Scorecard | Jil Sander Wins!

Women's Fashion
By Alison S. Cohn

The Laws of Fashion are funny things. Raf Simons took minimalism to the max via couture volumes at Jil Sander last season, and on the fourth day of the current shows Milan’s other master of chic sobriety, Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier, went curvilinear — yet Scorecard knows critics couldn’t agree on whether his sixties-inspired silhouettes were mired in stasis or moved on. The designer for the house that Jil built, meanwhile, pared down his billowing volumes to tops and added sleek ski pants, proving to be an unstoppable force.

Fall 2011 Fashion Week

Jil Sander
Designer: Raf Simons
Date and Location: Saturday, Feb. 26, Via Beltrami, 5
Photos: slide show

  • “Raf Simons did it again, following last season’s Jil Sander spectacular with a repeat performance.” (All The Rage)
  • “Raf Simons did it again.” (AP)
  • “A voluminous array of … colour.” (Catwalk Queen)
  • “Perfectly architectural shapes.” (Daily Front Row)
  • “Dramatic.” (The Daily Telegraph)
  • “Raf Simons manages to combine the elegant with the directional.” (ELLEuk.com)
  • “Minimalist silhouettes that define the Jil Sander brand got a fresh look through the maximalist lens of last season.” (FabSugar)
  • “A melodramatic, emotional feel.” (Fashionista)
  • “Just where Jil Sander was to go, after last season’s knock out neon collection, had packed audiences praying it would be something that lifted their spirits as much. … Thank God then he didn’t pull the rug from under us.” (Grazia)
  • “A minimalist triumph of color, comfort, and clean lines.” (Heard on the Runway)
  • “This bravura performance from Raf Simons raised the vivid color and volume of last season to mesmerizing heights.” (International Herald Tribune)
  • “The clothes … were completely contemporary, engaging, with a distinct palette — gorgeous forest and teal greens, chocolate and silvery gray. Above all, you had the impression that the talented Mr. Simons was doing exactly what he wanted to do.” (On The Runway)
  • “This was about the future of retro, taking the old and fashioning something entirely new. It was mesmerising to watch. It will be to wear, too.” (SHOWstudio.com)
  • “[A] note-perfect hybrid of skiwear and haute couture.” (Style.com)
  • “In the centrifuge of Simons’ imagination, this welter of period references was deftly spun into a thoroughly modern vision of chic.” (Vogue.com)
  • “The entire show was a natural step from the last — a wearable way to wear the volume he introduced for the current season.” (Vogue.com UK)
  • “Simons is taking a firm stance against mass luxury. High-fashion, he’s suggesting, needs some high-mindedness. Here, here.” (WWD)

Bottega Veneta
Designer: Tomas Maier
Date and Location: Saturday, Feb. 26, Via Privata Ercole Marelli, 6
Photos: slide show

  • “A crack collection.” (All The Rage)
  • “Could be called sexy vintage.” (AP)
  • “[Maier’s] Fall collection was the amalgamation of deceptively simple silhouettes and an assault of texture.” (Daily Front Row)
  • “Something of a departure for the normally rather austere approach of Maier.” (The Daily Telegraph)
  • “Tomas Maier made ingenious use of fabrics and textures to tweak classic silhouettes.” (FabSugar)
  • “This was very much a hit and miss collection.” (Fashion Wire Daily)
  • “What a thoughtful, beautiful collection.” (Fashionista)
  • “The silhouette was perfectly polite … [b]ut it was in the fabrics that, as usual, designer Thomas Maier shows his innovative strength.” (Grazia)
  • “Mr. Maier’s slightly off-kilter approach — like the eccentric lady who lives around the corner — give ladylike primness a gutsy attitude.” (Heard on the Runway)
  • “The collection had a dash and bravura within its graphic frames.” (International Herald Tribune)
  • “This measured stylishness felt very static, and I can’t say exactly why.” (On The Runway)
  • “Think Mrs Robinson from ‘The Graduate’, early Jackie Onassis, or even Jacqueline Susann’s ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ and you’ll have a great idea of what Maier showed. … It wasn’t bad, it was just different — for Maier, at least.” (SHOWstudio.com)
  • “If the designer’s interest in knee-length skirts, trim little cardigans, sleeveless shifts, and sparkling semiprecious jewelry seemed almost Hitchcockian, the clothes were hardly prim.” (Style.com)
  • “Maier’s success is that he’s the first designer to make completely modern sense of the feeling for the sixties that has Milan in thrall.” (Vogue.com)
  • “The ladylike silhouettes [were] given a disturbing element by the chaotic clash of fabric and colour.” (Vogue.com UK)
  • “His program notes staked claim to positioning ‘between restraint and exuberance,’ which appeared to be code for ‘between Prada and Oscar de la Renta’ — the former if one observed the lineup ironically; if not, the latter.” (WWD)

Emilio Pucci
Designer: Peter Dundas
Date and Location: Saturday, Feb. 26, Corso Venezia, 16
Photos: slide show

  • “Peter Dundas’ inspiration was a hybrid of Austrian costuming and ladylike style a la parisienne, and the effects were … certainly wearable. If you are willing to show un peu de poitrine, that is.” (Daily Front Row)
  • “Peter Dundas’ rich hippie turned into ‘haute Heidi’ in a fairytale Tyrolean fantasy.” (The Daily Telegraph)
  • “This Tyrolean romp took place in the corridors — and bedrooms — of winter palaces.” (ELLEuk.com)
  • “The brief touches of the Pucci heritage came like an apology … [b]ut the designer did focus on craftsmanship, so rich and rare that it served both as embellishment and as reminder of what Italian handwork can bring as decoration.” (International Herald Tribune)
  • “Dundas, it seems, can sex up anything.” (SHOWstudio.com)
  • “Peter Dundas gave the hippie-deluxe look he’s made his signature during his two years at Emilio Pucci the old heave-ho.” (Style.com)
  • “What really came through here is the genuine frisson of sexed-up glamour that was once the sine qua non of Milan and now seems in rather short supply in this city.” (Vogue.com)
  • “Super sexy.” (Vogue.com UK)
  • “The hills are alive — with sexy glamazons.” (WWD)

Emporio Armani
Designer: Giorgio Armani
Date and Location: Saturday, Feb. 26, Via Privata Ercole Marelli, 6
Photos: slide show

  • “Secret agent femme fatales captivated the Emporio Armani show.” (AFP)
  • “Armani has gone black — or is that noir? — for his Emporio collection.” (AP)
  • “Lacked the wow factor.” (Catwalk Queen)
  • “Giorgio Armani riffed on his signature mostly-noir silhouettes — slouchy silk trousers, angular jackets, full-skirted coats, and flutter-hem cocktail dresses — to perfectly sales floor-friendly effect.” ( Daily Front Row)
  • “Mata Hari allure.” (The Daily Telegraph)
  • “Espionage has never been so appealing.” (ELLEuk.com)
  • “It’s a little edgy, just the way today’s confident woman would wear her black.” (FabSugar)
  • “Both luxe and lax.” (Fashionista)
  • “These would-be secret agents weren’t very enigmatic.” (Heard on the Runway)
  • “A collection where it was easy to spy the urban casual wear that would be a winner.” (International Herald Tribune)
  • “What rinsing the colour from these clothes also allowed Armani to do is focus on what he really does best, which is tailoring and shape.” (SHOWstudio.com)
  • “Yes, they were all dressed in black, but the femmes in the show weren’t particularly fatales.” (Style.com)
  • “A demure version of the Armani sophistication we know well.” (Vogue.com UK)
  • “An exercise in monochromatic restraint.” (WWD)

Roberto Cavalli
Designer: Roberto Cavalli
Date and Location: Saturday, Feb. 26, Arco Della Pace, Piazza Sempione
Photos: slide show

  • “The designer known for sexy, edgy looks that have particular appeal with young women dipped into his archives to aggregate … reptile and animal prints, feather and luxurious embroidery.” (AP)
  • “Dark, fearsome and fighting an apocalyptic war was the woman who walked in Roberto Cavalli’s A/W ’11 ready-to-wear show.” (Catwalk Queen)
  • “Hungry for animalier? Then you’re in the right place.” (Daily Front Row)
  • “Resembled an Art Deco installation.” (The Daily Telegraph)
  • “Autumn winter’s Cavalli warrior had the requisite layers upon layers of animal print chiffon and snakeskin.” (ELLEuk.com)
  • “Roberto Cavalli has not changed his spots.” (Heard on the Runway)
  • “Mr. Cavalli is a world-class decorator.” (International Herald Tribune)
  • “The core of the collection remained the tough edge of Cavalli’s new bohemia.” (Style.com)
  • “Anything that glisters and glimmers in the way of lamé, Lurex, and panne velvet has come to the fore this season in Milan. That, of course, gives Mr. Roberto Cavalli the ideal opportunity to hammer out another way to lay on the opulence for his hippie-chick for fall.” (Vogue.com)
  • “Roberto Cavalli stuck with the apocalyptic anarchy of his spring/summer 2011 collection.” (Vogue.com UK)
  • “Roberto Cavalli’s a seasoned pro at getting the most mileage out of a winning recipe. After all, he didn’t rack up 40 years in the business with a rock-and-roll, fringe-meets-animal print formula for nothing.” (WWD)