"It s very austere," said Antonio Berardi. "That s what people seem to want from me." He opened with the kind of strict, sexy tailoring—in black, naturally—that he s been doing since the last time "austere" was a buzzword. Jackets and coats with fine boning fit like a glove in front, but their backs were left free; an hourglass sheath clung to every curve, all 360 degrees. Also in the plus column was an interlude of thirties-style bias-cut gowns.
But Berardi only got his formula half right.
Where he went wrong was with the furs, piecing together gray mink to resemble a human spine and dying an enormous coat a too-vivid shade of yellow. The finale gowns were a bit of a puzzle, too. Stretch-mesh minidresses embroidered all over like armor were Berardi at his body-conscious best, so why did he add billowy capes as big as parachutes?
Backstage, he boasted that after increasing prices on his pre-fall collection, sales had gone up 50 percent. But the runway-only looks that made up a percentage of today s show won t do anything for his burgeoning bottom line.
