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Evening Standard

Entertainment

Joe Bromley

Take flight! Why butterflies are fashion’s spring obsession

Mariah Carey Chanel Alberta Ferretti Urban Outfitters

They have stormed the catwalks, infiltrated the prestigious couture collections, and even inspired Dua Lipa to launch a Puma collection called ‘Flutur’ (Albanian for butterfly). Yes, the time has come to fly into spring with the help of a butterfly motif.

If you need convincing these colourful insects really have transitioned from terribly kitsch to super chic, look no further than Chanel. The statement on the Spring 2022 nineties inspired catwalk was clear when Virginie Viard sent out model after model in flowing chiffon skirts, shirts and capes splashed with butterfly wing prints to close the show.

Chanel’s Spring 2022 finale (Getty Images)

But this new trend is not just for the Chanel savvy shoppers. Blumarine, the 1997 founded Italian house which Nicola Brognano has revamped into a cool-girl mecca of Y2K style, has the butterfly positioned front and centre. They come knitted into cardigans, spliced on neon mesh dresses and moulded into butterfly buckle belts.

“Butterflies were iconic elements of the 2000’s, therefore these motifs definitely embrace the new Blumarine spirit,” says Brognano, who started at the house in March 2020 and has since recruited Bella Hadid, Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande as fans.

The Mariah Carey top at Blumarine (Blumarine)

Think of that Mariah Carey, crystal embellished butterfly top from the ‘VH-1 Divas 2000’ red carpet, circa 1997. Brognano remade it in denim for his Spring 2022 runway. “Butterflies are a symbol of metamorphosis,” he says. “Lightness, femininity and freedom!”

And as the noughties wave continues to ripple across designer’s mood boards, references to the era’s fashion mega moments continue. “When we were doing our research for the SS20 collection, Mariah Carey came up several times in her iconic butterfly top,” says Josef Lazo, one half of the Swedish non-binary brand Lazoschimdal, known for their use of pop colours, skin flashing and kinky latex twists.

And at Lazoschimdal, there is a powerful message behind the butterfly too. “As a boy, one wasn’t allowed to have butterflies on your clothes, it was way to girly growing up in the eighties and nineties,” Lazo says. “So we’re basically taking that and owning it now.”

This newfound popularity plays into the hands of some of fashion’s longer standing lepidopterology lovers as well. Couturier Alexis Mabille, for one, has stitched them into his collections ever since he designed a butterfly bow tie back in 2008. “Since that day this elegant insect has followed me, and I’ve interpreted it in different ways,” he says.

Lazoschmidl does butterflies for the boys (Lazoschmidl)

For his Spring 2022 collection, one standout gown came with a shining 3D butterfly bodice atop a flowing pleated skirt. It comes after years of his insect appliqué and the 2014 collection when Mabille covered gilded walls with white paper butterflies. “They are mysterious and fascinating, flying all over,” Mabille says. “It is part of couture’s poetic drama, which moves in the wind.”

Alexis Mabille crafts couture insects (Getty Images)

In London, one upcomer has been swept away by their beauty too. Yuhan Wang, a Chinese designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2018, did ruched, silk dresses with a delicate butterfly print for her Spring 2022 collection. They were a playful yet sophisticated highlight. “I’m really into hand painted vases decorated with butterflies from the Qing dynasty,” Wang says, of stumbling across her inspiration.

“I think there’s desire in the process transforming from a caterpillar to a gossamer, and the beauty of butterfly,” she says. “With its wings, and a breath-taking release from a cocoon.”

Ready to emerge from your shell of turtlenecks and trench coats? You can find the top-end butterfly prints at Alberta Ferretti and Zimmermann, or channel the naughty noughties with the form fitting mesh and low rise denim at Urban Outfitters and Jaded London.

These are the best butterfly bits to lift you into spring: