Etro

MILAN, February 19, 2008
By Sarah Mower
The program notes promised "Romantic Wilderness," which apparently referred to the snowy woodland set at one end of the runway. From the opening exit, though, it was more a case of a steep plunge into the stylistic wilderness, a surreal place where Etro's potentially lovely paisleys and prints became hopelessly embroiled with fetishistic lace-up platform thigh boots and were inexplicably topped off with velvet air-stewardess hats.

Was there something Russian going on here? That could have accounted for the Sonja Henie-like skating skirts and the vaguely Chekhovian Victoriana suitings, with the lower half cut off at thigh level. Did anything escape the debacle? Some good shearling jackets, a shaggy black and white goat-hair coat, and a couple of long, streakily printed chiffon dresses. Otherwise, though, this show was an unfortunate setback for a house whose heritage deserves to be enhanced and celebrated in a much more appropriate way.