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Exotica is haute couture’s middle name. If there is a place for a designer to find expression for his imagination, his wanderlust, his craving for adventure, where better than here, where dreams are big and pragmatism often sent packing, no explanation necessary. Giorgio Armani knows his way around the exotic more than most. He is one of fashion’s most worldly personalities and has long found inspiration in Eastern motifs, often to spectacular effect.
That, and the fact that the designer’s last Armani Privé was terrific in its chic modernity, makes the collection he presented on Monday evening particularly puzzling. Here was an ode to a China, Armani said after the show, “that does not exist anymore.” Touché, as it was all about cropped-wig living dolls and hobble-skirted, baby-step seduction. But the biggest problem was neither the politics of the message nor the absence of the kind of brooding romance that might have hooked us in. Nope. It was those shoulders. Almost every look fell from demonstrative variations of pagoda shoulders — basic, curlicued or, in one case, pointing straight up like red lacquered silk Spock ears. Though Armani maintained that the shoulders “added a fantastical allure,” it’s one to make even the most adventurous fashion types plenty nervous. That said, beneath the imposing peaks, a few looks — the most low-key jackets and a terrific Coromandel-print dress — should find takers.
Throughout, Armani kept dresses and suits tight, the latter with pagoda architecture sometimes replicated at the wrist and on pant legs. Always, the mood stayed sexy. Ditto for evening, when Armani was at his strongest, save for a too-vibrant marriage of bright yellow and purple. Then, he let dedication to his theme waver in favor of some red-carpet beauties, including a vibrant coral one-shoulder, and his best in show, a strapless stunner in black sequins and Coromandel-floral embroidered silk organza.
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