Alessandro Dell’Acqua plucks the trends from the Milanese air, musses them up and makes them appealing to a girl who likes her clothes on the skimpy side. His spring collection blended Italy’s current obsessions—utility clothing, satins and chiffons, chinoiserie, and a range of muted colors—with his personal affinity for lingerie touches.
The season's combat element showed up in a loose bottom garment that looked like a cross between jodhpurs and Zouave pants, tied somehow with drawstrings just below the knee. Dell’Acqua topped the style with chiffony flyaway pieces (including a sheer deconstructed cheongsam blouse) that blow open at every opportunity, showing plenty of flesh. Better ideas—for those of perfect leg, anyway—were vintagey lace-edged rose satin underwear converted into cute shorts and a coolly casual sage-green belted bush jacket with short shorts. When the same themes were sent out in somber black, however, it only served to underscore how the eye craves something prettier for summer.
