When Antonio Berardi spent a few days in America recently, he realized he was being shoehorned into the red-carpet/cocktail/event-dressing niche. So he s used his pre-fall collection as an opportunity to bust out. "There s much more daywear," he said. "We re introducing form by using lots of menswear fabrics. Our challenge is to do something feminine with them." With Berardi s track record for body-con dressing, that would have been a breeze for him in the past, but he s keen to move on from that association. Yes, there was still a strong, athletic sense of the female form in a fitted orange tank dress with a purple stripe racing down its front, but Berardi had made everything more sculptural: little sculpted peplums, skirts that dipped at the back, subtle asymmetries.
A key fabric was a slubby silk/linen weave with a bouclé back. Berardi used its stretchiness vertically rather than horizontally. "It caresses the body in some areas, stands away in others," he explained. The fabric was cut into a cocoon cape that had a futuristic flair, kind of what Caprica s best dressed might wear. It was all in pursuit, Berardi went on, of something less obviously sexy than he s known for. That probably accounted for the distinct urban feel of a sober group in double-faced gray wool. The flaring shades of orange that were the collection s color accent made a dynamic counterpoint.
