Bottega Veneta .. Roberto Cavalli Fall 2014 Mlan Collections

Here’s the deal, there has always been this love hate relationship between me and these 2 design houses. There are times I am just cooing and oohing over them and times I just don’t get any of it. This season is a tale of 2 collections that hold their own and certainly possess great assets and attributes but I am just not moved to any great emotional reaction.

 

Tomas Maier and Bottega Veneta are one with superb quality; a less is more esthetic and sometimes a very artisan take on fashion. The designer is a master of craft without doubt and  no matter what I think of the collection. Fall 2014 is exquisitely conceived and rendered with a great graphic quality about it. Like it? Oh yes! Love it? Oh no! Sometimes trying to undercut and underplay the glamor of fashion leads you on a road to nowhere or in this case no big fireworks pieces no real pizazz as DV would say. Yes the minimalist/fractured graphic aspect is beautiful and there is a grey print dress that is so ethereal as to look like it is floating over the body but on the whole, well... yes... it will sell to those who “get it” but as a fashion moment, this too shall pass.

 

Now, Grandpa Cavalli who certainly has come a long way from signora style printed suedes that no one wanted 30 years ago. He may accuse Kors of stealing but here is a man whose face must be on every PETA wanted poster from here to Leningrad! As for stealing he has to only look at his glamourpuss show and think of the 40s or maybe the 70s and really just keep his eye in the target and quit pointing his finger... it is not like he invented fashion or will inhabit the hall of fame with Balenciaga and Charles James. Be that as it may, Cavalli fall 2014 is not for the faint of heart and surely not for anyone who is above a size 10 or under 5’8. There isn’t a fur piece he missed, a fringe that has been over looked and a bead that hasn’t been used and yet it is typically Cavalli. It is just what you have come to expect except this season there seems to be a bit more polish … a bit more raffine, if that’s possible to apply that quality to his collections ever. This is rich girl rock n roll to the nth degree. To say that “he” is an acquired taste is an understatement comparable to saying that these clothes are anything other than in your face, rock em sock em fashion. What Mr. Cavalli most certainly makes a case for here is that there are few effects and techniques that he has not explored. Bottom line... Love it?? Not really! Hate it? Absolutely not!  as this is an essential part of what makes the circus of fashion weeks exciting