What better way to introduce a new flagship than with a presentation at New York Fashion Week?
That was Dennis Basso's thinking for this season's “gallery-style” setup inside his Madison Avenue boutique, which opened in October across from Fendi. “Forty-one years ago, when I started, Fendi set the standard for fur and here I am,” he said with a triumphant smile.
The 8,000-square-foot space occupies prime real estate in Manhattan, so with that in mind, it took the city itself as inspiration. At least in his opinion, New York has become “the gateway to fashion,” surpassing Paris or Milan for its collage of styles. There's elegance uptown, there's elegance downtown… and while the name Basso is inextricably linked to the former, true New York women are often a mix of both. So it was nice to see him work to combine the two.
Take a classic trumpet-style dress with gold sequin embroidery, for example: It was shown under a lush sable T-shirt the same color as a frothy latte, but a SoHo girl might want to wear it with jeans for a fresh look for the day. With an eye on the fierce attitude of the concrete jungle, Basso also used leopard-print jacquard for a ruffled hem and a mink-lined trench coat. He was determined to bring back the '60s coat dress for fall and, pointing to a swingier Mod style in black with beaded buttons, he said: “It's very Courrèges.”
Basso's other determination was to make the color brown desirable for evening wear, noting that there was a time when brown shoes for men were considered a faux pas after a certain hour. The push was most convincing as a knife-pleated A-line dress in amber tan silk with a matching sequin bodice. Elsewhere, sable and mink boleros in arctic white were thrown over mermaid dresses that sparkled like Central Park in the snow. “It's all about winter and staying warm and cozy,” Basso explained.
One could certainly curl up by the fire in tweed or cashmere cardigan jackets and matching palazzos, but the pièce de résistance was a hooded sable cape, which Basso turned inside out to reveal a lining painted with 24-karat gold. There may have been no practical reason for such extravagance, but he has proven time and time again that he doesn't need it.
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