ROBERTO CAVALLI

In his first menswear collection or Roberto Cavalli creative director Peter Dundas establishes a blueprint or the new Cavalli man, proposing a wardrobe or the twenty-first century dandy. The all 2016 collection is the first step inside his wardrobe - a mix, a melange, a melding of casual and tailored elements, juxtaposing the precious and the everyday.

The collection is infused with the Freedom of the late sixties and early seventies: sensual, sexual, decadent. Exploring the symbiosis between Cavalli and the wardrobe of the world’s greatest rock stars, Peter Dundas references his musical heroes: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, George Harrison, Gram Parsons and Serge Gainsbourg. The all 2016 Cavalli man is presented as a rock icon, his masculinity made even more potent by the touches of femininity in his attire.

The mood is of bohemia. The collection riffs on a new Cavalli menswear vernacular, pulling archetypal pieces from the archives, but reinvigorating them with a contemporary energy. Animal prints, intricately worked fur, exotics and leather, embroideries inspired by the orient and India, decoration in abundance. All are present, endlessly mixed, but given the nonchalant attitude of today.

The palette is muted: bitter chocolate and rust, dusty rose, sepia and tobacco, embedded with jewel tones: amethyst, emerald and ruby. Dark tweeds are threaded with peridot green and kingfisher blue, contrasted with supple silks, lamé, and the glimmer of sequins, even or day.

The silhouette is long and lean, trousers flaring slightly, shoulders narrow, jackets elongated, coats dusting the calves. Traditional gentleman’s suiting in wool and tweed is combined with jacquards and prints referencing the work of William Morris. Flora and fauna invade classic polka-dot and fair isle patterns with darting dragonflies and wriggling snakes. Cavalli’s signature big-cat prints are once more in abundance, joined by trompe-l’oeil kimono embroideries and foulard silks cut into fluid lounging pajama styles. Those add a hint of loucheness to the wardrobe. They are worn for evening - but never in bed.


Peter Dundas has always been inspired by the powerful, sensual women to whom Cavalli’s masculine icons are inevitably drawn: he showcases a selection of his pre-fall 2016 womenswear collection alongside the men, further emphasizing the unity of the house’s new creative spirit. Models meander through the grandeur of the Palazzo Crespi - a palazzo/casa, or museum-home, its opulence resolutely part of reality. Just like the wardrobe of the Robert Cavalli man, and woman.