Ferre -- A Globetrotter's Dream
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
Milan, Oct 3, 2002/ FWD/ --- For the consumer who really wants to appreciate the spring/summer
ready-to-wear collection of Gianfranco Ferre the first thing she needs to acquire is a
well-stamped passport.
Ferre surely has one of fashion’s most fertile imaginations and this season the designer was at his most fecund - and peripatetic.
In his program notes, Gianfranco he lists New Orleans, San Francisco, Portland, Japan, Macao
and Shanghai as sources of the "crossover cultures" that influenced this collection.
His choice of women to wear his ideas – Wally Simpson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Chloe Sevigny,
Marlene Dietrich, Josephine Baker and Salma Hayek was to say the least eclectic.
The collection was even more so.
It opened with what Ferre does best, crisply tailored suits
his signature and ladylike gray and brilliant high-collared white shirts, the sort any woman
would gladly wear.
His black and white evening looks also impressed, especially some asymmetrical cocktail
numbers made in enlarged tulip prints.
With knitted skullcaps on the models heads and Billie Holiday crooning on the soundtrack
it felt like we were about to board a luxury cruise liner.
Then suddenly Ferre changed gears and let his imagination fly, slowly at first with military
trench coatdresses, then more giddily with camouflage officer’s jackets piped with mini
cartridges and aged leather suits trimmed with gold safety pins.
Cultures began to collide in the final third as Chinese symbols and Japanese padded belts
fought for control of slinky, silky columns and red knickers and a bright red nipple shone
out through a black fishnet dress.
Throughout the workmanship was exceptional.
Ferre controls one of the world’s greatest ateliers and he sure knows how to use it.
The diamante encrusted high heels, the filigree of lacy leather and the intricately finished
goddess gowns were pretty stunning.
In keeping with his much traveled mood, Ferre has signed a deal with Wallpaper founder
and now image counselor Tyler Brule to act as a "conceptualizer" for Ferre’s diffusion
line GFF and his jeans collection.
Given how much we got around in this collection, Brule already has one very suitable client –
Swiss Air.
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