Kudos was the overriding sentiment from those at Gianfranco Ferré, where womenswear design duo Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi proved, for their first outing, that their ultra-modern vision for the future of the house extended neatly into menswear, instead of placing brand heritage front and center. Playing to the architectural strengths of the name, the highlight of the collection were the coats, which came with shoulders sculpted (just so, ensuring that a man would be unlikely to run a mile), tightly snug pants, oversized knits, high necks that obscured the chin (Kaiser Karl should be lurving those elevated collars), or unravelled into big scarves that cocooned the shoulders. Suiting also proved strong, razor-sharp and rendered in high tech, high gloss fabrics -accented neatly with the occasional sliver of a skinny leather tie. As Gianfranco Ferré was known for his meticulous way of using structure in his works, the duo has undoubtedly chosen to keep the late designer's name in its modern relevance. The past meets the not-too-distant future, is how you can describe this first collection. Inspired by the sixties and early seventies, a color pallete of fresh winter whites, simmering silvers , and midnight blacks - was anything but re-worked vintage.The designers’ craftsmanship and architectural flair should be applauded and felt coherent in menswear, but they may have veered too far from the traditional Ferré man. The question is : will he follow suit ?
