In the past, Alessandro Dell'Acqua has invoked some pretty substantial male icons—Steve McQueen springs immediately to mind—as reference points for his menswear collections. This time around, he decided that he himself was as good a starting point as any. Recognizing the many moods of the designer himself in his clothes proved slightly disorienting, but because his tastes are pretty much those of any groovy dude who came of age in the eighties, there was nothing to scare the horses. Narrow little trousers with tabbed pockets, ciré sweatshirts, and a black leather shirt had Dell'Acqua's signature new-wave flair. And the infusion of evening details into daywear—pleated white shirt, cummerbund on jeans, casually inflected tuxedo jacket—smacked of a prom-at-noon feel that fans of John Hughes movies could relate to. But Dell'Acqua wanted more from this collection than the things his closet was missing: He was hoping to nail a modern man's wardrobe. Unfortunately, that grandiose goal may have been a bridge too far. The most memorable items were his reconceptualizations of simple pieces like a basic jean (delivered here as a deep-pleated pair of dungarees) or a mod nylon parka (line it with Persian lamb and it's a whole new bag).
