It isn’t all about Tom Ford, yet
MILAN, Italy — Tom Ford owns this town, even as he prepares to leave it tonight when he takes his final bow at Gucci, the event of fashion week here. He has the windows at the Gucci store on the famous shopping street Via Montenapoleone, where a pair of richly embroidered jeans from a past collection is featured next to a blush satin corset-back dress that’s pure sex, pure Tom. In a restaurant frequented by the fashion flock, his photo hangs near the door, as celebrity head shots do in Hollywood dry cleaners.
Ford, 42, who joined Gucci as a relatively unknown designer from Perry Ellis, is leaving after failing to work out a renewal of his contract with parent company PPR (Printemps Pinault Redoute). His last Gucci show, followed by his final show for Yves Saint Laurent on March 7 in Paris, marks the end of a decade of slick 1970s glamour that dazzled such Hollywood stars as Rita Wilson and Nicole Kidman. It might also mark the beginning of a new era in fashion in which the brand, and the marketing engine behind it, overtake the designer altogether.
Giorgio Armani is nearing 70, and with restaurants, chocolate shops, a furniture business and, announced this week, a new hotel chain in the works, it seems Armani the brand will live on long after Armani the man. But on Monday, he opened the season here with a collection that was far from his signature “greige†minimalism. Working in a romantic palette of rich violets, blues and blacks, he embraced a new, longer silhouette. Edwardian and cutaway coats in patterned velvets and jacquards that flared below the waist were paired with flat boots and cropped, flared pants (he could have left out the ones with the mysterious feedbag things on the hips). Many of the black evening gowns didn’t look red carpet ready -- one with a ruffle up the front that threatened to block the model’s view as she walked down the runway. But the finale gown, in pleated hot pink satin with covered buttons down the front, was a winner.
When a designer hits on something great, there’s nothing wrong with refining and revisiting it the next season. For spring, Miuccia Prada took us on a journey to Venice, Rome and Capri, with scenic tourist skirts, tie-dye cardigans and shirtdresses. This time, it was an odyssey for space tourists, in a room decorated with scenes of the Red Planet. Prada offered her pleated skirts, some with poufs at the hems, in galactic satin prints that seemed inspired by the craggy rocks, space dust and cosmic matter that the Mars rover might have picked up. The skirts were mixed with military jackets with rich-looking beaded patches at the elbows, ombre cable-knit sweaters or fur coats with crunchy crystal-beaded collars or belts. Wool coats and dresses with straight, 1940s silhouettes had the feel of vintage flight attendants’ uniforms, especially when topped with fur army caps. There were even flat green velvet slippers for first-class space travelers to wear en route.
Alberta Ferretti tried to muss up the lady she turns out every season, leaving the seams unfinished on a belted gray wool coat and a black fur shift dress and adding a liquid sheen to a trench coat that had the misfortune of resembling a trash bag. Few designers can do the rich bohemian look. (It’s probably best to leave it to the Belgians.) The clunky, wedge-heeled shoes didn’t help -- they made the models look as if they were walking in wet cement. Ferretti is better when she keeps it clean, as with black-and-white fur jackets dyed in interesting Art Deco, tulip-like patterns, and gowns in chiffon or satin with spiral pleats that bring to mind paper party decorations.
Just as nearly every other luxury goods company is grappling with the fact that its bags and shoes are outselling its clothing, along comes Bottega Veneta. The accessories label owned by Gucci Group is trying to build a clothing line around its bags and shoes. Unfortunately, the clothes don’t do much to get the heart racing: a yellow crocodile bomber jacket; a cocktail dress with beaded butterflies fluttering about; a pleated skirt in a clever basket-weave satin that echoes the pattern on the label’s signature leather handbags. As designer Tomas Maier greeted guests exiting the presentation, there were no TV cameras turned on him, no reporters hanging on his every word, as there are at the end of Tom Ford’s shows. Perhaps this is a sign of the Gucci Group to come, where it’s about the brand and not the man.
