Ralph Rucci doesn’t need Ryan Murphy to give him an education on the swans. Having worked for Halston during the ladies’ heyday, Rucci is well-versed in the disciplined elegance they favored, as is evidenced in a matching coat and dress in a black-and-white matelassé in his new couture collection.
What Rucci has in common with his past mentor is a belief in an unencumbered silhouette, but this doesn’t make him a minimalist. This designer’s work is distinguished by surface treatments such as suspension techniques, trapunto-like details, and touches borrowed from his own paintings as well as from the East. This outing, for example, makes use of comb-distressed lace and burnt ostrich feathers “trapped” within tulle.
The collection opens with an armor-like alligator tunic with a black raffia skirt suspended from the lining—chic, if a bit formal. Easier is the textured Elsa—as in Peretti—shirt. (NB that the bridal look is accessorized with an Elsa Peretti rosary.) Lighter still is Rucci’s hybrid of the LBD / all-American shirtwaist in hand-tucked black georgette. The linear effect of tucking on that shirtdress is replicated elsewhere in the horizontally placed rows of grosgrain ribbon tied at the side of a tulle dress; lacking stretch these appear a bit stiff. More convincing is the designer’s use of fluid aprons in silk, velvet, beads, or pearls to wear slim pants.
Reviving a technique he first used in 2004, Rucci has made an ivory coat of double-face wool with mitred open-work cut-outs. He says he’s hoping someone will order a bias draped one-shoulder dress constructed from two oval pattern pieces made in the vein of one of his design icons, Madame Grès. Another influence is Cristobal Balenciaga. A wrapped dress that features a panel of feathery tattered chiffon evokes a sense of poise and asymmetry in the grand tradition of the Spanish master.
Rucci continues to present his collections using fashion illustration, placing his ink sketches alongside Bil Donovan’s watercolor imaginings of the looks, which come in a delicious palette of peach and puce, acid and parrot green, vanilla and cinnabar.
