This is Albino D Amato s second season showing in Paris, and for his new collection, he drew on the work of another Italian with a penchant for Frenchness: Bernardo Bertolucci. In particular, D Amato explained at his presentation today, he looked to Bertolucci s heroines for inspiration—Maria Schneider s Jeanne in Last Tango in Paris, for instance, and Eva Green s Isabelle in The Dreamers. But more to the point, D Amato seized on Bertolucci s thing for Parisian interiors and parlayed the reference into a collection that traded between architectural construction and fluid draping. The emphasis here was on dressy dresses, and D Amato scored with his more structured looks, especially a head-turning frock in double-faced mikado that was accordioned with wavelike super-pleats. Other strong numbers included a chantilly lace minidress with panniers and D Amato s A-line shifts punctuated by a scribble of crumpled rosettes. Both of these had a winning, dreamy weirdness. And D Amato did well with his day looks, too, applying unexpected volume to smart gauchos and asymmetric jackets. The one quibble here was with the embroideries, which were a major theme—in general, they seemed tacked on and inessential. All in all, though, this was a strong outing for D Amato. Paris seems to be his natural home.
