When the Thai love idol Keng Harit rolled outside this show—in a Ferrari, naturally—the crowd of young women waiting to glimpse him screamed at a very specific frequency. Inside, Rocco Iannone was briefing journalists on the eroticism he intended to transmit in a collectsion that centered around skin, speed, and sensuality.
Today marked Iannone’s 10th show since slipping into the Ferrari fashion line driver’s seat. He has recently expanded his practice by designing costumes for a new performance of Benjamin Millepied’s ballet I Feel the Earth Move. Appropriately enough, Iannone discussed the language of the body and the sharing of emotion through touch before today’s runway outing.
This show was set around an oval pool of water into which drops occasionally fell from rigging above, before the faucets were opened at the finale to allow for a deluge. It opened with a group of pale leather looks—suiting, a wrapped column dress, a ruffle-front sheath, an overcoat—in which you could sometimes glimpse a lining in the house red. A dress in vertically ribbed silk jersey was gathered in diagonal swirls around the body. Shawl-collar padded jackets in ivory silk seemed derived from racingwear but looked ceremonially delicate and considered.
Glossy moiré suiting; some interestingly finished, almost rusty denim looks; and some fitted deconstructed tailoring came next. Leather outerwear, often oversized, was texturized to have the same gnarled finish as a tortoiseshell. An interesting dark knit was nubbed as if it had been plucked free of feathers. A closing trio of crystal-embroidered gowns was prefaced by a vaguely animal quartet of looks cut from a chiffon lined with locks of hairlike silk fringing. If the earth didn’t quite move, this was still an engagingly ambitious and technically impressive performance from Iannone and his team of Ferrari fashion engineers.
