Anna Molinari is one of Italy’s suppliers of twentysomething style, a collection that typically picks up on vintage ideas and tweaks them to suit the current mood—but always with a Latin nod toward sexy femininity. No prizes, then, for guessing that the ’60s were the starting point for Rossella Tarabini, the line’s designer (and daughter of its eponymous owner).
Tarabini took Jane Birkin as inspiration for the collection, which began with an image of a girl in a short, black bouclé Empire coat, banded in fur and worn with high-heeled Mary Janes and thick black stockings. Innocent? Not really. As she moved, she showed a wicked flash of thigh, playing sweet against knowing—and that was the show’s theme in a nutshell. Dresses made from slight, fragile fabrics were worn layered or showed up as a fluttery frill under long, skinny ribbed knits.
Tarabini dipped into the faded, barely there hues—fugitive shades of lilac, beige and champagne—that are turning up as Milanese favorites. Her structured daywear centered on peacoats and shorts, cropped sailor pants and little fur jackets. For evening, she picked out a ribbon-and-bow motif in diamanté on a charmeuse trapeze, which looked pretty, but then she sent out endless variations on tiered shimmy dresses, which pushed the collection just a fringe too far.
