Fausto Puglisi once called his aesthetic a cross between Carolina Herrera and Axl Rose. It’s a description that lingers in the memory for being as vivid as it is unlikely. It was, however, completely apt. There’s pomp and polish to Puglisi’s sexy designs; he makes clothes for women—Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Beyoncé—who travel with a camera crew and others who model themselves in their glossy image.
His appointment at Roberto Cavalli, announced last October, couldn’t be more fitting. Puglisi grew up on the kind of in-your-face Italian glamour practiced by Gianni Versace and Cavalli. The trick, of course, is calibrating that va-va-voom to 2021 tastes. We’re coming off a year in sweatpants, though it will help Puglisi’s cause that a new generation of agenda-setting designers are thinking along body-conscious, sexy lines, too.
“It’s a brand connected to Italian eccentricity,” Puglisi said on a Zoom call, “one with such a glorious energy from the past, but at the same time I’m thinking about the days we are living and thinking about how the future can be.” His first move was to cast a diverse range of models; among the RC ranks this season is Daniela Santiago, the star of the new HBO Max show Veneno, which tells the story of Cristina Ortiz, a 1990s trans icon.
The collection hits all the Cavalli beats: It’s molto heavy on animal motifs, and the clothes are cut to show off lots of skin. Puglisi’s signature double-slit dress, which was made famous by J.Lo and Kendall Jenner, reappears in RC prints. That said, not everything is headed for the nightclub or the red carpet. Cavalli built his brand on fashionable denim in the 1970s. Puglisi dyed his denim in the black and beige shades that dominate the season’s palette. Hoodies, puffers, and leather perfectos with gold claw embellishments are also foundational.
But of course, the high drama looks will be the ones that register. Kim Kardashian West has been snapping up vintage Roberto Cavalli for the last couple of years, including a tiger face dress once worn by Cindy Crawford. Is it any surprise that the tiger face features so prominently here?
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