Tired of luxury varsity sweaters and bomber jackets yet? Too bad. Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s versions were a sight for sore eyes in his fall No. 21 collection, a stellar reboot of the throwback Hollywood glamorization of Italian screen queen Anna Magnani.
“She was not really aware of how sexy she was,” said Dell’Acqua of Magnani before the show, citing two of her big movies ,“The Rose Tattoo” and “The Fugitive Kind” as references. He did a great job capturing retro Fifties romance in silhouettes that felt current day, such as the simplified sheer red dress with a ruffled neckline and jeweled brooch at the waistline that opened the show, and men’s plaid tailoring cut into cropped pants and boxy jackets, a full skirt lined in Neoprene to give it a nice sculptural swing. Without openly making a statement, Dell’Acqua swiped at the Americana political message that’s been in the air this season. His collection was loaded with varsity jackets and sweaters, romanced, feminized and elevated in shearling and thick leather, with jeweled buttons, done in a black floral print, or shown as a cropped knit jacket with one embroidered satin sleeve. There were also jacquard knits featuring a retro California beach scene complete with a blue Cadillac, embroidered over with sequins for a current-day kitschy feel. It grounded the otherwise super-feminine fare in a mix-and-match, point-counterpoint way that made the look relevant for today.