Roberto Cavalli “was the party,” as he reminded us tonight in a voiceover taped many years ago, so the first Cavalli show since his passing was never going to go off without one. Fausto Puglisi made sure of that when he enlisted Mariacarla Boscono, Alek Wek, Isabeli Fontana, Natasha Poly, Joan Smalls, Karen Elson, and Eva Herzigova to model the glamazonian dresses the late designer was famous for.
Puglisi has been at Cavalli now for three-and-a-half years and he’s made it over in that time. While it’s still one of the louder brands in Milan, it’s subtler than it was in the house founder’s era. That’s down to Puglisi’s efforts to find the everyday in Cavalli. Those seven knockout event dresses will grab this season’s headlines, as they were intended to; Herzigova et al were channeling the old-school va-va-voom, after all. But the collection that preceded them struck a different note: beachy and chilled-out; sexy, but not trying too hard.
Its starting point was Puglisi’s Sicilian hometown of Messina. The collection began with a series of white looks inspired by Messina’s houses, rope detailing evoking its seaside location. These were clothes to pack for holidays, with skin-baring cutouts, and short hems or high slits, often in pre-rumpled fabrics that won’t look worse-for-wear as temperatures rise. Puglisi spared a moment for neutrals, including a “fishing net” cover-up and faux snakeskin tailoring, designed for sight-seeing perhaps. Then he dove into photo prints of electric sunsets and crashing waves; they animated slip dresses and pajama sets all the way up to a goddess dress with a built-in capelet.
The culmination of the collection was a trio of mermaid dresses that redeemed that oft-maligned red carpet silhouette—these were stretchy, where so many special occasion dresses are uptight and stiff. This might be Puglisi’s most important contribution to Cavalli’s sexy brand of dressing: ease and comfort are what make it modern.
