Welcome to Alessandro Dell Acqua s world of interiors: the gold upholstery fabric matched to herringbone and gray cabled knit; the tropical-pattern wallpaper with birds picked out in glitter. Extreme contrast has always been ADA s calling card, but this season he nudged his own limits. "Romance and strictness," he said. Not so much his till-now-defining dialogue between the masculine and the feminine, more a conversation between contrasting notions of womenswear—American sportswear versus a Visconti-styled decadence, black lace gloves and all. New World versus Old World, in other words.
That face-off was embodied more in the soundtrack s broken-down deconstruction of David Bowie s "Let s Dance" than it was in the clothes. Which wasn t a plus. Still, Dell Acqua managed to layer oddness throughout his No. 21 collection: Virginal white poplin, pleated and pristine, was shown with a fur hoodie and flat python boots. A tiered duchesse satin skirt was paired with a black hoodie. A knit-backed mink tank over a knit skirt so pilled it looked like student hell was the very encapsulation of an ethos so peculiar that it defied conventional comprehension. That s because, for this outing at least, Dell Acqua was enthralled by Alida Valli in Visconti s Senso. And it will always be his challenge to isolate what that should mean for us, his audience.
