Peter Dundas, Roberto Cavalli’s newly appointed creative director, has slipped into his new position seamlessly and in some ways going full circle in fact, after beginning his career at the attitude emblazoned fashion house following the turn of the millennium. Taking his salad years at Cavalli into consideration, Dundas did Cavalli but gave it a more consumer-catered spin and the insolently indifferent youth culture that now dictates fashion houses far and wide, from Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent to Jeremy Scott’s Moschino, took over.
Ferocious prints and rich textures were mixed and matched in the animalistic tradition of the house but some pieces were very purposefully ill-fitting in a grungy pop-punk statement and the frills and fringes on deconstructed dresses took on a recklessness that even Cavalli himself was too meticulous to actually allow onto his runway.
Leather, another staple skin at the house, was sculpted around the body more freely and setting this against the leather-and-lace boho brutishness that Dundas excelled in at his previous house, Pucci, made for more statement looks that are sure to make Cavalli a more memorable entrant this season.
More importantly, it finally feels that Roberto Cavalli is a fully-fledged fashion house in its own right on account of Dundas effective debut. Not that Roberto Cavalli hasn’t always been, of course, but now that Cavalli has finally allowed himself to be usurped as chief creative he can focus more on his Cavalli clubs, hotels, vodka and even wine offshoots.
This is a fashion house that has the newfound freedom of being open to interpretation. That’s only if Dundas successfully elevates what the great Roberto has already set in stone.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Roberto Cavalli