At a time when young London designers are raving about Gianni Versace from a geographical and generational distance, Milan's own Alessandro Dell'Acqua chose his moment to join the short-and-sexy chain-mail gang. He has a right, after all. As a junior designer, Dell'Acqua was on the original scene—albeit as an awed spectator—when the twentysomething Donatella and her glamazon friends were hitting the local clubs in the eighties.
He was smart not to go there too heavily, though. His collection managed to temper the Gianni homage with his own established preferences for slightly couture-ish coats, delicate embroidery, and nude handworked chiffon. That, and the addition of flat python sandals, modernized the look. A few standouts were the animal-print chain-mail dress wrapped in tulle, a cutaway black dress, and a slithery cream jersey T-shirt dress cinched with a snake-print cummerbund. Dell'Acqua got a bit too carried away with the animal theme, however. In smaller doses, it might have worked fine, but hammering on with the snake, leopard, zebra, and reptile looked like catching an idea a season too late.
