Fur by Roberto Cavalli FW 2012/13

"An earthly paradise populated by creatures of fantasy ...

the Eden of feminity ... my creativity is expressed through clothes 

which make the Cavalli woman a sensual and mysterious being."

Roberto Cavalli

Roberto Cavalli Fall/Winter 2012/13  

There is flash, there is excess,  and then there is Roberto Cavalli.
The artisanshipwas such that the clothes needed to be seen close up, and better still, felt.
The bubble skirts that opened the show, for example, were made up of fur that was
pieced together like feathers. They were shown with T-shirts so densely beaded they could
have been a new kind of reptile skin. By the time, the skirts reached the floor, they were mink 
lasered to look like croc, or python painted in tiger stripes. One could see the preponderance 
of clothes bearing a baroque level of ornamentation in Milanthese past few days as defiantly 
snubbing Italy’s prevailing downbeat economic and political outlook. In that case, Cavalli's 
collection is a full-scale revolt against even the slightest notion that things are heading 
south way south. He paid homage to prowling big cats and slithering reptiles, all the 
better if they’re prowling and slithering over the likes of Naomi Campbell, who 
closed the show with a typically campy, vampy star turn. Cavalli has always loved 
to live big, think big, and design big . . . which leads us back to excess.

Cavalli basically works in two modes pastoral aristocratic bohemian splendor
or Grand Guignol rock ‘n’ roll, and it was the latter that was on  his fall 2012 runway,
a riot of tiger stripes created from strategically placed flower beds. Consider, if you will,
the following Cavalli-isms he sent forth: a short black jacket encrusted with stones to imitate
the scales of a crocodile; flared pants in a snakeskin covered in a leopard print or beaded to
look like tiger skin; a mink coat covered in striations that also called to mind crocodile;
a leather “sequin” tee with . . . a floor-length fur skirt; and still more reptilian scaling on a tiny
satin puffball skirt. Handheld frame purses, the leitmotif of the Milanese purse for this autumn
were structured like old trunks, with decorative, graphic panels constructed out of stripes of
exotic skins, and were worn with chunky, high-laced shoes in leopard, python, and tiger
skin prints. The whole effect made maximalism look as restrained as minimalism,
but it seems somewhat redundant to be pointing this out.

It also seems pointless to say that taste was sometimes as well camouflaged
here as a lion prowling the veldt, ready to pounce on some hapless beast to be claimed
as its next victim. Pointless because that is not the point of Roberto Cavalli. Fashion,
for him, is about having fun, in the most exuberant, extravagant, and yes, excessive way
you can, political correctness be damned. Who cares if that means looking as though at
some point you should have said enough ten minutes ago? It helps, of course, that
he fully utilizes exemplary, intricate craftsmanship to create his larger-than-life looks.
In its way,Cavalli’s Italian artisanal craft, with its time-honored heritage, can be a
pretty defiant gesture against the bad times too.

by ANDREA JANKE

Photo Credit/Source: © VOGUE
Photography by © Marcio Madeira/firstView