With ruffles aflutter in the midst of a major boho revival on the runways, Alberta Ferretti is in the middle of the fashion conversation once again. This isn’t a case of sniffing out a trend. Wispy chiffon dresses have been Ferretti’s signature since before the last boho revival, but she made the most of the moment this evening, putting on a show under the colonnade of the Museo Nazionale Della Scienza e Della Tecnologia. We were outside as the sun went down, pretty dresses catching the breeze.
Backstage Ferretti was quick to point out, as she often does these days, that she designs for “all of the necessities” of today. “I know the show is important—it’s a show—but also important is the reality,” she said. So, in addition to chiffon ruffles, she showed cotton separates of the office-wearing, brunch-going, and evening-strolling type. Some came in white and others in awning stripes; what made them Ferretti-ish were their feminine touches, like a portrait neckline on a shirt dress or peekaboo shoulders on a top. She also used bright orange cotton for a strapless dress with vertical pin tucking details, which made her the second designer of the day to use the humble, everyday material in that kind of elevated way.
But the looks that really got the hometown crowd’s camera phones in the air were her chiffon numbers, and Ferretti had one for every type: angelic in white with a halter neckline or witchier in black with dramatic cape-like wings, with many colors of the rainbow in between. The petal and leaf shapes inset into some of them were achieved via laser-cutting, sequins and crystals being not especially bohemian. For adornment instead, Ferretti preferred a blown glass flower on a black silk ribbon tied at the neck.
