Glamazon looks are what Roberto Cavalli is famous, or perhaps notorious, for. But over the past few seasons, he¿s been reining things in at his signature line. Today s runway set looked straight out of old Hollywood, and the clothes like something borrowed from the soigné wardrobe of a Clark Gable and Carole Lombard flick. Models sported slim safari jackets, swaggering furs with toggle closures, and jodhpurs (OK, jodhpurs aren¿t the most flattering look invented) with crisp, mannish button-downs and matching ties. The Lombard part of the equation came in billowy dressing gowns in Liberty peacock prints, more structured forties-style dresses (a real Fall trend), and a great-looking silvery short fur over a demure satin dress that turned to reveal a thigh-high slit.
The masculine/feminine theme extended into evening, where Cavalli showed black smokings and boxier suits in white satin alongside the hot cha-cha gowns that are his stock-in-trade. Of the latter, a metallic-blue bustier number with an asymmetric strap and a green goddess dress crisscrossed with sequin bands looked light and youthful. A beaded-all-over halter and a clingy gold sequin column with a fishtail hem, on the other hand, looked less fresh, and brought flashbacks of the brasher Cavalli of yore. The designer, like his front-row star, Steven Tyler, may be a rocker forever, but he has been wise of late to steer his work in a more elegant, even decorous direction.
