Massimiliano Giornetti said his second women's collection for Salvatore Ferragamo was inspired by Jacques Deray's late-sixties movie La Piscine. "But I didn't want nostalgia," he said, "just the vibration of that moment. I want to go back to that free-spirit, bohemian, gypsy attitude." If that sounds like dangerous territory for a label best known for its loafers and bow-topped ballet flats, it wasn't.
Giornetti inherently gets the Ferragamo DNA, after working on the men's side of things for ten years. The show he put on for Spring offered a measured, sophisticated take on of-the-moment trends—peasant dresses, macramé and crochet, transparency, and YSL-isms like safari jackets included. Giornetti is also making the case for Ferragamo as a suit resource. Narrow jackets and cuffed, slightly flared trousers in spicy shades of cotton canvas had a chic durability. That was the charm of this collection—how good he made real clothes for real life look.
But it wasn't all work and no play. Giornetti's knit bikinis may not be safe for the surf, which crashed and splashed on the soundtrack, but alone or topped with one of his liquid-y, sheer cover-ups, they'll look great next to la piscine.
