And that was before we even started on the belt, the shoes, the jewels and the watches. Or, indeed, the clothes. The major names spread their tentacles into every area of the fashion industry. The result is an awesome array of stuff that makes Italy the industrial capital of the fashion world and in danger of designer overkill. Born as a simple notion of an inexpensive, junior offshoot of the main line, these collections now have legs.
Fancy hose seems to be the new growth area.
The clothes were cheery, with bright colors, snappy prints, plaid kilts here, butterfly-print rainwear there, accessories everywhere. It made a slick show in the house image. Based on the Prada principle that bourgeois chic is the new cool, Ferretti's Philosophy line exchanged signature handcrafted details for houndstooth and argyle checks, russet tweeds and pleated skirts, mixed with silk shirts printed with skiers. But black chiffon dresses, delicately pleated or beaded, suggested that Philosophy is really about sophisticated clothes. Lacy legs for racy ladies was the message from Donatella Versace whose Versus show, from vivid hose to slithery, modern-art patterned dresses, had shifted away from the downtown club scene.