The creative director–heritage house relationship is more arranged marriage than love match. There’s no guarantee things will click. Paul Surridge’s tenure at Roberto Cavalli has been slow to heat up. As a menswear designer by training, and one with a minimal touch at that, Cavalli’s more-is-more-is-more vibes aren’t second nature to him, but nearing the two-year mark, he’s settled in and is receptive to feedback.
Surridge started off today with one of Cavalli’s signature tiger prints. His idea was to abstract it using many colors so it didn’t look quite so literal. The results on a round-shouldered but otherwise sharp double-breasted coat were bold, like we expect from Cavalli. The show ended with a white tuxedo, its sartorial aspect nodding more to Surridge’s own roots than the house founder’s. In between, the designer negotiated that balance, sending out a steady mix of body-conscious numbers in black rib, say, or a sheer tattoo motif, and “perfume dresses,” house parlance for the billowy plissé frocks it uses in fragrance advertising. These appeared alongside more of the clean tailoring he likes, which he gave womanly curves by cutting the trousers with a super-high waistband and tapering the legs above the ankles.
The menswear looked assured, and gutsier in its way, than the womenswear. Especially Cavalli-ish was a jean jacket silhouette embroidered all over with two sizes of silver sequins in that abstract tiger pattern. Surridge should try a few more gutsy things like that on the women’s side next season.
