Spring 2004 Ready-to-Wear - Emanuel Ungaro Spring 2004 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Runway Review

PARIS, October 9, 2003 – Get on the gold aviators—it's sizzling out there. Giambattisa Valli has taken Ungaro to some steamy equatorial zone where all a certain girl needs in the way of clothes is a wardrobe of swimsuits and scarves to knot about her hot little bod in various ingeniously-revealing ways. Valli explored that idea by turning every poolside appearance into a dressy occasion. Using hot pink, orange, jade, and absinthe jersey and a cache of exotic printed georgette, he set to with the wrapping, draping, and the trailing ruffles.

In Valli's hands, a swimsuit can come with an attachment of a peony-printed chiffon scarf for winding across the body in a fetching way. Others had thick ropes of plaited jersey circling the neck and running between the breasts to anchor strips of clinging fabric. Even the jackets, with their cutaway fronts and slashed lapels, were tethered with crisscrossing scarves.

For evening, Latina ruffles, squiggly rose prints, smatterings of sparkle, and crystal strands continued the theme of dressing in as little as possible but for maximum impact. All the slashing, wrapping, draping, and floating asymmetries may end up melting the distinctions between sundress, bathing suit, and evening gown—but in a heated Ungaro climate, why stand on ceremony?

– Sarah Mower

STYLE FILE