Ronaldo Arnaldo's dream of dunes
The surprisingly understated holiday collection by Ronaldo Arnaldo featured defined silhouettes, dark colors and muted accents, diverging from the bright op-art cut-outs he had last Fashion Week in October and the billowing flowers he showed at Metrowear the following month. Whether or not it was a recession thing, the restraint worked on all levels, from the mood of the palette to the focus in detailing. The entire collection was cohesive, with each piece alluding to the next one with its fold here or a drape and a ruche there. Signature elements were present, like two-tone paneling or the folded shoulder details on crisply tailored shift dresses.
With dark cinematic music in the background, the models seemed to be part of some retro sci-fi movie where Dune meets The English Patient meets The Sheltering Sky, but then stripped down to their most basic elements of reference — sans the embellishment and frippery of costume, all that is left are the colors and the shapes of the Sahara desert. The woman in the desert is Arnaldo’s inspiration for his collection. “The sand dunes define the limitlessness of her domain as each wave and fold invites an adventure,” he says. Shades of chocolate brown, burgundy, gray and taupe suggest the shifting sands at various parts of the day, while details in purple and aqua reflect the deepening or lightening sky.
A counterpoint to the sandy hues are the printed floral outfits which recall British tea-time. But when you look closely, the print itself is of wildflowers splashed on a cream background, befitting of the (colonial) woman in the desert rather than the garden. Topping them off are wonderful jaunty caps, some sculpted, some turban-like, imbuing the woman with a sense of purpose and movement — a stylish nomadic jet-setter in the early ages of aircraft travel.
The best of his evening gowns have a futuristic simplicity to them, like the metallic gray column dress with a black side panel and a bare strip of a gathered waist, and the burgundy empire cut gown with a fall of chiffon in the front. By futuristic I don’t mean in a Japanese sense or even a French sense (which would still be Japanese), but an ironically timeless and untrendy sense, just like the desert, which is eternally shifting and changing, yet ancient.
