milan fashion week 2015 s/s : alberta ferretti

Spring is, without a doubt, Alberta Ferretti’s season, and she unveiled her collection today in Milan within a large, dark, air-conditioned tent—an atmosphere that may be less than ideal for those who are not in the midst of a heat wave, and yet, a setting that seemed to be all the more illustrative in terms of exactly who the Alberta Ferretti customer is. She is breezy, she is blouse-y, she is lacy and fringed, and she is always headed for, or returning from somewhere warm. She is fond of sheer gossamers and suede, denim and appliqué flowers, lilac and mint and blush, of prim collars overlaid on sheer, lace-paneled jumpsuits, of Victorian nightgowns and Elizabethan-era Empire waists and the odd pair of go-go shorts to team with a braided crop top. She wears crocheted slippers, the artisan’s answer to the ubiquitous sporty flat. She has a penchant for long suede: tassels, fringe, vests thrown atop delicately embroidered stretches of creamy, gauzy white. She looks a little like she would be the chicest member of the Source Family. (You would buy her sprouts.)

These frocks, these tunics and matching trousers, these gossamer-inlet denim separates and intricately pieced floral appliqués and delicately fringed suede ensembles—these are not meant for the red carpet, to face flashbulbs and revelers and real world problems; these are clothes that are meant to hit the sand and shores and various sleek Italian watercraft in between, to be wadded up in a suitcase and slipped into mid-flight somewhere glamorously remote and very, very warm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alberta Ferretti’s poetry-in-motion dresses, shown yesterday in Milan, channeled some of the romance of Ophelia. This Shakespearean heroine, so beloved of the Pre-Raphaelites, has not only inspired actors, but fashion folk as well: Cue Vogue’s 2011 reimagining of Irish beauty Saoirse Ronan as Hamlet’s love. We trace the look, from its artistic roots to the likes of Fay Wray and Gwyneth Paltrow.

 

 

 

 Ophelia by John William Waterhouse, 1884

 Fay Wray as Ophelia

 

Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, 1998

 

Saoirse Ronan as Ophelia