This is Albino D'Amato's second season showing in Paris, and for his new collection, he drew on the work of another Italian with a penchant for Frenchness: Bernardo Bertolucci. In particular, D'Amato explained at his presentation today, he looked to Bertolucci's heroines for inspiration—Maria Schneider's Jeanne in Last Tango in Paris, for instance, and Eva Green's Isabelle in The Dreamers. But more to the point, D'Amato seized on Bertolucci's thing for Parisian interiors and parlayed the reference into a collection that traded between architectural construction and fluid draping. The emphasis here was on dressy dresses, and D'Amato scored with his more structured looks, especially a head-turning frock in double-faced mikado that was accordioned with wavelike super-pleats. Other strong numbers included a chantilly lace minidress with panniers and D'Amato's A-line shifts punctuated by a scribble of crumpled rosettes. Both of these had a winning, dreamy weirdness. And D'Amato did well with his day looks, too, applying unexpected volume to smart gauchos and asymmetric jackets. The one quibble here was with the embroideries, which were a major theme—in general, they seemed tacked on and inessential. All in all, though, this was a strong outing for D'Amato. Paris seems to be his natural home.
