Ermanno Scervino had been tormented lately by a puzzling conundrum: “I wanted a summery fur,” he said. Not an easy task, but being quite the undeterred type, he put his team of Florentine artisans to work and after much trial and error, voila, they created an Astrakhan-lookalike fabric from a silk yarn. Clearly aiming for the wow effect, Scervino had it dyed in eye-popping colors and bonded with lace. The sumptuous, soft material was used for frogged jackets and overcoats paired with slim pencil skirts; they looked quite extravagant yet uptown chic.
For Resort, Scervino stayed true to his hyper-feminine mantra: “Women must be soigné” he explained, while showing a tailored pantsuit made of a Gobelin tapestry–inspired woven fabric worn with an ethereal blouse in white silk chiffon embroidered with precious Valenciennes lace. Not an ensemble to hastily grab in the morning for riding the subway or running errands at the local farmer’s market. Yet Scervino tried to keep a modern edge at play, adding a younger, sporty feel to the collection with techno blousons, cropped straight pants, and cashmere jumpers. But his true love has always been a womanly kind of glamour, “like Liz Taylor’s in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” he pointed out. As an homage, he whipped up a series of flimsy white ruffled dresses, slips, and blouses in see-through mousseline, linen, and chiffon, exquisitely embroidered with delicate Chantilly lace; they had a romantic, summery appeal.
