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Gucci's Waist Warriors
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
MILAN, Mar 5, 2003 /FWD/ --- This was a show that hit you in the gut, aptly enough because practically every look in the Gucci collection shown Saturday in Milan started with the waist.
Designer Tom Ford's big idea this season for Gucci was to take mini-bustiers or half corsets and attach them to tops, dresses and even coats, creating a series of looks that was both sumptuous and sexy.
The mood itself in Gucci's Piazza Oberdan show space was part hyper-modern, part mournful, as thousands of rose petals fell from the ceiling on the final exits and Sinead O'Connor yearned out "Nothing Compares to You." Ever obsessed with attention to detail, Ford had also enlisted a small team of stage hands to cover the runway with petals just as the lights went down, leaving a fine scent to waft through the audience during the show.
Ford and Gucci boss Domenico de Sole have been under a certain amount of pressure of late, as Gucci's sales have cooled in the general economic turndown and mean rumors have circulated about their long-term future with the house. But from the show's first flurry of warrior looks, the message was fairly clear - this designer intends to hang tough.
Several great coats opened the show, with cathedral high six-inch upturned collars, shoulder straps and military style webbing cinching in every waist. Also nipped at the waist were a number of short jackets in pleated leather and mink or wolf that brought to mind Tina Turner's Mad Max moment.
The commercial strength of the collection was evident in the satin and nylon tops, ribbed and paneled, that sucked in Carmen Kass, Natalia Vodianova, Dewi and Maria Carla. Paired with never-ending leggings or pencil skirts with sharp vents they made for a look that was bold and very modern.
The Gucci atelier also came up trumps with the footwear, prominently featuring some wonderful new slightly studded high-heels, with curling backs reminiscent of a Condottiere's saddle. Some models' arms dangled curvy clutches in various reptile skins, enlivened with Gucci's equestrian chains and bits.
Page-boy style tunics and top coats with puff sleeves lent a medieval air to the proceedings, but it was suddenly broken by the finale of structured silk bustier dresses, many of them hanging brazenly off the shoulder.
Ford's continual emphasis on sex in his work at Gucci has, perhaps unfairly, made people lose sight of what a great tailor he is, as this collection reminded us. Ford's tenure at Yves Saint Laurent is also clearly influencing Gucci more and more, in the couture finish of many looks as well as the mournful violins on the soundtrack.
And, we're afraid, the ghost of one French designer, Thierry Mugler, was palpable throughout the show in the superhero imagery and exacting cuts. But then, few people have better timing than Tom - they shuttered Mugler's fashion house and his headquarters is being rebuilt as a police station. The new tenants may even have to arrest some of the looks in this show -- they look certain to get plenty of hot babes into trouble.
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