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He opened his spring show with seven models striding
out in a line wearing variations on his silk gros de longres
rainwear in apple green, black, white, taupe, vanilla, apricot,
and coral—with matching pagoda hats. It was a beautiful beginning
to one of the best collections shown in New York that week. What
followed was a daywear section with beautifully fitted skirts (of
the pencil variety), narrow-cut cigarette pants, other tailored
trousers, neat sun and other dresses, and beautiful coats. Stand-out
pieces in this section includes his ecru stitched alligator–tulle
dress with cross-cross detailing, a pale taupe double-faced wool
dress and coat set, a youthful ivory cashmere–silk twinset
paired with aqua lamb suede jeans, and a startling modern (yet approachable)
café (brown) braided coat over a café stitched lamb
suede–tulle shell top and lamb suede jeans.
The best coats in the collection are built around
the classic-cut designs he's known for, with almost invisible new
and improved bells and whistles. An equally pleasant surprise was
his black wool crêpe cutwork suit paired with bustier top.
But it continues to be in the eveningwear section
of his collection that he just dazzled the audience with his brilliance.
For evening, his abilities to ease up on his signature formal silhouette
while retaining his inbred discipline was nothing short of amazing.
I swooned over his short cocktail dresses, especially his nude chiffon
dress with silk flowers, his geometric art print embroidered chiffon
dress, and Elise in his black silk chiffon blouse paired with a
black pleated silk tulle skirt.
For full, all-out evening glamour, we have to
start with his elongated silhouette black jersey gown (with sheer
back panel), his 'script-embroidered' gown with black stitched alligator
bodice, and the indecently sexy white silk crepe embroidered tube
gown, and the simple yet elegant ombre chiffon gown with feathers.
In his haute couture collection, a highlight look
was his white blouse made from delicately suspended strands of tiny
pearls paired with a full-on black ball gown skirt. It was breathtakingly
beautiful. For his spring show, he showed the look in a slightly
more down-to-earth version, pairing his black ribbon ball gown skirt
with a equally noteworthy white embroidered chiffon blouse.
Mr Rucci ended the show by bringing back a bit
of the past. In its only appearance on the runway, he chose a black-
and-white-grid infanta gown as his finalé. The infanta gown
used to be a stable of Mr Rucci's past collections; and it is a
sign of his continued growth that no one exactly missed it (that
particular design, that is), but warmly received it when Eugenia
made her appearance on the runway.
Of course, it goes without saying that Mr Rucci
is well on his way to further finding the right balance between
an adherence to his design beliefs and merging that with designs
that allows him to display his growing ability to show levity and
a lightness of touch. The bigger question here is not that Mr Rucci
can be a tad bit heavy-handed (as he is accused of being by certain
fashion critics) but why hasn't the majority of his fellow designers
raised their game to reflect a stronger sense of commitment to excellence?
We got very lucky this past season, in that there were very few
train wreck collections shown. A great many designers found a renewed
commitment to showing their best work. Mr Rucci consistently do
that every season. And for that, we can certainly cut the man a
little slack. He's worth it.•
Phillip D. Johnson is features' editor of
Lucire.
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