Roberto Cavalli fall 2021

 Reviving a dead name is always much more of a challenge than one might imagine. Fausto Puglisi has done an homage to the collection’s founder and namesake. Of course, when you read the Phelps review you are once again reminded that she has no idea about who she writes about as Mr. Cavalli started out doing printed suede looks at astronomical prices.

                                                                            click image to enlarge

The is a collection which certainly draws heavily on the brand’s DNA perhaps to the point over kill on many levels. Yes, Cavalli made overtly sexy clothes, yes, he used lots of leopard and animal prints but his collections were exciting and this collection lacks that spark even though there are some true winners, but there is a repetition factor to be considered.

                                                                           click image to enlarge

                                                                       click image to enlarge

Oh, then there is that other thing that Ms. Phelps seems to know more than Dr. Fauci as to when this pandemic will end which sort of blows her review out of the water and into the sewer. Harsh as that sounds you have to ask yourself where is one wearing these clothes if not some major event and that is not foreseen in the near future anywhere in the world.

                                                                            click image to enlarge

So, from a purely esthetic standpoint, Puglisi did a good job on his freshman outing but what are the odds of its retailability? Granted you can pick it apart for some “hot” pieces but once again can that target audience afford the luxury of the newly reinvented Roberto Cavalli? Designers today must face the reality of the times we are living in and no one has come up with any definitive time lines or happy endings!

Fausto, Max & Fendi fall 2018

Fausto as in Fausto Puglisi, Fendi as in FENDI and Max as in Max Mara

click image to enlarge

Instead of the pointing out the short comings let’s look at some of the high points ... don’t get me wrong , each had their fair share of bloopers … 

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

so no more words .. just some  good clothes to feast your eyes on … you can decide who is who 

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

Emanuel Ungaro fall 2016 PFW

 Emanuel Ungaro will forever be remembered for his ’80s pomp and poufs… so says the tee shirt collector and fashion maven and supposed authority Nicole Phelps! Here’s the problem, Ungaro will be remembered for overtly sexy, shirred, draped, hyper feminine clothes, polka dots,  florals, peplums, body hugging second skin dresses, a riot of color and pattern, cabans and a host of other characteristics but alas not a pouf in sight. Phelps must have Ungaro confused with Lacroix and I am not equipped to explain the pomp part unless of course pomp means incredible statement making clothes... which I doubt!

 

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

No matter how inaccurate the opening assessment, Fausto Puglisi is like the little train that could! He keeps trying but he never pulls into the station. I can assure you that one descriptor that was never applied to the work of Emanuel Ungaro is matronly; Not only matronly in the most obvious ways but boring as well which is another word that has never been used to describe Ungaro. Long ago when I was a buyer, my mentor boss, a woman, instilled in me that women who buy these clothes wanna get laid well that aint happening here in a bomber jacket or some printed shirtwaist dress.

 

click image to enlarge

It is incomprehensible to me that these heritage brands have huge archives from which to work and yet their designers fail to hit the mark season after season by trying to reinvent the wheel. I understand moving forward but to me this is moving backward to cuffed gauchos and fur trimmed coats and amazingly stuck on those freakin bomber jackets that have flooded every retail tier of fashion. Doncha think it’s time to quit the bomber and move on or go back... go anywhere but there! The below the knee looks compound the felonies and a deep vee neck on “uniform” looking dress does not read sexy, it reads who cares or where the underpinnings or why does that day dress have such a low cut neck.

 

click image to enlarge

So let’s say that no matter which of the 2 decades Puglisi thinks he is referencing... 70s or 80s... he obviously got it wrong. Those 2 decades were rife with fashion of every kind. There was excess in the extreme. Good taste, bad taste and every kind of sartorial display imaginable and he came up with boring. To say that fashion rocked in those days would be an understatement. Think Studio 54, trophy wives, wildly sex inspired clothes, think tarty, even think slutty, think nouveau society but never think ho hum.

click image to enlarge

Fausto Puglisi Spring 2016 MFW

Apparently, the clown car will turn into a clown bus sooner than later?

click image to enlarge

Fausto Puglisi has taken the cowgirls, motorcycle mamas, Balmain, Versace , dare I say, Yves Saint Laurent, Grease (Rizzo) and created this visually disturbing vision of a collection for Spring 2016. He does, however, get an A+ for color usage but unfortunately that is not even close to enough to overlook the overall presentation.

click image to enlarge

What boggles the mind is that no one can see that the fabrics look like they came from the $1 a mile fabric shop, the draping a la Balmain/YSL is achieved with a leadened hand and maybe worse is that some idiot stylist thought it was a great idea to add cowboy boots to the mix! It’s like Dales Evans on LSD... all that was missing was cowboy hats with chin straps, some fringe and Buttermilk (Dale Evan’s horse).

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

So, instead of all that, we got a heavy dose of Donatellamommamia’s Versace lacing or maybe lashing with an even heavier dose of Gianni Versace. Unfortunately it didn’t come off as homage but rather as a very feeble attempt to reimagine that look minus the medusa heads! Oh, and please don’t let me forget the flame print ala Walmart tee shirts and the overabundance of again, heavy handed embellishments ... 

This brings to mind ... Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

click image to enlarge

Is it possible that every single person on the design team is either afraid to speak up or unable to see what is in front of them? When you so heavily “reference” looks like these all you need do is compare what you are doing with the original and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see who falls short and why. There is no question that there is great pressure on all designers when it comes to creating a jillion collections each year but hell... Open your eyes! … And no, no one expects every designer to reinvent the wheel each season but do what you do and do it well.

click image to enlarge

It is collections like this that fill the clown bus and what is quickly becoming apparent is that this season we will need a train not just a car or a bus.

Emanuel Ungaro resort 2015

Well, we return to somewhat familiar ground here and the question that begs to be asked is this; “why take a heritage brand, initiate a so-called brand revival and then exterminate and eviscerate all the DNA and vocabulary that make the brand famous?”  Chew on that for a bit!!!

Case in point here is Emanuel Ungaro. Ask anyone to tell you what the brand stood for and they will tell you that Ungaro was all about sex and feminine clothes. They might associate the following with the brand as well: polka dots, shirring, draping, get lucky quick, tight, jersey, suits, dresses, florals, cabans, black and white and color. I should have prefaced that by saying that you would have to be older than 30 and possess fashion acumen that extends beyond descriptors such as fierce and fab. In other words, one might have had to know what it meant to be designed by the eponymous designer, if in fact you ever knew there was one!

This atrocity bearing the name is just one more effort to use/prostitute a brand in order to further the career of some nascent talent. M. Puglisi has extrapolated some of the DNA and turned it laughable and cartoonish and then to ice the cake he plunges the brand into the ocean of sameness as it was just a uniform for the fashion clueless. In what galaxy does a photo image of Madame Dubarry bear any relationship to the brand other than they are both French. This bit of so called genius is a tired attempt to cash in on what Tisci already built a reputation on by ruining Givenchy.

Let’s go a few steps further and talk about the Prada like details, the over use of studs and spikes and one more time the absurd droopy clumsy fit that is pervasive within the world of fashion. In other words WTF are you thinking here? If anything, Ungaro was the designer who was copied or referenced and not the one who used others as a way of building his business. And now we are back to this; “DESIGNERS WHO DESIGN!”

It is my opinion that this designer should stick to building his own brand and walk away from a position that only bolsters the demise of fashion rather than the rise of fashion as long as he is at the helm! Take a history lesson and learn what it means to design for a heritage brand and not just apply your misguided interpretations upon that brand.

I’m done now …rant over!