Playing it safe and quiet is the average way a brand keeps itself ticking between creative directors, but then there’s the Roberto Cavalli way. Peter Dundas has departed and Roberto Cavalli has retired, so whither now? To put it mildly, it was quite a surprise to climb the renaissance staircase of the Palazzo Crespi and walk into a lavish static exhibition that looked like Parisian haute couture. Very, very like it. An anonymous team has been filling in since the departure of Dundas, and though the style has been steered well away from his taste for the 1970s, the managerial enthusiasm, and the budget for elaborating clothes, has manifestly not been toned down.
Looking into the archive revealed that Roberto Cavalli began his business in Rome selling leather patchworked jackets and jeans. The Fall 2017 collection was light years away from those hippie beginnings, but it did take original materials—such as snakeskin and animal print— as the starting point. Strips of python, chiffon-printed leopard print, tortoiseshell, sequins, ostrich feathers, and crystals were intricately embroidered on sheer bodycon gowns. There were short dresses elaborated with graphic, padded patterns in the configuration of the scales of reptile skin. This process was repeated three times over, in white, neutral, and black.
Ignoring the stylistic content (which was derivative), the labor-intensive nature of these clothes means that they can’t possibly be run through a factory and sold on racks as ready to wear. Apparently there is another collection that is simplified and less expensive, and sold to stores. That’s how most people will come across a Cavalli product in the next few months. Those pictures weren’t available. What you see here is what you won’t get—except for the message from this house that it continues to aspire to the image of opulent excess.
