This season seemed to reignite the long-running debate over couture’s place and meaning in modern customers’ wardrobes. Should theatricality trump wearability? Can the two coexist? There was no clear answer.
For fall, Francesco Scognamiglio provided his own perspective.
Since buying back his namesake company last year, the Neapolitan designer has not yet relaunched ready-to-wear, instead leveraging high fashion as his sole vehicle for reasserting his fashion lexicon.
In search of respite from the gloom and doom of current times, this season he looked to the glitz of the disco era, the glorious days of Studio 54 and the unabashed freedom of the 1980s.
“That’s always been the happy place in my mind, and I keep going back there,” he said during a walk-through at his Milanese apartment. No wonder that Madonna, whose pop icon status was cemented back then, has also been a regular supporter of the brand.
She came to mind in the sheer sensuality and bling of lingerie-inspired minidresses with lace intarsia and crystals, bralettes with silver 3D embroideries refracting light like mirror balls, and see-through black organza dresses decked in floral appliqué, lace and micro-sequins with scalloped ruffles down the long sleeves.
While Jean Paul Gaultier’s Duran Lantink channeled Marie Antoinette in his sci-fi renditions of pannier dressing, Scognamiglio embraced the height of ‘80s glamour for corseted hoop minidresses in jersey gauze swathed in black rhinestones, or in hot-pink satin worn atop a column skirt.
A stronger emphasis on wearability defined the many towering jersey frocks ruched at the center, at times embellished with crystals and the oversize power-shouldered tuxedo with antique jewel buttons sourced from a specialized dealer, a nod to night life icon Bianca Jagger.
A similar number in pink with a modernist round lapel evoked David Bowie’s signature gender-bender costumes. Will Madonna follow in the footsteps of her often-cited inspiration?
Word has it that the indefatigable pop star has already requested one look, perhaps for Glastonbury Festival, where she’s rumored to be taking her “Confessions II” promotional tour.
