I'm republishing today some of the reports about Milan Fashion Week I did for Russian magazine Look At Me (with many thanks to editor Julia Vydolob).
Versace
“Very Versace” could be the perfect definition to describe the Spring/Summer 2012 collection Donatella presented on Friday night in the fashion house show spaces in via Gesù.
Yellow appeared in different collections in London and in Milan it debuted on Wednesday at Alberta Ferretti's.
Yet Donatella reinterpreted it as the colour of sun drenched Reggio Calabria, the Southern town where the Versace family hails from, but also as the gold of the studs decorating her designs and, ultimately, as the hair colour of blonde Barbie-like beauties sunbathing on a beach.
On the runway, while on the background Billy Idol sang “Hot In The City” (a very apt track for a Versace show with all its visions of summer sex and long-legged beauties walking in the streets…), the past and the present clashed, collided and then combined in white leather dresses, tight skirts and bras decorated with gold studs.
Prints of shells, seahorses, starfish and robotic sirens on dresses, tops and jackets accessorised with vertiginous Perspex platforms then took the place of the iconic Medusa head introducing the next theme.
Applied to long evening gowns in grey, yellow and turquoise shades, the sea theme – also employed for the jewels – was turned into appliqued motifs sparkling with crystals.
The best designs were the ones in which Donatella played a bit with dichotomies, sectioning a dress for example in two parts, one rigid and sculpted (neoprene was one of the main fabrics used in this collection to create rigurous shapes), the other fluid and sensual like a short Greek goddess-style chiton and evoking Gianni's passion for sensuous drapery and his admiration for Madame Grés.
Surely Donatella's vision of hyperglamour doesn't reflect the rather bleak political and financial situation in Italy, but the designer didn't seem to disappoint the fans of the fashion house and of its unadulterated eroticism.
Yet the excitement is not over for Donatella: expectations are rife now for the Versus show on Sunday night that will present the new collection (the fifth) she developed together with British designer Christopher Kane, and for the more down-to-earth collaboration with Swedish retail H&M giant that will hit the shops in November.
Bottega Veneta
Though rarely acknowledged, textile manufacturing companies were considered as vitally important sources of inspiration in the heydays of Italian fashion.
As the years passed, though, and after it became cheaper to import fabrics from other countries, many Italian textile producers lost not only their importance but also their businesses.
Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta implicitly emphasised the forgotten importance of textile manufacturers with a collection in which each design displayed high quality and perfect execution.
The collection opened with corseted dresses in strong shades such as green and deep purple, but, as it progressed, it became clear that Maier had something in mind for everybody, as proved by versatile trousers suits and separates including ‘60s knits, denim trousers matched with jackets that featured multiple printed lapels creating surreal optical effects (the kind of long-lasting investment piece…), simple but well-designed matt silk apron dresses with PVC inserts and tunic dresses with leather and plastic stripes.
Maier juxtaposed elegant and casual designs, as proved by the final billowing chiffon dresses and by the orange-red denims matched with a ruby red kaftan-like top.
The overall mood was young, but the choice of fabrics – that went from silk, chiffon and leather to see-through plastic – and the embellishments – namely beads, embroidered motifs and geometric patterns appearing on swimsuits and on the bodice of a dress covered in little squares – showed experience, maturity and knowledge.
The palette revealed a passion for colour that Maier may have borrowed from art, but some of the construction skills employed in this collection and in particular in the finely pleated multi-coloured organza dresses may have come from Capucci (these dresses actually called to mind some of the evening looks exhibited in the '90s at a Capucci exhibition at Berlin's Schauspielhaus).
Technically speaking the collection was well executed, indeed some of designs even made us forget the iconic Bottega Veneta accessories, including matte crocodile, ostrich and lizard bags with the house’s legendary intrecciato motifs.
Judging from the crowd surrounding Maier in the backstage at the end of the show, most members of the fashion media definitely agreed on this point.
Emilio Pucci
Renewing a historical fashion house is definitely not easy, doing it with Emilio Pucci is a challenge of mighty proportions.
The Marquis left indeed a wide range of designs characterised by a strong Mediterranean spirit and by his trademark polychrome prints.
So far Peter Dundas showed he had the necessary skills to revamp the house, but with this new collection he has proved he may be losing his magic touch.
There was definitely craftsmanship behind the S/S 2012 collection, but the designs – mainly midriff-baring gypsy tops with lace inserts, long skirts, silk slipdresses and crocheted kaftans, alternated with trousers or bermuda shorts matched with shirts in iconic Pucci prints – apart from being suspended between kitsch and elegance, also looked dated.
One mistake was mixing more than one kaleidoscopic archival Pucci print in the same design, creating undesirable patchworked effects on scarf-tied tops and dresses; another cringing mistake was the skull motif appearing in bejwelled mini-dresses and on tulle tops (yes, that noise in the background is definitely Marquis Pucci rolling in his grave…).
Dundas claimed Brigitte Bardot was an inspiration for the gypsy looks, but the emphasis on feminine moods, the strong lingerie element and the lack of tailoring hurt the collection.
In a way, if Dundas had only been more faithful to Pucci he would have come up with less banal bohemian moods and more clever ideas (Pucci did the Vivara print inspired by an airplane view of the eponymous island in the Gulf of Naples, what about a geographical inspiration next time, Peter?).
At the end of the show, you really felt that the most desirable thing you had seen was a fan decorated with iconic Pucci prints, the giveaway gift given to the members of the audience, among them also Anna Dello Russo clad for the occasion in a blue feather dress with matching headdress that was half henhouse and half Moulin Rouge costume. Dear oh dear. Pucci forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing.
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