Gucci

MILAN, September 26, 2007
By Sarah Mower
Frida Giannini's Spring collection was a difficult thing to categorize. Granted, she had picked up on some of the things going around this season—the fifties big-skirted silhouette, a bit of toga dressing, patent-leather accessories. Alongside that, she put in some of her more pragmatic daywear: the new Frida trouser (roomier in the hip, slouchier in the crotch, narrowed in the leg), boyish checked shirts, and the odd little cropped biker jacket, including a noticeably good one in black snakeskin.

It was hard, however, to warm to the whole. Part of the problem was the unrelenting combination of black, white, and a particularly harsh sunflower yellow, which played through oversize abstract flower-print mini deb dresses and bustier bubbles, and never gave up until the last red-carpet taffeta gowns left the runway. Sequencing-wise, the show was bumpy, too, with much reiteration of the same shapes in different fabrications. For evening—a Gucci heartland—the dresses came with broad belts and the occasional integral shoulder strap fastened with oversize horse bits—a house signature that seemed to weigh all too heavily on everything in sight. It was an off moment, or maybe just an example of performance nerves from a young designer who has so much to live up to. Giannini's recent Resort show was better and more coherent than this, so by the time both collections hit stores and are blended together, it's possible the result will be just fine.