Fausto Puglisi Spring/Summer 2018

http://www.faustopuglisi.com

White and black macramé, Chantilly lace, romantic ruffle, crispy linen and just an occasional coloured floral print or a flash of pale pink -perhaps one of the most elegant and fragile collections on the runways of Milan Fashion Week this Fall. Deliberately simplified, soft and flared shapes in various-length slip and lace shirt dresses, silk robes, petticoats and fourreau, veiled with edging overlays of broderie anglais. Luxury material and all focus on perfectly executed detail - from the hand-embroidered garments and until flower appliqués ballet pumps or crowns dangling with pearland coral charms.

So Fluid. So Feminine. So not Fausto.

Indeed, over the years we have come to associate the name Fausto Puglisi with flashy and frisky (especially after last season’s female popes hyperbole, God bless). It’s hard to imagine him without his exuberance, colour-blocking, over-the-top glam Sicily style, which became his most defining trait. Yet, it didn’t feel like a desperate attempt at change or a designer crisis. No matter what - it’s still him. In the ‘a little too high for church service’ slits, in the complex carvings on leather andin the occasional touches of red and gold embroidery or beading. Him, but amore calm and refined.

Having taken inspiration in his hometown of Messina, as well as in the black-and-white paletteof Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, this season’s womenswear is not merely a reflection of grace, but more importantly - of the new Fausto. Having kept some of his most definite elements intact - he managed to replace the aggressiveness with a delicate baroque minimalism we instantly fell for.

“…this time everything goes through family memories and a sense of new, liberating inner peace - only recently conquered -and I think the world really needs to find it again."

Words Ksenia Trufanova

Images Ludovica Varotto