Alberta Ferretti flexed her edgier side for fall, with a collection far less focused on the ethereal dresses for which she’s known and more in line with the fashion currents. Ferretti has been following the tides in different directions for the past few seasons. Her path for fall was a good one. Backstage before the show, Ferretti said the look was for a woman with a “sophisticated, big personality. The woman is strong and she doesn’t want the trend of the season — she wants her personality.” Nevertheless, she gravitated toward a fashion period that’s quite popular this season. One might even call it trendy: the Eighties.
Ferretti worked the decade’s luxe in a relatively subdued way as she wove through a black Western-tinged denim jumpsuit that opened the show, a louche black coat over pleated leather pants tucked into slouchy knee-high boots and topped with a gaucho hat, a light blue angora sweater, shoulder pads and all, with studded stone washed high-waisted jeans, and an oversize leather bomber over a T-shirt and gold lamé pleated pants. Daywear was a big emphasis, and the separates outshined the folkloric dresses with high necks and blouson sleeves. She let evening dazzle but in a way that felt different for her. Instead of romantic goddess gowns, Ferretti’s women were queens of the night, ready to command the room in a short-sleeved silver paillette dress with matching knee-high boots or a chic black jumpsuit worn with an exotic statement necklace and slouchy boots trimmed in rhinestones.