Alessandro Dell’Acqua went for a full-on celebration of dichotomy for resort. He has always touched on contrasts; playing the bourgeois against the rebellious, the proper opposing the louche, and the bon ton tinged with the slightly trashy has been a consistent knack of his throughout his career. This makes sense if you think of his Neapolitan upbringing; the energy of a city is so full of dramatic contradictions that a 1954 comedy, shot in Naples and starring Sophia Loren and the Neapolitan comedian Totó, was called Misery and Nobility, aptly describing the city’s dramatic soul.
Nothing can be further from couture’s spirit of rarity than the casual, quotidian style of current fashion. Dell’Acqua tried his hand at merging the two ingredients, concocting an easy-to-wear collection of covetable pieces, where flourishes of couture blended with the nonchalant, laid-back attitude he favors. Thick handcrafted cotton cardis worn over silk duchesse miniskirts shaped as boulles, as well as attractive black minidresses with huge knotted bows at the front made the case for his couture-versus-casual POV. Introducing a further discordant twist, white cotton tops shaped as the elasticated hemline of masculine boxers peeked out from ultra-short dresses in smooth, sensuous faille, while masculine shirts in precious silk duchesse clashed with slouchy oversized cargo short sin crisp poplin. “Fashion today is about finding a balance between opposite directions,” said the designer. “There’s a free space of experimentation, where imperfections can coexist with the beautiful. That’s what I like—being free of making mistakes.”
