Regaining their strut in Milan
Love and hate are both acceptable reactions to fashion shows, but indifference is the kiss of death. And that was what many retailers and editors came away with after the spring shows here last September.
Milan’s position as a fashion capital was in serious jeopardy. Gucci was floundering post-Tom Ford, Donatella Versace was fresh out of rehab, Jil Sander was being designed by a team of former assistants, Giorgio Armani had lost his grip on the subtlety that was the bedrock of his business and Prada, well, Prada was a hit maker, but an entire fashion week couldn’t rest on the strength of one designer.
What a difference a season can make. Italian designers put themselves back on the map with the fall collections that ended here Saturday. Though the runway shows did not culminate in a leading look for the season, they did introduce a compelling cast of characters -- the glam rocker at Gucci and Max Mara, the self-assured superwoman at Prada and Versace, the elegant minimalist at Jil Sander and the rich royal at Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Cavalli and others -- as designers reasserted their identities for a new generation of customers.
If there is anything general to say, it’s that fall is a season of extremes: skirts and coats are short or long -- mini or maxi -- but nothing in between. Embellishment is either nonexistent or over the top. Volume is still very much a part of the plot, especially where sleeves are concerned. And sex is at a minimum, which is to say that women are not being cast as sex objects, but rather as powerful protagonists. At times, this has meant hints of rebelliousness, punk or 1980s nostalgia, but more often the message has been conveyed in subtext.
Like the woman she designed for this season, Donatella Versace is at the top of her game. She is clean and sober and so was this collection, which went back to the beginning, to the label’s very foundations -- bold coats and bias-cut jersey gowns, free of any excess. Instead, the focus was on graphic colors and shapes. Shift dresses came in plum, navy and bottle green, which when worn with opaque tights and ironed-straight hair, made models look like modern-day superheroes.
Instead of fussing with beads and baubles, Versace played with texture on a perfect navy peacoat with V-shaped pockets edged in glistening patent, and on a purple patent leather coat with bushy chinchilla sleeves. Stripped down to their essence, silk jersey goddess gowns came in lovely shades of pearl gray, blush pink and sand. Tucked and draped with the skill of a couturier, they were proof positive of Versace’s newfound discipline.
There was such a fascination with the ruling class on the runways, one wondered if designers were setting the stage for revolution, or just anticipating the upcoming “AngloMania” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Or perhaps they were trying to appeal to their newest customers, the Chinese and the Russians, who are just rediscovering wealth. Russian tourists are regulars on Milan’s famed shopping street Via Montenapoleone, with crocodile Hermes bags in tow, wearing floor-grazing furs. Yes, if the 1980s were the Me Decade in the U.S., the 2000s are becoming the decade of status seekers in the Near and Far East.
Before everything was “molto sexy,” Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana founded their business on romanticism, so they staged a Napoleonic costume drama with a militia’s worth of gold-buttoned coats, high-neck blouses, velvet breeches and swashbuckling boots. D&G; crests were plopped on velvet slippers, Henley shirts and the back pockets of blue jeans. And the finale gowns, empire styles, were weighed down with so many rubies, pearls and gilded feathers, they must have required a small legion of embroiderers working around the clock.
The show was something to see, as opulent as anything Josephine Bonaparte’s designer Louis Leroy could have dreamed up. And pop queen Jennifer Lopez looked amazing, filling out every inch of her Dolce & Gabbana eyelet dress in the front row. But with empire dresses and military jackets already in stores now, the collection felt like ancient history.
For so long, Fendi has been about innovations in fur, but this season, Karl Lagerfeld made an effort to demonstrate that the label is something more, beginning the show with a pearl gray cashmere coat in a voluminous egg shape. The story was in short lengths and experiments in volume, and there were regal touches -- Renaissance sleeves, lacy collars, gold buttons. The new bag is bucket shaped, and the new fur a caramel-colored mink jacket with braided sleeves puffed up like loaves of challah.
The best pieces were knits, including a sculpted charcoal turtleneck dress shaped by soft pleats at the waist and worn with an haute version of the mukluk boot. Simple cocktail dresses with ruffled corset belts were also chic. But other pieces were just too frilly and complicated for modern life.
Moschino’s Rosella Jardini embraced Highlands dress, working Black Watch tartan into kicky kilts with jewels clustered at the hems and cropped jackets worn with patent leather cummerbunds. Chain-link belts with Scottie dog charms and a feathery sporran as an evening bag were nice touches. As usual, there were a lot of wearable basics here. But one kept waiting for the punch line that would have upended this genteel collection if Franco Moschino were still alive.
At DSquared, the landed gentry wore full-cut charcoal pants, tartan trenches, velvet tailcoats, white shirts with stiff French cuffs and jeweled cufflinks. Sway-back jean jackets were street ready, but why are we still seeing the same jeans they did a few seasons ago -- cropped length with a droopy crotch? Designers Dan and Dean Caten need to figure out what’s next. Regardless, they do deserve kudos for the season’s best music segue: from “Gloria Excelsis” to Laura Brannigan’s “Gloria.”
Revisiting one of his favorite themes, Roberto Cavalli sent a love letter to the East. Eschewing the flesh and flash of recent seasons, he kept things elegant and covered up, recalling Paul Poiret’s Orientalist style of the 1910s and ‘20s with gorgeous burnout velvet dresses with dropped waists, and fur-trimmed silk bathrobe coats embroidered with birds and dragons. A silver beaded flapper dress shimmied with fringe; a black mermaid gown glistened with silver fan-shaped embroidery. Gold pajama-style pants evoked a relaxed glam that looked modern despite the vintage reference when worn layered under a green chinchilla coat. (Doesn’t everyone need one?) For a finale, Cavalli sent out two military coats, one embroidered with a dragon, the other with a red phoenix rising.
Burberry may have jumped the shark in Britain, where the label is now associated more with “chavs” or thug posers, than with the fox-hunting aristocrats, retired colonels and ladies-who-lunch for whom it was originally designed. But this year the brand celebrates its 150th anniversary, so designer Christopher Bailey turned inward for inspiration, creating a greatest-hits collection with trench coats trimmed in fur, trench coats in quilted velvet, trench coats in lace ... you get the picture. Skirts came in a black and white feather print, with overlapping layers of chiffon, or in gold foil, both of which Bailey has done before. Without a new vision, the show felt like a rerun. But no one seemed to mind. Because in fashion, as in entertainment, sometimes there’s nothing better than the classics.
