Vivetta Ponti is often in a playful mood, but this season she took her trickery to new heights, sending out a collection that wasn’t always what it seemed.
Lush cotton pussy bows morphed into hands with fingernails painted red, while red-and-white neckties became long scarves that wrapped around the necks of school uniform skirt suits. Miniskirts turned out to be jackets that were wrapped and knotted around the waist.
“It’s a cleaner collection than in the past, and with all of the ’60s shapes that I love. But somehow, it’s off,” said Ponti. “I also wanted to give a sense of movement — like the clothes were in flight.”
It was more focused than past collections, and like a cartoon come to life. Ruffle-edged skirts and Red Riding Hood-style capes really looked like they were flying thanks to curling bits of wire slipped inside their hemlines, while pearl necklaces were twisted into fixed shapes and adorned with big black ribbons.
Other looks had multiple personalities, including little trompe l’oeil skirt suits with jacket shapes superimposed onto them in contrasting colors, and a dress that was all sober gray pleats at the front and jazzy striped suit lining at the back.
Ponti was careful to keep it commercial. “I wanted to be authentic, to make clothes that can be worn every day,” said the designer, who also sent out a mint green princess coat with a leopard print collar, and a lineup of A-line coats and tunic tops.
In lesser hands, it all could have skewed gimmicky, but the tailoring was fine here and surreal times call for surreal fashion. It works for Schiaparelli, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t for Vivetta, whose looks were far sweeter.
