Alberta Ferretti is a dynamic, pragmatic woman; she knows rather well that women are challenged enough in their everyday lives without having to also be challenged by their wardrobes. That’s why she has cleverly adapted her collections to our fast-paced reality, expanding an efficient daywear offering and injecting her style’s ethereal femininity with a spirit of youthful energy. But make no mistake: She’s not running after millennials. “Youth for me is a state of mind,” she said. She has surely embraced a utilitarian sporty direction, yet she did it her way, with an elevated approach, rich in decorative details and rather elaborate. Streetwear isn’t a word that’s included in her vocabulary; she’s even a little critical about it. “I’d like to bring fashion to the street, rather than bring the street into fashion,” she explained.
For Pre-Fall Ferretti continued to broaden her daywear horizons. The jacket was the collection’s pièce de résistance, offered in different iterations: masculine with a fitted waist; loose and comfortable like a sweater; elongated to the point of becoming a dress. It was often paired with sporty high-waisted pants in soft leather or in stonewashed jeans cut elliptically along the leg to widen its proportions. “I’m trying to make things difficult for high street copycats!” she said, pointing out a gorgeous oversize crocheted knit sweater, elaborately embroidered by hand with abstract motifs. Not easy to replicate, surely.
Outerwear came with an imaginative flair, as in a brown waterproof moleskin peacoat hybridized with a cape. Paired with high-waisted canvas trousers and a matching quilted waistcoat, it looked practical yet inventive. On the same dynamic note, dresses were feminine, svelte, and short, sometimes with crisp, romantic blouses worn underneath. Eveningwear had the same spirited attitude. Embellishments weren’t much indulged, save for a luminous straight-cut minidress embroidered all over with lozenge-shaped silver sequins. It looked pretty cool.
