MILAN — It felt like a celebration with outdated buddies.
Eva Herzigova, Natasha Poly, Karen Elson, Joan Smalls, Isabeli Fontana, Alek Wek and Mariacarla Boscono walked the runway, blowing kisses and smiling broadly as they filed out one after the opposite carrying archival Roberto Cavalli appears to be like revisited by present artistic director Fausto Puglisi.
After a picture of the late designer was blown up on a display screen within the background, the fashions appeared in Puglisi’s spring assortment to cheers and clapping and a remixed soundtrack of “Residing on My Personal” by Freddie Mercury. It was a second that was made much more vital as Puglisi joined them to take his bow and satisfied Eva Cavalli, Roberto’s longtime muse and spouse, to depart her seat and stroll the runway, all embracing, kissing and searching like they had been having enjoyable.
Backstage at Roberto Cavalli Spring 2025 Prepared-to-Put on Assortment at Milan Trend Week
Delphine Achard/WWD
That is what Puglisi had in thoughts: A celebration of the late designer, who died in April, aged 83, he stated in an interview forward of the present.
In spite of everything, when he discovered of Cavalli’s demise, his phrases had been: “I’ll really feel your spirit with me at all times,” reiterating that the Tuscan designer would proceed to be “a beacon of inspiration for others, and particularly for me.”
Puglisi, who joined the Roberto Cavalli model in October 2020, has ever since referenced among the late designer’s landmark prints and appears, modernizing them. For his spring 2025 present, he determined he wished to have fun his mentor.
Within the interview, Puglisi stated he had chosen and tapped the fashions he believes had been “most related” with Roberto Cavalli and requested them to put on among the most iconic appears to be like the legendary designer had created through the years.
Backstage at Roberto Cavalli Spring 2025 Prepared-to-Put on Assortment at Milan Trend Week
Delphine Achard/WWD
Some are the unique archival designs, others he tweaked and had them remade. For instance, he reworked one of many authentic slipdresses that had a fur trim, since Puglisi doesn’t work with fur and he believes that artificial fur “wouldn’t render the costume as delicate as the unique one.” He chosen “key objects for each lady touring, working, going to a cocktail or a dance, emphasizing the prints and the unique colours.”
Puglisi stated he was struck by a costume worn by the late American actress and singer Aaliyah, which will probably be revisited. “She was a singer that everybody adored and that everybody nonetheless remembers. After which the memorable Jennifer Lopez look [a gown in a golden hue]. I wished to decide on items which might be related to the world of music as a result of I used to be born with music, I stay via music and work with music. I’m satisfied that if Roberto had not grow to be a designer, he would have been a musician, or a rock star.”
That is additionally a really private challenge. “I considered a really younger Fausto dwelling in New York. At the moment I used to be working as a waiter and Cavalli was the king. Everybody wore Cavalli,” he reminisced. “So that is seen via how I felt then, respecting the essence of that interval, it’s as if it had been a flashback in reminiscence.”
From these appears to be like he created a small capsule that will probably be instantly accessible on-line and completely within the model’s Milan boutique on Through Montenapoleone.
Few could know that Puglisi met Cavalli in Florence when he was requested to be in command of the model’s celebrities. “I lived in Los Angeles on the time and again then I didn’t need to return to Italy, so I declined his supply. However he was fantastic and it is without doubt one of the moments I bear in mind with nice fondness,” mused Puglisi.
Backstage at Roberto Cavalli Spring 2025 Prepared-to-Put on Assortment at Milan Trend Week
Delphine Achard/WWD
He remembers with affection how “blissful and honored” he was to obtain congratulatory messages from the Cavalli himself when he joined the model in October 2020.
Requested what he thinks Cavalli’s most important abilities had been and the way he would characterize him, Puglisi stated that “he was a visionary. He was bigger than life. He was absolute happiness, he dealt in happiness, was the occasion and bought the occasion, he celebrated life with out sham intellectualism, understanding what girls need and what males need. Once I exit, to golf equipment or eating places, in London, Shanghai, Paris or Milan, I see girls who need to have enjoyable. He liked younger folks and liked all that was new.”
Puglisi’s first signal of a tribute to Cavalli after his demise was the choice to vary the route of the resort assortment, transforming the zebra and rose prints. In June, he reinterpreted an archival Ray of Gold print conceived by the namesake founder, who reproduced the picture of a sunbeam refracted on his golden Artwork Deco lighter.
“My objective is to have a dialog with a brand new Cavalli technology, to construct a brand new buyer base,” Puglisi stated, realizing that “girls have modified and so many issues have modified in style. I at all times need to honor Roberto’s work, the king of a novel way of life, and consider what Roberto Cavalli could be right this moment.”
