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Into The Boudoir At Ungaro
By Timothy Hagy
Backstage after the Emanuel Ungaro show on Thursday, Giambattista Valli was cornered in a small gray-walled cubicle, where friends and admirers pressed at him from all angles. Perplexed security guards gave up trying to direct traffic and instead repeated a mantra - 'please be patient'.
Patience, after all, is what fashion week is all about - waiting for invitations, waiting for shows, and waiting for stressed designers. The only people not waiting are editors with strict deadlines.
At last - wearing a fine gray suit, his dark hair slicked back, Giambattista explained "The crystal chandelier I put over the runway was part of the air of a boudoir I wanted to create for the first half, with a softness and sensuousness."
And there certainly was a delicate femininity to those pieces - tweed jackets and capes in pale rose, lavender and powder blue, some brushed with plumes and others trimmed with silvery sleek fur. The same look was present in the printed cocktail dresses: one especially ravaging one was overlaid with folds of nude scalloped satin and tied with turquoise bows. And yet another was dusty rose in color, twirled with delicate crystal fringe.
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After dabbling with leopard-print furs, and satin slacks, the show then moved on to evening. Colored bright red and hot pink, the full-length gowns trailed by asymmetrical hems hearkened back to the flamenco dresses shown 3 seasons ago. In this incarnation, they were spiced up with beaded tops and bands of rhinestones. If the look perhaps overheated slightly, the collection as a whole was just what Valli designed it to be - soft and lovely, as silky as a fine negligee.
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