In a world of Carries, Mirandas, Charlottes, and Samanthas, I’m an Adriana. As in Adriana La Cerva, mob wife and fashion icon in her own right from The Sopranos. When I get dressed in the morning, there’s never the consideration of a quirky bare-abdomen belt or prim-and-proper silhouettes—I’m drawn to animal prints, sequins, and a flash of skin. And it wasn’t until “Ralph Lauren Christmas” began trending on social media that I realized that desire extended to my holiday decorations, too.
Charlotte would definitely be a fan of a Ralph Lauren Christmas (and I think at least Miranda, if not all the SATC gals, would be, too). It’s cozy, classic, and full-on Americana with touches of tartan, deep jewel tones, that cute little teddy bear seen on all the sweaters, and gold. Festive? Yes. But my dream Christmas aligns with a different brand identity. I want a Cavalli Christmas.
In a Vogue story from 2000, Sarah Mower describes Roberto Cavalli’s designs as “fluttering, animal-printed, rhinestone-studded, gold-blasted, and unmissably laminated to the curves of Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner.” It’s a brand that Adriana was drawn to on The Sopranos—she wore a tiger-motif dress from Cavalli fall 2000 in one of her most memorable scenes—and I am, too.
“Roberto was bang, bang, bang all the time,” Fausto Puglisi, Roberto Cavalli’s creative director, tells me over Zoom. “The brand is very Italian. We are connected to prints, to decoration, to flamboyance. It’s about sexiness and ‘look at me,’ but in an empowered way.” Puglisi lists zebra, deep red roses, and leopard as some of the major house motifs.
We agree a Cavalli Christmas looks something like this: Yes, stockings are hung by the chimney with care—but those stockings are Scalamandré’s tiger-striped velvet stockings. When St. Nick comes down on his sleigh, he won’t find paper chains adorning the doorways, but leopard print chiffon garlands fluttering in the breeze (obviously, we’re somewhere tropical in my Cavalli Christmas dreamscape). And yes, the day will be merry and bright—bright red, bright pink, and bright gold.
“Mr. Cavalli’s home in Florence was absolutely fantastic,” Puglisi says, adding to the vision. There, he collected dark wood Italian antiques, religious memorabilia, and kept both a wolfdog and a gorgeous parakeet bird as pets. “His design style had a sense of decadence, also of rock and roll, from mixing all the prints. At the center of the table were large dark red roses, and we only ate by candlelight.”
Noted. Add a hundred candles to my Cavalli Christmas dreamscape, pronto. “This was all the DNA of Roberto, which you can still find at Cavalli today,” Puglisi concludes. Animal prints, sequins, soft light, and a little bit of sex appeal. Santa, baby!
