Missoni

MILAN, September 25, 2007
By Sarah Mower
It's no heavy criticism to say that Missoni isn't a stadium-filling collection: It's a friendly-scale line of highly identifiable knits and prints that's been enjoying an extended second life since young girls got into the label's dresses. Missoni has a bit of this and a bit of that: short, long, zigzags, flowers, seventies-ish boho mirror embroidery, flowy eveningwear. All of it has a place in a sunny holiday setting, and just about any piece would make a girl stand out at a relaxed party on a summer evening. That would be particularly true of some of the strapless flowered silks on today's runway, or the quietly sexy printed scarf-dresses, or—for a more high-impact occasion—the golden sequined pieces bejeweled like something out of a Klimt painting. It's just that, to amplify the aura of specialness and individuality these clothes can possess, Missoni would do better to devise a more intimate way of showing them, rather than in a cavernous old-style Italian industry venue with raked seating, as they do. Which brings us back to the original observation.