MILAN, Mar 6, 2003/ FWD/ --- The next time one of your pals announces that she just got a job in a harem and needs something to wear, tell her to check out this Gianfranco Ferre collection.

In a show bristling with beautiful clothes, fashion’s favorite architect got more than a little carried away at the finale with a half dozen more or less transparent looks in chenille, lace or chiffon, which highlighted some of the most elaborate knickers Milan has seen in some time.

The posh panties stood out like a guillotine at an aristocrats’ ball, the main theme of a collection devoted to the grand dame of the French Directory salons, Madame Recamier and Josephine Beauharnais.

What’s great about Ferre, and Italian fashion in general, is the way he mixes epochs, motifs and fabrics often in the same outfits.

With a crescent moon hanging above the audience in Ferre’s via Pontaccio headquarters, Gianfranco began modestly with chalk stripe suits with matching tights before racing back to the Middle Ages, a huge source of inspiration this season in Milan. There were Sheriff of Nottingham blousons in beige crocodile one second, high-collared Grande Armee great coats the next; culottes cut like fatigue pants one minute, tailcoats in khaki alligator the next.

The look was grand, even grandiose, but packed pizzazz and never looked old -- helped by the pinky, spiky hair laced with feathers, as if the painter David had been commissioned to paint Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Gianfranco remains a great tailor, and a confidently inventive one, best shown in the way he could marry the cargo pants and the biker looks in a wonderful pair of trousers worn by Alek Wek.

Nobody in fashion makes a better white shirt than Ferre, as we were reminded by the one chemise he sent out, a wonderful three-inch-high collared shirt with French cuffs a la Paolina Borghese that would look stylish on hundreds of women. His fantasy trench/frock coats with zips used as darts and pleats were both sexy and stylish and sure to ignite many paparazzi flashbulbs.

It frequently felt way, way too much. Gianfranco, can you please stop putting two patch pockets on the back of little black dresses? But for the woman who feels the need to make a bold statement both at home and in the harem, Ferre had plenty for you this season.