoke an idea of collectivity-or rather, collective individuality-so that each costume could express the uniqueness of each dancer.”
[đź“· Instagram: studiowaynemcgregor; royalballetandopera; saul.nash]
