Just yesterday, it was reported that archeologists have uncovered new frescoes in Pompeii that date to 30-40 AD, depicting the initiation rites of the followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, festivity, theater, and religious ecstasy. What timing! Fausto Puglisi took Pompeii, the ancient Italian city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, as his starting point this season, having fallen for it on his first visit as a young child.
A little bit like Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana do at their own label, Puglisi has taken to celebrating different locations in Italy at Roberto Cavalli. One season, Carrara and its famous marble, another season his own hometown of Messina, Sicily. Being a print and texture obsessive, he had a lot to work with in Pompeii, from lava flows to frescoes to its native flora and fauna. Naturally, there was some leopard print in the mix, as well, leopard print being practically a neutral for Cavalli, who was a designer with a Dionysian streak, if ever there were one.
Puglisi’s Cavalli is a bit tamer now than it was when he arrived four years ago and hewing closely to the company line. He has the confidence to stray further from the brand’s signature maximalism, and certain pieces, like the dévoré velvet numbers and the slips with 3D nature embroideries had a softness, even a sweetness, that the house founder might not recognize were he around to see them. That’s not to say Puglisi’s gone all shy and retiring. There were dresses by Adrian on his moodboard alongside Pompeii’s frescoes, and the ’40s shoulders on jackets and shirts were cut with the calibrated exuberance the Hollywood costume designer was known for.
According to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Pompeii archeological park, the female followers of Dionysus were the kind of women who “break free from male order to dance freely, go hunting and eat raw meat in the mountains and the woods.” Puglisi’s gals would be game for it, no doubt.
