Vivetta Ponti was in a typically playful mood, sending out a collection that riffed on famous styles by Christian Dior, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, and Yves Saint Laurent with this take on haute bourgeois splendor.
Ponti held the show at a palazzo in one of Milan’s ritziest residential neighborhoods, Magenta, with models striding through an open courtyard filled with flowers, and across the elegant parquet floors upstairs.
She set out to showcase the denizens of a chic apartment block, and dressed all sorts of ladies, naughty and nice. Looks included a snappy check skirt suit that Jackie Kennedy might have worn; a raspberry bar jacket, and a little black “Belle de Jour” dress with a white collar.
Swingy skirts and sweaters in sherbet shades of yellow and pale pink had a ’50s feel, while an embellished trapeze dress and similarly sparkly satin tunic-and-trouser suit belonged more to the Swinging decade.
Velvet jackets and capes edged in lace had a romantic, old-world air and might appeal to the grandmas on the block.
It was sweet, wearable, and a shift away from past seasons which were heavy on kooky baroque embellishments such as hearts, drops of blood, or bejeweled hands squeezing glittering nipples. And who doesn’t like having a nose around the neighbor’s place and trying to uncover her secrets?
