Taking on the eighties is a dangerous game. There are a rare few capable of making it so bad it's good, and then there are the others who get so bogged down in the bad it's awful. Unfortunately, Ferragamo was one of those collections that braved the decade—as well as a sortie into the tamer sixties, plus a few unrelated themes for good measure—in such a way that it landed in the second category.
An overlong presentation on a vast runway added to the problems of a collection that seemed to skip randomly through sweeping-collar coats and power-shoulder jackets, belted knit dresses, cowl-neck sweaters, shapeless cardigans, and bourgeois scarf prints—memories that, if they are to be retrieved at all, need real polish to look relevant, let alone attractive. Alongside those came the sixties baby dolls, chemise dresses, and duchesse satin bubbles, and one inexplicable spherical skirt in Mongolian lamb. A theme of accordion pleating produced one pretty petrol-blue three-quarter-sleeve dress, and there was a good shaggy purple fur jacket visible in the melee. But in total, this collection did nothing to either flatter the models—or to advance the image of the brand.
