Milan Fashion Week: Missoni’s free spirits

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With all the attention on the 1970s for spring, it was almost a gimme that Angela Missoni would go there. But it’s how she did it that was so spectacular, with a crazy color and print extravaganza referencing the fiber arts movement in its 1960s and ‘70s heyday.

The mood was set by the group of masked greeters at the entrance to the university courtyard where the runway show took place. They wore colorful knitted masks with fringe and yarn dreadlocks, the work of Italian contemporary artist Aldo Lanzini. I wish she would sell those! They were truly a sight to behold.

On the runway, the look was techno tribal, with layers upon layers of apron dresses, cropped tops, split maxiskirts and collarless jackets in acid-colored folkloric patchworks and zigzag knits.

Some pieces had whimsical intarsia knit words or phrases (‘raw like sushi’ and ‘big dipper,’ for example), like a stream-of-consciousness news feed on a digital sign in Times Square.

Gladiator sandals with colorful knit laces and round neon heels, and knitted leather handbags (carried inside clear plastic Missoni shopping bags, natch), and geometric sunglasses were the perfect accents.

For the finale, models walked the runway with arms outstretched and their square-brimmed hats flapping in the breeze. Free-spirited? Absolutely. If it looks a bit too hippie-raver, you have to imagine the collection pulled apart. Any one of the pieces worn individually with a T-shirt, black dress, pants or blue jeans would be a treasure.

--Booth Moore

Missoni spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery