What if Ferragamo threw a party and not a single dress shoe came? Thus the Spring predicament. The house that footwear built was represented by running shoes, stem to stern. The inspiration, according to creative director Massimiliano Giornetti, was Los Angeles and its frenetic energy. "The culture of sport from one side, pop from the other," he said. It seemed calibrated to make you (or your heart) race: Every color was blasted to ten. Giornetti called them "vitamins." The opening salvo was a heady dose of them: a long, light coat in Curaçao blue, an orange tee, lemon yellow belt. From there, the color kept coming. The show went practically sour with vitamin C.
The designer is one of many to take sport themes as a central preoccupation this season. They gave an appealing lightness to the tailoring in fine poplin and bonded cotton. And L.A. is a city of tie-less informality, one of the global homes of sneaker casual. It's also the town where Salvatore Ferragamo himself first set up shop to ply his trade. Even so, this felt like a departure. Giornetti was quick to explain that the show was for show. "I was thinking of it like a short movie," he said. That, too, is very L.A. More Milan was a group of jackets at the end, hand-painted around the hems, lapels, and pockets with splotches of bleeding color.
