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International Herald Tribune

II Thursday, September 27, 2007 Fashion

Facchinetti’s
fairy tale
like a fairy tale,’’ said Alessandra Facchinetti,
‘I referring to the dramatic, mirrored mechani-
cal toy installation for her Moncler collection of
outerwear, which was given a couture treatment.
But the designer might have been referring to
her appointment as creative director of Valentino,
where she will take over from the retiring maestro
on Oct. 1.
Fachinetti, below, showed with her imaginat-
ively decorated coats and jackets in super-light
sportswear fabrics just why she has been tapped
for the big role at the Italian giant.
Her Gamme Rouge collection, hanging from
metallic constructions as if about to be activated
by the giant key at the entrance, included a light,
white nylon parka, worked with embroidery,
while other pieces had appliqués of mesh on biker
Neoprene or were given dandelion puffs of quilt-
ing. This resolutely modernist attitude to working
with less noble fabrics augurs well for her take on
new millennium couture.
The designer’s original inspiration for Moncler
was uniforms, and that showed more clearly in
the group of bright navy, high-class work wear,
with a play on volumes, than in similar styles
worked more ethereally in white.
And what about Fachinetti’s own slim, silken
dress with a blush of pale pink?
Admitting that it was her own design, the tall,
POLLIN I 6267 slender designer refused to say whether she was ANTONIO MARR AS
modeling her first Valentino look.
— Suzy Menkes

Pollini, all in the mix Marras and

From Page I

all put Salvatore Ferragamo on the wild side.

The outgoing designer Graeme Black gave just
a whiff of Africa to his sophisticated clothes,
mixing easy, breezy dresses to the floor with
short tunics, some gilded and glittering.
As fits a house where accessories are king,
there was less focus on a leopard print dress or
an animal-patterned yellow shorts suit than on
a stand-out, hefty orange bag. But photograph-
ers’ flashes were also for Claudia Schiffer, the
face of the Ferragamo brand and a perennial
blonde beauty with star quality.
‘‘Tribal techno — with ethnic touches,’’
said Rifat Ozbek, referring to his Pollini col-
lection and its crafty mix of an ikat-patterned
dress with fluorescent pink shoes or fluo
orange beaming from a bag clutched to a pale
coat that is patterned discreetly at the hem.
This is just how ethnic inspirations should
be handled — in measured doses. At Pollini,
pattern, whether it was exotic animal print or
a blend of influences from Ozbek’s Turkish
origins, was always aligned with a modern
silhouette. That had a 1960s vibe for the trim
coats and short skirts, while a white shirt
dress showed how deft the designer has be-
come at offering clean city chic among his
merry decorations of dangling fringe and
jangling coins (and that was just the shoes).
The Pollini show was all in the mix, but
Ozbek has a thoughtful interpretation of that
fashion cliché. Even bright plastic tubing twis-
ted into headbands and the eerie glitter of
sparkling eye makeup added to the contrasting
elements. And by introducing sheer pants to
create veiled legs under dresses, the designer
showed that he is right on with current street
style.
The back/front thing gave a fascinating di-
mension to 6267, the label of the upcoming de-
signers Roberto Rimondi and Tommaso
Aquilano. The duo won the contest for ‘‘Who’s
Next,’’ an initiative set up two years ago by
Franca Sozzani, Italian Vogue’s editor in chief.
She claimed proudly that 6267 clothes are now
in 200 stores across the world, and a team from
Saks Fifth Avenue was sitting front row.
The overall theme was the glory days of
haute couture clashing with Japanese
samurais. But the designers did not appear to
be struggling to bring together the Japanese
swordsma n’s bit of hair with rich floral silken
roma nce
From Page I
point for Antonio Marras and inspired not
only the dusty lilac, yellow and coral palette,
lighted with shining rivulets of ‘‘water,’’ but
also the finale, when a sorrowful figure in
white, her bridal train stretching down the
SALVATORE FERR AGAMO runway, was caught in a shower of rain to
Photographs by Chris Moore/Karl Prouse
enter her drowned world.
‘‘Roma ntic,’’ said Marras backstage, adding
fabrics splashed with romantic roses or em- that Bill Viola’s shadow-and-light video art
bellishment that was dense but light. Pleats was an inspiration, as were pre-Raphaelite
were worked to give volume without bulk and artists like Millais, Lawrence Alma-Tadema
ikat — this season’s hot fabric — added a and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The result was a
touch of raw to the refined. The big surprise show that steered a course between histor-
came when the models turned to show a wide icism and modernity, tucking flat pleats
dress morph into a sinuous shape at the back. across the body and creating dresses that
It sounds tricky, but the idea worked, offering went from fitted to square cut. Although there
one of the most intriguing contrasts of the sea- were shift dresses patterned with the circle-
son from a label with promise for the future. headed, abstract Art Nouveau flowers, liquid
soft jodphurs and a silver tunic worn over
Suzy Menkes is fashion editor at the Interna- pants showed that Marras is not an outsider
tional Herald Tribune. to modern fashion.
Luca Petrinka

Destination: Maritime mood

Vacation at sea and poetic ease
WWW.DOLCEGABBANA.IT

t Blumar ine there odels emerging from

A was no question that
this collection was to be
worn in the warm
summer months,
preferably on a luxury
yacht touring the
Mediterranean Sea.
Every outfit was bright
and bold with citrus
colors of lemon yellow,
lime green and orange,
with a few beige
numbers thrown in to
keep from going into
vitamin C overload.
There is something to
be said for leaving a bit
to the imagination, and a
good edit of the overly
long show might have
helped to keep the
energy up. But from the
lacy lingerie slip dresses,
worn with matching
cropped leather jacket,
through the long-sleeved
ha ndkerchief-edged
shirt dresses to kaftans
in eye-popping prints,
this was a collection
looking for a vacation
destination.
— Jessica Steinberg
M the center of an
oversized porthole at the top
of the catwalk made it
difficult to miss the nautical
theme of the Spor tmax
show. But this was no cruise
of a collection. Instead, it
went with the more romantic
seafaring world of the navy
from the north (think the
Baltics). This, of course,
meant military jackets in
army green, cinched tight
with thick cotton belts and
gold buckles; navy suits with
brass buttons marching two-
by-two down the front of a
jacket; or a white, double-
breasted vest trimmed in
blue with a wide-legged pant.
But rather than being trim
and tight, the clothing had a
poetic ease. Moving into
evening, the models, with
scarlet lips and floppy bows
in their hair, came out in
drop-waisted satin dresses
or geometric-print tops,
giving the show a subtle
1920s undertone that paired
nicely with the maritime
BLUMAR INE mood. SPORTMA X
— Jessica Michault

Right in Expecting
fashion tune the unexpected
he Pringle of he Mosch ino
T Scotland designer
Clare Waight Keller was
T women are full of
joie de vivre. They like
very much in tune with to mix it up, have fun
what is shaping up to be and not take anything
one of the strongest trends too seriously. And once
of the season when she again the designer
showed a collection filled Rosella Jardini gave
with outsized shift dresses them what they were
that cocoon the body. Hers looking for: feminine
came in abstract prints clothing with bows and
with appliqué leather bits bangles, sparkle and
woven into the pattern or spunk, and just a touch
as graphic, broad paint of something
stroke across the fabric. unexpected.
Interesting trims, like This translated into
origami folds circling the short, full skirts and
shoulder of a sleeveless shirt dresses with
variation, were especially petticoats made from
well done, and for evening rose-like whorls of fabric
they were given a mosaic peeking out from
meld of metal hues. The underneath. A
strong prints might have transparent plastic
overpowered the raincoat gave a bit of
collection a bit, leaving the girly glee, and a basic A-
well-executed, feather- line charcoal gray coat
light knitwear to languish got swags of fringe. But
in its voluminous shadow. no matter how fun-
But maybe that is a good loving a woman might
thing for a brand that be, her days of wearing
should start to look rompers, even in electric
beyond its heritage but blue, ended when she
never forget where it came blew out the candles on
PR INGLE from. MOSCHI NO her sixth birthday.
OF SCOTLAND — Jessica Michault — Jessica Michault