With her spring collection parade, Elisabetta Franchi may have been celebrating the first decade of runway shows for her brand, but the event also marked the beginning of a new phase with the arrival earlier this year of former Gucci president Marco Bizzarri as an investor.
As Bizzarri greeted guests before the show, the designer said that “now more than ever with this collection I wanted to project the Elisabetta Franchi woman, feminine, sensual, strong, powerful, who never surrenders and never turns down a heel. This is a collection that is consistent with what I have always believed.”
She drove the point home, and with the help of Carine Roitfeld, who styled the show, these women are certainly no wallflowers, striding with confidence, sensually wearing towering pointy patent leather heels, garter belts, sheer tights, corsets and lingerie-inspired slip dresses in an ode to the female body.
For spring, Franchi mainly worked with the contrast between black and white in a yin and yang interconnection.
This was further exemplified by the flurry of laced dresses and LBD with tiny bows and flowers, juxtaposed with structured jackets – always a key element of Franchi’s wardrobe. These were either worn over masculine-cut pants or feminine tulle and organza silk dresses.
After a group of beautiful evening gowns sparkling with sequins or embellished with glittering fringes, Franchi, who teamed with Pronovias on a bridal collection in May, closed the lineup with a sheer wedding gown with tone-on-tone white floral applications.
Franchi knows her customer and has built a strong community of women who identify with her values. This collection will speak to them, as diverse yet feminine as Amanda Lear and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, both sitting front row.