It feels like Joni Mitchell is in the air. After the blizzard of attention lavished on Kate Bush this year, it may just be Our Lady of the Canyon's turn for some love. And even if Alberta Ferretti might not have been 100 percent clued in to such a notion, she certainly offered up outfits that would've been the stuff of fantasy for Joni and the other ethereal L.A. spirits of the late '60s and early '70s. Look no further than a white mousseline gown, appliquéd with feathers, draped in a whipstitched suede gilet with fringes trailing to the floor. The accompanying shoes were hippie sandals, crocheted moccasins, or the Diana the Huntress gladiators that are everyone's favorite this season.
Elsewhere, Ferretti fell back on the gauzy romance that is her stock-in-trade, with nude-tone chiffons and mousselines cut into filmy jumpsuits, slipdresses, and peignoir-like gowns. There were some undeniable feats of artisanship, like the strapless floor-sweeper woven into a trellis, across which crawled flowered vines arduously composed of paillettes. "Intimate, not for exhibition," Ferretti said softly. But those pieces needed to speak up if their bland prettiness was going to make an effective stand against the edgier suedes and denims. Those included a hip-slung skirt with laser-cut flowers of denim mounted on a raw silk backing (hello, cowgirl in the sand), a simple fringed shift in lilac suede with a matching bag (great bags throughout, actually), and a handful of glam-Pocahontas pieces that threw a different spotlight on Italian craftsmanship from Ferretti's usual delicate handwork. The collection was all the better for it.
