Roberto Cavalli's native Florence provided a starting point for his new Just Cavalli collection. He tends to go off on a trip for this little sister line—Bhutan one season, London by way of Southern California the next. But why not stick closer to home? If ever there was a town ripe for the plucking, it's his own. Medici statuary and the marble stripes of the arches in Santa Maria Novella became photo prints here. Overdyed in nearly neon colors or bisected with broad brushstroke motifs, some of the familiar landmarks were abstracted—not quite unrecognizable, but not obvious, either. Perhaps the thinking went that unaltered they would've been too earnest for JC's rock-and-roll type of girl. More is more, and molto is better has long been Cavalli's philosophy. Today, though, that approach tended to weigh things down. A minidress printed with a lone statue was far more effective than lean cigarette pants in those busy allover collage prints. Elsewhere, there was an excess of oversize grommets, exuberant applications of fringe, and, loudest of all, gold leather that brought the rodeo to mind, not the Renaissance. The rich tapestry brocade Cavalli used for jackets and coats with motorcycle detailing was more successful for its relative understatement.
