Emilio Pucci by Julio Espada Spring 2002
Photos by Gruber

MILAN, Oct 3, 2002/ --- After the tepid reception his debut collection for Pucci in March received, the heat was clearly on designer Julio Espada Wednesday in Milan.

Unfortunately, it was hard to imagine many women wearing the Spring/Summer collection he sent out yesterday. The problem in a nutshell was that Espada's looks were too pretentious for any young woman to wear and too giddy and frankly silly for any middle-aged lady to consider.

Espada seems to want to make sophisticated, contemporary resort wear, but the whole mood of the show was caught in a time warp, out of which great fashion never emerged. When was the last time you saw someone wearing a terry cloth open-sided shift along with a huge, floppy sun hat and a duffle bag the size of a marine sergeant's? Having a sense of fun in a collection is fine; making women look foolish is not.

Bizarre Grecian sandals tied up around the calves of all the models summed up the whole improbability of the collection. These looked pretty, but as they had no soles, never mind heels, were unwearable. Just occasionally, a look convinced, like the blue and turquoise cocktail dress Angel Lindvall wore. But too often simple shapes were rendered unlikely with toggles and overly elaborate ties.

As ever, the curving and twisting colorful "new wave" prints from the Pucci archives were impressive. But finding great prints in this house was never going to be that hard. Rebuilding its image with a contemporary cut and mood is the tricky part. And little of that was on display Wednesday in Milan.

Emilio Pucci	Emilio Pucci	Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci	Emilio Pucci	Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci