Milan Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2011: Just Cavalli

I have never really been much of a Cavalli girl. But for his second line this season, the Italian fashion mogul turned out a collection with a seventies glittering and golden disco-meets-paisley-printed-pajama-meets-cowgirl feel, a sort of amalgam of cute and innocent with the adventurous. It reminded me a bit of what Topshop Unique was playing at for Spring/Summer (revisit that runway moment here), a sort of flirtation with the 70's aesthetic through a 90's lens. 

Photos by Andrew Miller

While there were plenty of pieces and whole looks which I adored--oversized printed pajama pant and jumpsuits, shaggy sheepskin bustled and bundled mini dresses (I need, I need, I need!!!), floral tiered prairie dresses and python printed chiffon caftans, I daresay what Mr. Cavalli was in need of this collection was Just an Edit. 

The looks were all over the place, but not necessarily in a way that was coherent and congruent. For me, denim is the Just Cavalli signature, and the three or four denim looks that walked the show just felt like an awkward intrusion, an insertion just for the sake of it. And as soon as the tie-dye denim on denim looks came, they went, and there wasn't so much as a gesture towards the signature fabric again for the rest of the show.

While my favorite part of the show no doubt lay in the deployment of goat and sheepskin oversized shaggy outerwear (and the boxy saloon clutches sprouting mini coon tails), some of the yak-shag coats in caramel echoed those of Mr. Lagerfeld's polar bears for last fall. However, since this is mighty Italia and not Paris, Mr. Cavalli utilized real goat in lieu of faux for his shaggy dreamlike creations (I can confirm this because I ran my fingers through the silky and undeniably organic shag backstage).

So I am torn as to my ultimate verdict on the Just Cavalli collection; on a commercial and consumer level, I find it extremely appealing and would personally rock many a look right off the runway. But from a fashion perspective, the collection, despite it's undeniably retail-friendly quality felt a bit schitzophrenic.

Is Mr. Cavalli urging us towards childhood dreams of playing cowboys and indians in our bedrooms or disco fever? Or is there any way in which the two worlds collide to strike a synergy? If you think of an answer, let me know...