Massimiliano Giornetti finds himself in a bit of a quandary this season. The Salvatore Ferragamo creative director seems interested in stretching himself as a designer—flexing his intellectual chops with deconstructed suits on the one hand, and amping up the sex appeal with all sorts of midriff-revealing silhouettes on the other. The issue is, neither of those new directions feels like such a natural fit for an Italian heritage label justly famous for its glamorous Hollywood affiliations and its bourgeois propriety. You can't begrudge Giornetti the attempt, but it's no easy task to make a cutoff blazer spliced in two at the waist as valid as the original classic version. And why go to all the fuss of kilts spilling extra front panels when more straightforward ones would look neater?
There's value in simplicity, as other pieces in this collection made obvious. We doubt there was a gal in the room who didn't respond to the glossy black trench that closed the show. It was polished in an unpretentious way. And a painted python jacket and coat? Those items have the potential to get the pulse racing. Just think of all the places a woman could take them where a snakeskin bra top won't do.
