Domenico Formichetti’s life is “al dente,” as he put it Monday night at his fall show, which wrapped up the fashion weekend in Milan.
“It’s the fine line when everything is perfect — not too cooked, not cooked enough,” he said, drawing a parallel with pasta cooking.
The stylist-turned-designer mounted another extravaganza of a show at Teatro Lirico — a five-act performance which staged the robbery of a briefcase, whose contents remained veiled in mystery throughout.
It was meant, he said, to explore the rituality engrained in all families, chosen or born into, via theatrics. It turned out to be also both a parody and celebration of it.
Following a short prologue filmed on the streets of Milan and screened for the audience, the stage curtains opened to a Sunday lunch scene, where tomato sauce pasta was served, and Formichetti’s gang donned white and red gingham workwear suits matching the tablecloth, leather coats with faux fur accents and ribbed soccer jerseys.
The atmosphere was joyful and a little sassy, filled with a lot of camaraderie, before the gritty turn of the second act, a club scene — all clichés ticked: the performance of a pole dancer, the Champagne popping and money throwing.
The mischievous clubgoers decked in trucker jackets edged in cow printed fleece or leopard teddy-lined peacoats were all laughs and excitement, until law enforcers — in camouflage galore, splashed on tracksuits, shirt jackets and cargo pants — made a sting.
As the third act kicked off, the audience was hooked.
Is this a mafia-centered piece? What characters are these boys — including artists and musicians Sfera Ebbasta, Shiva, Tony Boy, Nerissima Serpe, and Papa V — playing? And most importantly, what’s so precious about this regular briefcase?
Enter a gambling scene at a Poker Texas Hold’em table with players in chalk stripe suits and ‘70s mix-and-match leather coats. A thief enters the stage and steals the briefcase from a safe, wearing a denim culotte, cropped bomber jacket and stockings as face cover.
The mood is cheerful again when the thief and his friends are playing soccer table at a bar, upbeat as they wait for someone to arrive and pay a huge sum for the precious object.
Although fashion served the characters here, and was overshadowed by the performance, it showed improvement from past seasons’ overdone look.
As Formichetti took his final bow, the content of the briefcase was revealed: the recipe for the perfectly cooked pasta.
“After all, if I do pasta and you do pasta ‘al dente’ they will come out different anyway. Isn’t it better to go along the way sharing a little more, famiglia-style?” the performance’s narrator questioned.
