Vivetta Ponti was in a typically playful mood and launched a collection that drew on famous styles from Christian Dior, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent with this take on haute bourgeois splendor.
Ponti held the show in a palace in one of Milan's most luxurious residential neighborhoods, Magenta, with models striding through an open, flower-filled courtyard and across the elegant parquet floors upstairs.
He set out to show the inhabitants of an elegant apartment block and dressed all kinds of ladies, naughty and nice. The looks included an elegant plaid skirt suit that Jackie Kennedy could have worn; a raspberry jacket and a little black “Belle de Jour” dress with a white collar.
Flowing skirts and sweaters in sorbet shades of yellow and pale pink had a '50s feel, while an embellished trapeze dress and an equally bright satin tunic-and-trouser suit belonged more to the Swinging decade.
Velvet jackets and lace-edged capes had a romantic, antique feel and could appeal to the grandmothers on the block.
It was sweet, wearable, and a departure from past seasons that were filled with extravagant baroque embellishments like hearts, drops of blood, or jeweled hands squeezing shiny nipples. And who doesn't like snooping around the neighbor's house and trying to discover her secrets?
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