Well, part of it.Although Vivienne, 75 this year, was at the show, she said that it was all a formality to regularise the many Westwood collections and that Andreas was.... "more in tune with cosmic sources". This admission marks the beginning of the end of the era.Andreas fitted the show to the millennial trend of "gender neutral", although that does not really describe the colourful clothes, wrapped round the body and worn by both sexes with the signature Westwood platform boots. (Naomi Campbell famously fell down in them on the catwalk.)Strong pieces included "scarlet woman" outfits (for both genders), a man's coat shimmering with digital printing, and a charming checked dress, rich with embroidered roses. This season's title was "Sexercise", which sounded much like good ol' Viv.
The essence of the original Emanuel Ungaro shows was exuberance, just as it is for Fausto Puglisi and his own brief-skirted Roman Legion look that he presents in Italy. But for his latest show for Ungaro, the designer zoned out of mini and into maxi, showing mid-calf skirts that were somewhere between the languid 1970s and the edgy 1980s.Add a single leg covered in mesh hose, emerging from the side-slit dresses, and you had an uncertain mix of sober and sexy. With so many shows using inter-twining runways, which often give the audience a second view, the Ungaro presentation was just too briefly in the light, though there were some fine, flat, flower prints that might have been a digital interpretation of Klimt.I am all in favour of showing a range of grown-up clothes, with Fausto's swooping long coats and forward-stride culottes looking like strong power-women creations. But their connection to Emanuel Ungaro's legacy? Hard to know.I remember how proud Emanuel Ungaro was, and no doubt still is, of his three-year period working with Balenciaga. With that name now in the forefront of fashion, Puglisi might have dug more deeply into the heritage of the brand he is charged with reviving.
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