Fausto Puglisi took a Gothic turn for fall with a mostly black collection that was filled with tough leather and croc cropped jackets, embroidered tulle and extra-long pleated sleeves on dresses that channeled Morticia Addams.
Could it be the recent Netflix show “Wednesday,” an Addams Family spinoff, or just these dark times that made Puglisi turn a dark corner? None of the above. After so many years of animal prints and wisps of colorful chiffon he turned to the many faces of black.
“This time I wanted to design a collection that was New Romantic and dark. But this kind of dark is very festive, sensual feminine — and tough,” said Puglisi. “You can still see Cavalli through the texture. You can see every Cavalli detail through this dark lens,” he said.
Black came in all shapes and sizes, from the cropped leather biker-style jackets with a croc pattern to the glossy, roomy trousers to the bouncy ballerina skirts and multi-tiered dresses made with different fabric textures.
There were sequin-drenched minidresses, skimpy as corsets, with lacy sleeves, and a whole lineup of little lace dresses with criss-cross, spaghetti-strap backs, and silky gowns with pleated, extra-long sleeves that covered the hands, Morticia-style.
When color finally burst onto the scene it felt like a relief, a rainbow snow cone appearing all of a sudden in a desert of monochrome.
Puglisi sent out sheer, rose print dresses with strong shoulders and colors drawn from Old Master paintings, knits covered in chubby rosettes and a minidress with a rose pattern picked out in embroidery and sequins. Wow.
The show kept getting better even when Puglisi moved on from the Old Masters and into My Little Pony territory, with silky dresses in bright pink and periwinkle that immediately lifted the mood in the raw concrete and glass show space. Run to the light, Fausto, ditch Morticia and live the Cavalli life in color.