Paul Surridge was appointed Roberto Cavalli’s creative director in May 2017; he had just a handful of weeks to work on the Spring collection, which was presented during Milan Fashion Week in September. The house has a glorious past, but it comes with some extra baggage, so to speak. Recent seasons have seen a fair amount of turbulence, both on the style direction and on the business bottom line. Surridge was asked to come up with a detox regimen and to shape a healthier, slimmer future for a label whose personality has always been over the top and glamazonic to a fault.
Surridge is a seasoned pro; he has embraced the not-so-easy task with British aplomb, and with a firm belief in teamwork. “The future will be all about a spirit of collaboration,” he mused during the Pre-Fall presentation. “No-one can make it alone.” Especially when you have to mine such a vast body of work and such a specific lifestyle. “Cavalli was born on sportswear, daywear, knitwear, denim, not just on hyper-glamorous occasion dressing. Now we need to create a deeper reach for a global community of women with different needs, ages, body types, professions, or geographic locations; we have to align with consumers’ changes and with the millennium’s mind-set, not millennials! And not looking obsessively into archives and history, but focus more on storytelling,” he explained.
Shifting the attention to daywear and embracing a more realistic approach seems a consistent choice for Pre-Fall, in keeping with his Spring show’s vision: “Of course, I celebrate elegance, but I’m working on providing a modern uniform for working women, be they politicians, celebrities, professionals, diplomats, whatever, trying to serve many women, many moments throughout their days.” This inclusive manifesto sounds all well and good, but what about the deep, almost flamboyant sensuality so ingrained in the Cavalli ethos? “I’ve given a great deal of thought to what is sexy now, what sensuality really means. Sensuality is inherent to womenswear; yet today, it has to be laced with comfort. Glamour and sensuality are core values for Cavalli; definitely, it’s something that I’d like to develop and celebrate much more going forward.”
His way forward seems to be a kind of rounding of the edges, putting an accent on a certain fluidity, and enhancing sensuality through a sense of movement: “Sensuality is not always about being body-con or on display,” he said. “I wanted something more expressive, more sinuous and light.” Surridge was inspired by summer gardens and a Mediterranean feel, working on romantic floral prints without any hint of nostalgia. Treated digitally, the florals have an abstract, textural quality on long dresses in silk chiffon, loosely cut with swaying handkerchief hems. The dresses are worn underneath thick Aran cable sweaters or luxurious patchworked fur jackets. The daywear focus was also apparent in a series of trenchcoats; one had a zebra motif bleached on denim, while another was laser-cut in silk cady-bonded leather, with a fringed rock ’n’ roll detail on the back. Tailoring was definitely a strong point, which is not surprising given Surridge’s menswear background. A fitted tweed jacket with a dry, traditional hand had an equestrian flair; an elongated tuxedo jacket in black silk wool was shapely, its waist accentuated and hourglass-y.
