“That star, I found on Collins Avenue,” said Fausto Puglisi at an appointment this morning, reviewing both his Resort womenswear and Spring menswear collections. The shape he was pointing to was a graphic on one of his men’s T-shirts—flanked by a Metallica-font “Fausto” text imprint—and the place he was referring to was Miami Beach (on which Collins Avenue is a famous thoroughfare). “The collection is called Tour of America,” said Puglisi, “and really, it starts in South Beach.”
Puglisi’s penchant for “wow,” for splash, for gilded-and-gloried Italiana has been compared in the past to Gianni Versace’s likings; not hugely surprisingly, this rococo reverb syncs well with Miami Beach’s’s Deco-neon simmer. Versace lived there; Puglisi “wants to visit as much as possible.” But the difference is that, for this season at least, the latter channeled the city through a much wider prism—as a microcosm, in a way, of American dress from the athletically casual to the harder and more street-spurred.
For women, Puglisi hit it out of the park with easy cotton-poplin palm-printed dresses—about as daytime-light as the designer has ever gone, influenced, to an extent, by the style and élan of his friend Bianca Brandolini. Also: they will be less expensive than his usual fare. The dresses came tiered or cinched, at different lengths, all in sunshiny colors, all able to be paired with everything from flats to heavy leather boots to spike heels (depending on the hour). Another section paid its due to Michelle Pfeiffer’s immortal Scarface slip dresses; Puglisi gave these a fluorescent high, and the effect was . . . well, euphoric. Puglisi idolizes the U.S., and with Miami as his entryway, the Magic City has worked its spell all the way across the pond right here in northern Italy.
Puglisi’s menswear wasn’t as bright or obviously linked, but, again, one of its anchor motifs was that baroque detail found while he was strolling up Collins. Hoodies, tees, sweats, and a starry sequined jacket with sweatshirt sleeves all banded together into a closet, really, of hyper-casual streetwear. Some pieces featured statue prints, most had that Metallica-mimicking text. Puglisi’s next step, he said, is to develop the menswear market in the U.S.; we don’t think that will be too much of an uphill battle.
