There was nary a ruffle on the runway at Emilio de la Morena today. Though the designer typically makes it his practice to lean on the romance of his native Spain, this season he plainly had sex on the brain. This was the Spain of late nights in Barcelona and the Ibizan club scene. It was also the Spain of approximately 1983: Eurythmics' "Love Is a Stranger" was on the soundtrack and the models looked like Nagel girls. The show was terrifically direct. When de la Morena got the vibe right, he nailed it—the mirrored metallic corset tops and fluid, high-waist pants; slithery dresses in black Lurex mesh; a pink and red slipdress made to look as if it was falling off, winking a little bra. You could read a woman's ecstatic dancing into that dress.
De la Morena also made nice use of jacquard, an unusual fabric for him; it was woven into a kind of reptilian texture, and with the exception of a questionable pair of short shorts, all the pieces in the material came off relatable and sharp. Other looks were iffier. The dishabille effect of that pink and red slip didn't quite work on a few other dresses, and a couple of them, like a bra-banded silk number in a spotty print, had a fit that was genuinely odd. Overall, though, this show found de la Morena advancing his brand vocabulary in productive ways: The bustiers will fly at retail, and the tailoring was particularly fine. More generally, the collection had a great, contagious energy. What woman doesn't, in some secret part of her heart, want to put on a sequined dress and dance the night away?
