Once upon a time, in the Edenic innocence of the pre-digital age, little girls dreamed of being beautiful princesses. Alberta Ferretti got back to the garden with her new collection of floating floral chiffons. It was a departure from the luxe lady look she s been offering for the past few seasons, but "women want to change," Ferretti insisted backstage. "Fantasy is so important."
Here, that fantasy was cast as a vision of fairy-tale femininity. Its key component was a sheer, floor-sweeping dress strewn with flora and paired with flat rope sandals and the occasional wide-brimmed straw hat to underscore the prelapsarian prettiness. Ferretti offered multiple versions: one softly pleated like a Fortuny gown, another in raw-edged tiers with Guinevere sleeves, or tied in back like a frontier woman s Sunday best. The organic, relaxed mood was sustained by the designer s use of lace and crochet, sometimes all at once, like the lace smock with the crochet midriff.
There was a hint of eccentricity in this uncompromising commitment to romance and fantasy. Though Ferretti sought balance in the more "urban" pieces—a white trench, a Bermuda shorts suit, a natural python vest—the scales couldn t help but tip toward those long, diaphanous gowns. And while she was quick to point out that her new designs were about "a normal woman, not a star," it wasn t hard to imagine the fantasy sweeping away Ferretti fans like Sarah Jessica Parker and January Jones.
