The Roberto Cavalli MO has always been to do more with more. That stands for his main collection, and it stands for Just Cavalli, the little-sister line whose Fall collection he presented today. The show started off with a dark navy and purple velvet jean jacket and A-line skirt with clean, graphic lines, and the next few looks were black, but the understated tone established at the beginning didn t last long. The show notes talked vaguely about women s liberation, while Chicks on Speed and Yoko Ono rapped about utopia on the soundtrack. If you cared to, you could read the collection as a journey of awakening to texture, to print, and to embellishment. Then again, that might be thinking too hard about it.
Fringed sweaters were as shaggy as a komondor puppy, bold Bauhaus-influenced prints were worn head to toe, and ostrich feathers turned up as an accent on pieces for day and night. The silhouettes alternately said 1970s (A-line minis and clingy ribbed knits) or Victorian times (floor-grazing dresses with high ruffled necks and long sleeves). In the end it was a bit of a jumble, and nothing was quite as sharp as that opening velvet skirtsuit.
