Where has all the sex gone?
The tango between dressing to please the id and dressing to satisfy
the ego that used to define fashion in Milan, with a shimmy here met by
a stomp over there, seemed, as the Italian ready-to-wear shows drew to
a close on Sunday, to have turned into something of a line dance
instead - everyone stepping in time to a more blandly choreographed
tune.
It's as if, in this brave new dawn of get-down- to-work Italy,
there's no room for the flesh and fantasia of yore. The bunga bunga has
left the catwalk.
How else to explain the fact that at Versace, the brand that
practically defined the idea of in-your- face Glamazon dressing (think:
Elizabeth Hurley in that safety-pin dress; Jennifer Lopez in that cut-
below-the-navel number), there were a whole bunch of ... jackets? Those
would be suit jackets: single-button, thigh length and cut to mean
business.
Granted, they came paired with midriff-baring tops and skorts,
either brief or asymmetric, with one leg long and one short in a style
reminiscent of Donatella Versace's work at couture and sprinkled among
shifts with a graphic geometry, like a magnified version of the house's
famous Greek key pattern.
But even the crystal-covered evening looks - miniskirts and halter
scarf tops in pastel shades - and the long primary-coloured sheaths
with a contrasting zigzag up the front had a Power Plate, as opposed to
dominatrix, air. They got physical, it's true, but it was the kind of
physical that might burst into jumping jacks at any moment, as if
Versace had been on an aesthetic cleanse and hit "refresh".
Perhaps this is why Giorgio Armani, always the yin to Versace's yang
and a uniform of the executive suite, finally felt able to relax into
his own signature instead of constantly contorting himself out of his
comfort zone, as he has in past seasons.
He called his collection Sand and started it with a short movie by
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, 2013) about
nature on the Italian islands Lipari and Stromboli, including brief
shots of an almost-naked man and woman bound by ropes and lying on the
beach. But the clothes themselves were simply fluid examples of what
Armani does best: washed silk jackets in multiple incarnations (cropped
and swinging, three- button, embroidered or knit); straight, easy
trousers; organza skirts silk-screened with images of rolling dunes;
and expertly gathered silk chiffon dresses, in the sun-bleached tones
of the seascape.
At least until evening, when elegant beaded cocktail numbers were
paired with sheer organza harem pants or cropped tulle trousers. As if
it were really necessary to remind us that these are clothes made for a
nomad of the corporate kind.
Thus it went, collection after collection, to mixed effect. At
Tod's, a meditation on gardens led Alessandra Facchinetti to
squared-off or crescent- cut separates in forest green and white and
mahogany hole-punched leather, meant to evoke the negative of the
pebbles on the bottom of its famous driving shoes and mid-calf skirts.
The workmanship was impressive, with some skins so light they looked,
and could be manipulated, like paper, and the concept was clever, but
the net effect was an intellectual exercise: the garments neutered.
At Salvatore Ferragamo, Massimiliano Giornetti produced a polished
play on texture within the framework of the brand's standards: cape
coats, bias-knit halter dresses, midi-skirts, all often trimmed in
snakeskin. Touched not by an angel but an animal print, and producing a
very genteel purr.
And at Jil Sander, Rodolfo Paglialunga found his connection to the
house's history in schoolgirl uniforms from the V-neck knit sweaters to
crisp cotton button-downs and hip-slung drop-crotch Bermudas. There was
a suggestion of... well, suggestion, in the slit back of a shirt and a
striking pixelated print, but it was hard not to think these clothes
follow the rules too much.
Though there was nothing seductive about the former's
20th-anniversary show, a celebration of craft and construction, it had
a handmade, counterintuitive appeal of its own. Oversize rough canvas
schmattas were whipped into shape by judo belts or came in the form of
tunics over loose trousers and calf-length sundresses, metallic
versions of the same were splashed with painterly florals.
At Bottega Veneta, Maier said he was thinking of a "dancer's walk"
and how garments move on the frame. And that meant knit cotton
bodysuits and leggings (ahem), covered by long linen dusters, which led
him to sweats, but rolled up and slouchy, the sweatshirt tied in a big
bow at the neck, which in turn gave way to lovely dresses cut like a
ballerina's frock. They were smart, in every sense of the word.
Amid all this restraint, the Emilio Pucci collection by Peter Dundas
stuck out like a many-spangled, rainbow-tinted thumb. There were
tie-dyed spaghetti-srap chiffon maxi-dresses and bead- encrusted
every-inch-embroidered body-tracing mini-dresses and flowered crochet
ponchos dripping fringe. Granted, there was a trouser suit or two
buried in the mayhem, but they were cut with a rocker edge.
It was kitschy, no question, but it had a goodhumoured, hot-to-trot
energy that was hard to resist, probably because it did not exist
elsewhere.
