Following the tropical vacation that was Spring 2012, Massimiliano Giornetti has put Ferragamo back on paved ground. Travel was still at the forefront of his mind, but of a different variety. He opted to show the collection in Milan, following the menswear shows, in a private room of the city's train station reserved for royalty waiting out their departures. The message was clear enough: These clothes are sensible enough to ride the rails, but luxe enough for a princess.
The collection was in a lower key than some of Giornetti's recent hits, which walked a fine line between less and more. (Take his houndstooth collection for Fall, which kept silhouettes classic while exploding the print to cartoon scale—Anna Dello Russo, who knows something about cartoon scale herself, was a fan.) You wouldn't expect to see ADR in the more pragmatic pieces on display here, to say nothing of the kitten heels. But there was a kicky, sixties-inflected charm to the pleated skirtsuits, sweater sets, and capes, especially as enlivened by helpings of velvet and python. (One twinset featured python-laced argyle—good girl gone slithery.) And the exotic-skin portfolios and hard-shell makeup cases look like reason enough to take any show on the road.
