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MILAN, September 25, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

How to make your Charlie's Angels show stand out from the countless others that have come before? Hire supers Esther Cañadas, Fernanda Tavares, and Nadege to play Jill, Kelly, and Sabrina. The trio strutted out in long brown jersey dresses accented with topaz stones to surprised applause: Who were these grown women with real-life bodies? Cañadas' sultry swagger, in particular, received plenty of appreciative stares. If the Townsend Agency motif tempted Dan and Dean Caten to add some silly patent holster-harnesses to otherwise slinky floor-length dresses, they mostly resisted the urge to go kitsch. Instead, they focused on the all-American sportswear that they excel at, this time in a seventies mode. Among the strongest pieces were dark denim flares worn with crisp, checked oxford shirts and little leather bombers with maybe a silk scarf tied around the model's neck; a long, lean three-piece suit in Bianca Jagger white; and a floaty strapless gown with deep ruffles at the bust and hem. Of course, it wouldn't be Dsquared² without some skin, so there were also cutout swimsuits with gold chain details, but it didn't feel like the peep show that it sometimes has in the past. An oversize poncho and an enormous strapless bubble dress in duchesse satin were anomalies in what was one of Dsquared²'s most wearable collections in seasons.

MILAN, September 25, 2008

By Sarah Mower

In a season when no one can really be sure how she'll feel about spending money six months hence, it would make sense that a label with a tried-and-trusted signature like MaxMara would smell their advantage and turn out the most convincing argument on Earth for believable classics. Instead, what transpired on the runway only served to raise bewildering questions. Will real women want viscose overalls in silky fabrics next spring? Will they see themselves in shirtdress-cum-rompers? Does a go-to-work pantsuit benefit from the addition of souped-up carpenter trousers? And does any of that improve when you've seen it repeated in four different colorways and fabrics? Who, really, is going to go for dungarees in white sequins?

A tremendous amount of goodwill exists toward MaxMara, and that should never be dismissed. The problem here is the frustration of seeing a great company miss its opportunity. It would almost have been preferable had a whole series of commercial suits and coats been trotted out—presumably that's what the MaxMara customer will really be buying come spring. What seemed to be going on—and there was plenty of time to diagnose it as yet another repeat garment passed by—was a misreading of what might actually pique the interest of the press. Fancied-up sportswear in however many swatch options just didn't do it this time.

MILAN, September 24, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

In the four seasons she's been showing on the Milan runways, Mina Lee's Derercuny has undergone a metamorphosis, shifting from smart tailoring with subtle, memorable details to full-on girly mode. The collection keeps skewing younger and younger. For Spring, thinking one part hippie, another part glam, she laid the embellishments on thick: There were mirrored sequins on chiffon waistcoats and white feathers peeking from beneath the hem of a tank dress. A pair of stretchy cream leather pants worn with a pale, floaty floral-print chiffon top was a key look; it's what a prep-schooler might wear to pose as a rock chick.

Apparently Lee's label is a favorite among retailers, but there wasn't a U.S. department store bigwig in sight at her 9 p.m. show. The buyers must view the collection in the showroom, which might not be a bad place for the rest of us to take it in, too. The clothes are sweet and pretty, but they're not making news.

MILAN, September 24, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

In a season when nudity is one of the big trends on the runways, it's ironic that Alessandro Dell'Acqua would play the modesty card at La Perla. Replacing the typically racier fare at today's show were tent dresses, peasant blouses, and flaring pants in a seventies-ish vein. "Easy, light, and fresh" were the words bandied about backstage. Not that there weren't lingerie details, but instead of being the main event, black lace was used as a layering piece over an emerald green dress. Broderie anglaise at the bottom of a trapeze coat looked positively sweet; the same goes for a ribbon lace vest and skirt. Other embellishments, like the gold sequins of a loose tank or the jewel-encrusted bodices of one-shoulder evening numbers, had more of a disco vibe. The problem was, nothing really separated this seventies revival from the countless others that have come before. You'd like to see La Perla capitalize on the technical fabrics and innovations of its lingerie business and apply them to a little black dress, say, or a pair of fitted pants—that would be more up-to-date.

A new British team has taken over at Pollini, the design label that grew out of an old, established Italian shoe brand. Jonathan Saunders, the Scottish proponent of graphic modernist print, is designing the clothes, and Nicholas Kirkwood—a rising talent with a hot line of his own—the shoes. In a brisk presentation of 27 looks (quick-march, and staged three times so audiences could flow in and out within 15 minutes), the duo framed a breezy snapshot of what's to come. "I started three months ago, so this is just the beginning," said Saunders. "But I just thought it should be light and feminine, with a positivity about it."

Saunders worked with dots and stripes, branching into pastel swirls in dresses cut with multilayered skating skirts or standout origami folds (like some of the shapes in his own collection, but softer). Kirkwood followed through with color-blocked suede and patent heels in lime, cobalt, black, and white, followed by high loafers with chunky tassels and inserts of polka dots. The best in the lineup, though, was the crisp monochrome tailoring for day: a jacket with Bermuda-length city shorts and a neat trench in black and white spots, and a gray menswear long-line jacket with collars and cuffs in piqué shirting material. It remains to be seen which tack the Saunders-Kirkwood team will take when they've had a chance to settle in, but if they're smart enough to keep up the quick and effective staging of this first show, they'll be doing time-deprived press and buyers a welcome favor.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Sarah Mower

What is it about the twenties that is playing on so many designers' minds? For Raf Simons at Jil Sander, it was the moment the Parisian avant-garde discovered African art and gave birth to modernism: Simons referenced this by projecting a Man Ray photograph of Kiki de Montparnasse cradling an African head sculpture onto the backdrop of the runway as the audience assembled. Simons said it was just a matter of spontaneous instinct that made him take flapper fringing as a central device in the show. "But it was more about the aesthetics of that time. I didn't want to do a 'Charleston' collection," he said. "Jil Sander must always be pure, and I'm aware of making any reference minimal, but I also want to show my freedom to be inspired by the moment."

The opening of the show was a powerfully graphic series of one-color silhouettes in which silken skeins of fringing were draped over stretch bodysuits. It began a sequence of precision-cut experiments in form that abstracted tailoring into unexpected elements—shorts suits sliced into sharp, asymmetric angles at the front; hemlines constructed from rectangular panels; jackets made with a swooping drape in the back; leather shifts with incisions left open at the hip.

To be sure, Simons' exhaustive demonstrations of a million new ways to loop, drape, and fly a fringe (they even dangled to floor level on bags) did eventually tip over into tedium. He could have dispensed with a lot of that, but the development of his overriding vision of a clean, even glacial modernism is a powerful thing to watch.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

Cristina Ortiz took a second stab at establishing a new identity for Salvatore Ferragamo today. Unfortunately, it didn't fare much better than her bumpy first effort. You could see that she was trying to manipulate elements of the house's accessories into the clothing: D-ring closures on suits, leather shoulder straps complete with buckles for dresses. She played a bit with classics such as the trench and the crisp men's shirt as well, turning the former into a strapless dress and the latter into a bustier with a wide leather belt below the bust. As ideas they were interesting, but in execution they looked tricky. As for her eveningwear, mostly plissé halter dresses with deep bunches of fabric at the waist and hips, the fit was not only unflattering but often poor; nipple slippage is one thing on the runway, quite another in real life.

It's not clear whom Ortiz is targeting with these clothes. They're far too racy for Ferragamo's classic customer, and yet not on-trend enough to woo new ones. If there was a glimmer of hope to be found, it was in her suits. There's still too much going on around the waist—and no one wants to add bulk there—but color choices like a pale lilac or the soft drape of a lapel betray an appreciation of the feminine that seems otherwise curiously lacking in this female designer.

MILAN, September 23, 2008

By Sarah Mower

Miuccia Prada had a sound bite for her Spring collection. "It's primitive," she said, "going back to what counts." And what counts most in a back-to-basics time, when most of us will need truly visceral temptation to get us out and shopping? Why, glamour and eroticism, of course. When the chips are down, there is no one who can turn up the thermostat of subversive sexual provocation quite as high as Mrs. Prada. Her girls, their skin glistening as if on a fevered summer's night, might have been passing through on their way to or from lovers' assignations, their clothes disarranged in various states of falling-off, or looking as if they might do so at any moment. Rumpled and crinkled fabrics have been appearing all over this season, but never with such sly intent. One pull of a trailing drawstring tape and, whoops! A person could find herself half naked. Not that this collection is, of course, at all brassy. From some angles, it can all look like a perfectly innocent summery dishevelment—that is, until there's a glimpse into an open-sided dress, or a cashmere sweater turns to display hospital-tape ties holding the back together (or just about).

There was something fabulously Italian about all this shameless reveling in femininity. The fifties overtones, with the high chignons, the ruched bras, and swishing rear-action in the below-knee pencil skirts managed to channel the heyday of Cinecitta without cliché. Best of all, this is a collection destined to look even better on a woman with a real body than it does on a teen model. And that, Mrs. Prada surely knows, really is "what counts."

MILAN, September 22, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

As the kids say, Francesco Sconamiglio has mad skills. He can cut a lean, mean suit with the best of them—but he'll never graduate to the big leagues like his front-row pals Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi have until he turns down the kink factor. The show opened with a respectable-enough cropped ivory jacket; unfortunately, it was worn with see-through plastic trousers. The second look, a coat-dress with an asymmetrical neckline that purposely exposed one breast, was even more risqué. The blouses were lovingly crafted, with spills of ruffles at the throat or, more unusually, with shoulder pads made from feathers—but, again, because they were so sheer, their appeal will be limited.

A series of little white dresses (bracelet-sleeved, one-shouldered, or strapless, decorated with sculptural rosettes or ruffles) showed Scognamiglio at his best: just this side of flamboyant, but relevant at retail, too. When he starts thinking more along these lines, he'll start drawing the crowds that his technique deserves.