As Roberto Rimondi noted, this collection drops to retailers between May and June—so much for winter, huh?—and thus he and codesigner Tommaso Aquilano “tried to make it really light, because that is what women will want then.” Light it certainly was, although in places some noted a tangibly heavy debt to the work of Helmut Lang (but then, that’s pretty common these days).
The lightness was best expressed in cutely cut suits and skirts of frisottino (granulated candy silk/viscose crepe), sheer shirts and dresses of organza blended with nylon, and some stretch, ruched jersey dresses.
There were some fine red-piped wrapped dresses that emanated both athleticism and sensuality, and lots of here-and-there irregular sportswear-inspired necklines. A series of blocky dresses featuring counterintuitively placed chunky contra-colored strapping were a debatable counterpoint to the opening back and white double-faced cashmere coat. Conversely, a series of paneled black dresses whose inserts quietly reflected the paneling on this collection’s excellent tailored pieces worked very well.
If there was heaviness it was in the outerwear offerings, which starred a white angora-mix coat with a shearling collar that was worryingly similar in length and lustrousness to that of the designers’ dog Hugo, a Bolognese—“but it is not Hugo!”—insisted Rimondi, appalled. This collection was a curate’s egg worth picking through for its finer elements.
