Emilio Pucci Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

All of Milan seems to be on a 1970s trip, but the fringe, gossamer goddess gowns, and hippie beading we’ve seen on the runways here have been in Peter Dundas’ bag of tricks since the beginning at Emilio Pucci. On the penultimate day of fashion week, it’s safe to say that he does them better than anyone. He certainly injects them with more sex appeal. Need convincing? Click to Anna Ewers in a beaded macramé minidress and suede boots. See what we mean?

Dundas understands the value of power casting; he had Naomi Campbell in his lineup for the first time today. (“What took you so long?” she ribbed him at dinner later.) Ogling the models is understandable enough—they’re mere inches from your eyeballs at the Palazzo Serbelloni venue. But if you do, you might miss the artisanal details that Dundas has made as much a contemporary Pucci signature as the Florentine house’s famous archival prints.

Ewers’ macramé dress was originally embroidered on tulle, later removed so that only the tracery of beads remained. The embroidered flowers and studs on a sharply tailored pink suede blazer also dazzled, and if the tie-dye tent dresses looked like the real thing, that’s because the prints were based on get-your-hands-dirty trial and error.

Slick tailoring provided a strong counterpoint to this season’s artisanship. A tangerine orange flared pantsuit worn with a burgundy crocheted tank will remain seared in our memory for some time. Ultimately, though, Dundas zeroed in on precisely what women come to Pucci for. The finale series of printed goddess dresses was lush and gorgeous, the best of all suspended from bejeweled metal bib necklaces.

Anthony Vaccarello Spring 2015 Ready To Wear

Anthony Vaccarello took his second bow of the season tonight. In New York he’d walked down the Versus runway with Donatella Versace, trailed by models wearing the label’s most spot-on collection since it was revived five years ago. The experience with Donatella must have had an effect on him. Vaccarello’s team for his own label is four people. Versace’s? Let’s just say it’s a lot bigger. So it’s no wonder Vaccarello was in innovation mode today, thinking about his own brand, and branding. The first look out was a logo sweatshirt, stamped with his name and the season, worn with one of his signature diagonally sliced miniskirts and a shrunken leather jacket. A somewhat banal beginning, but one that Vaccarello made up for later with the cool, graphic manipulations of both his name and the word “Spring.”

The world of ships and sailors was Vaccarello’s jumping-off point. His seafaring references ran from the obvious to the less so—a brass anchor planted on the chest of a neatly cut sleeveless jacket; button-down shirts unbuttoned to the navel, conjuring visions of swashbuckling pirates. Vaccarello also had some sharp-looking denim, tailored in his typical take-no-prisoners way—note the on-theme portholes. But the real news was in the dresses and separates emblazoned with block letters created, he explained, by laser-cutting plastic film and heat-transferring it onto fabric. They twisted around the torso or the hips (occasionally and unfortunately exposing the models’ undies) like a sail wraps around a mast. Vaccarello hinted that the block letters were inspired partly by France’s many protests and partly by the artist Richard Prince. There was also the Versace factor: Those were his first-ever prints, bold and unmistakable. Donatella would approve.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2015 Ready to Wear

The idea of getting “dressed to kill” (or be killed) originated with bullfighters. Are you for one second surprised that for Dolce & Gabbana, Spain is the new Sicily? Those two points on the compass share a wealth of inspirations for Domenico and Stefano. Today there were a black net sheath, a black corset paired with thigh-high black stockings, a black jacket and pencil skirt combination that had the sexy severity of the racy widow—all of it adding up to enough Catholic guilt to choke a pope. There were also flamenco polka dots.

But at the same time, the corrida opened up a new world of possibilities for the designers. The silhouette and embellishment of a matador’s jacket inspired an entire passage of the collection. It was aired with rompers to bring it up to this decade. Then there was the color red: the color of blood in the bullring, the color of the carnations that were Domenico’s mother’s favorite flowers. They were embroidered everywhere, but were most effective as the streamlined adjunct to a body-conscious striped top.

The show was huge, but inside, fighting to get out, was a straightforward story of leggy silhouettes, romantic full skirts, and ornate embellishment on simple shapes. The finale nailed that. The Dolce army marched in white bullfighter shirts and high-waisted, embroidered