Gwyneth Paltrow killed it at the Emmys in a rib-cage-exposing black beaded top and long narrow skirt by Peter Dundas, an advance look from the Spring collection he showed tonight for Emilio Pucci. Head and shoulders above the rest of the red-carpet pabulum, it said, "I'm the movie star in the room, and the rest of you are just TV actors." Dundas has the touch.
For Spring, he worked a gypsy-sexpot theme—all midriff-baring peasant tops, visible dentelle knit panties, and suggestively placed black lace insets on silk slipdresses. Over-the-top? At times. But his girls looked so smokin' hot, you'd need a heart of stone to avoid being seduced by the likes of Natasha Poly advancing brazenly toward you in a flood tide of Pucci print.
For the record, the workmanship is couture-grade: an organza infanta skirt appliquéd with patchworks of archive print; a black caftan crocheted from top to fringed bottom; a long-sleeve tulle T-shirt embroidered with caviar beads in skull and heart motifs.
If Dundas slipped up, it was with his tailoring. Not with the bra-baring jackets, which were sexy, but with the scarf-tied, full-legged Bermuda shorts, which were less so. Fans of his military-sharp blazers (plenty of them in the audience tonight) might shed a tear in their absence from the runway. But in the end, that might not matter so much. Girls who get photographed for a living and others who live to get photographed will rush to wear these clothes. That should bode well for the new Pucci flagship set to open on Madison Avenue in New York next year.
