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Ferretti's See-Through Chic
By J.J. Martin
Photos by Gruber-FWD
MILAN, Mar 6, 2003/ FWD/ --- With everyone and their mother in Milan choosing chiffon as
the winter fabric of choice, it’s no surprise that Alberta Ferretti’s runway was full of
the transparent gauzy stuff.
It’s quite an impractical fabric choice for fall, but Ferretti’s been doing pretty, feminine
looks in chiffon longer than most designers have had their names sewn into labels.
This being the case, the first exit in today’s Fall-Winter 2003-4 women’s collection had
jaws dropping.
It was a three-quarter-length coat covered in shiny cherry and grape plastic.
The edgy ‘80s might be sliding onto everyone’s runway this season, but Ferretti, a
woman known for her feminine designs, seemed to be taking a walk on the wild side.
Luckily, the brush with shiny vinyl ended up being only a series of punchy highlights in an
otherwise classic Ferretti collection.
Truth be told, those brief pleat skirts coated in shiny fireman’s red or a fabulous pine
green, were a welcome relief from the layer after layer of chiffon Ferretti is known to deliver. The harder plastic looks were also thrown in with tight cropped jackets that looked great paired with chiffon pleat skirts, which shimmied over the thigh. But the sticky coated stuff never touched pant legs. In fact, there wasn’t a pant in the entire house tonight. But who wants pants from Ferretti anyhow? This is a designer that’s focused entirely on a flirty dress meant to dream up innocent allure.
This season, the flirty dresses looked best in the new wool jersey fabric Ferretti tackled.
They were structured but sexy with brief pleat skirts and ribbon banding, and deserved a a
whole lot more runway time.
Instead, we got more chiffon than we bargained for.
When broken up from full looks, and boasting new silhouettes, things looked great.
Especially noteworthy were the more structured halter-top chiffon tops and dresses.
But classic boat neck, cap sleeve dresses looked better for a cotillion social than a
chic cocktail party.
For evening, Ferretti split things up between the season fling with shorty, and her home
turf long length.
The short and sassy flapper or ostrich feather short dresses were clear winners over the
long, brightly colored pleated chiffon dresses which were bound in satin ribbon and looked
like yesterday's fashion news.
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