Jewels on the runway

Jewels on the runway

The Italian spring collections put everything out there for people to see — the economic stresses on creativity and the loss of power as designers let others tell them what to make. Oh yes, there were some nice clothes too.

Rule of ikat prints
In the upside-down world of today’s Italian fashion, houses that once sashayed to a raunchy rhythm danced to a different tune. Gucci went sporty, with crisp Neoprene white outfits and techno treatments.
At Gucci, the designer Frida Giannini sent out a fine collection of streamlined sportswear — what she called “mixing in new technology, carbon fibre and crepe de chine,” with more traditional skills of tiny tucks and strips and of treated leather.
Frida offered cutout dresses and stretchy high-waist trousers garnished with the cords and buckles of extreme sports. A jacket with strips of leather embroidered in an ikat pattern looked unusual, and the pattern also served as a grainy print, as if pixellated. But while it took skill to attach all those metal bits, it was confined to the surface.

Resolute femininity
Veronica Etro seems wary of being tagged as a hippie, even though she followed that trail again this season but far more discreetly, with faded flower patterns and a relaxed feel. Liquid pajama pants were part of a long, lean look that helped to take the focus away from the familiar Bohemian dresses, pretty as they are.
A circular frill of fabric at the chest of a dress or even a jump suit caught what Etro called “relaxed ease” and “resolute femininity.”
Botanical prints seemed to grow organically over the liquid soft silhouettes. And although the show could have done with some major pruning, everything in Etro’s garden is flourishing.

Touch of the tribal
Ferragamo show has yet to put a focus on footwear. There were clean, bold architectural gestures — a compass sweep to trace the exaggerated roundness of jodhpur pants, a cumulus of full skirt, perforated suede to prove the house skill with leather. And neutral colours were dramatically punctuated with everything from sunflower yellow to blood red, fuchsia and purple. The focus of the collection was its lightness, with coats settling gently over wafting skirts. Touches of the tribal — a vivid brush print or a beaded neckpiece — were discreetly done.

Light as a cloud
Fendi is known for its bags and fur. Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi, who share the design challenge at Fendi, were on the same page.
“I wanted a cloud in a beautiful day — lightness and transparency,” said Lagerfeld of his vaporous dresses in white or ecru.
The dangerously high platform shoes were wound round the ankles with what looked like flesh-coloured hose. Evening bags were transparent plexiglass clutches.
The sum of the collection, sent out to plink-and-squeak abstract music, was a gentle homage to delicate Italian handwork, but it offered a fashion message — the blouse, worn with skirts, shorts or pants, is an alternative to the ubiquitous dress.

Listen to the call of the wild
The twin brothers Dan and Dean Caten of Dsquared2 took the camping theme for their female followers next summer. It was all about adapting the needs of a die-hard city girl to the wilderness. So why bother to take the dry-cleaning bag off that purple evening gown — just wear it wrapped in plastic. Worried about hunters mistaking you for Bambi? Wrap your waist in a DayGlo pink skinny belt, or don’t take any chances and go with a full-skirted dress in bright orange.
Use insects as jewellery and don’t forget to top it all off with a stylish trucker hat and retro glasses Dsquared2 introduced this year.

Recipe rewritten
Moschino collection was an abstract in the evening attire, where short, bold, puff-skirted dresses in fruit and flower prints had loops of multi-coloured beading down the front in an attempt to look like apron straps.
But the real recipes of this collection were some the house has had for years — its message T-shirts, the three strands of pearls lining the hem of a cropped black jacket and matching short skirt, the fitted leather biker jacket covered in colorful flower buttons or gold chains.
Even a gold-buttoned denim suit, with pockets formed from mini “Barbie doll” versions of the same jacket, looked like it was something from the ’80s heyday of Franco Moschino rather than the brand’s current designer, Rossella Jardini.