From The Straits Times    |

All the money in the world could not buy the level of opulence that Gucci championed this season for its Spring Summer 2012 collection.

Right from the very start, it was apparent Gucci’s creative director, Frida Giannini, was thinking about outfits that channelled luxury and decadence, with a bold Art Deco-esque Kelly green, metallic gold and black jacket, and later a velvet smoking jacket with a jet black snakeskin lapel alongside a gold cummerbund.

The 1920s flapper girl vibe that so many designers fell in love with for the season seemed to also inspire Giannini. There were drop-waist dresses aplenty, from a chic Kelly green sheath that cut close to the body and which ended in a vintage scarf-print hem, to the more dramatic gold and black number dripping in beads and later metallic gold fringe.

  
Images from Showbit

But if the collection was meant to be entirely 20s-inspired, Giannini didn’t say so.

“As a whole, the collection is graphic, bold and fresh. I wanted to create clothes with an architectural point of view,” said Giannini briefly backstage after the show.

It could be that she was instead thinking of the power woman in the city, aka the Annie Hall of our times, as silhouettes in general were tailored, masculine and sharp, with cropped tailored blazers worn over high-waisted ankle-grazing pants, some of which came with sporty stripes in a contrasting colour down the side.

  
Images from Getty

Somehow, it was hard not to notice all the gold that Giannini seemed to have poured into this collection, for it was everywhere, as gold buttons on trouser hems, as gold chain hardware on the bags, as gold buckles on belts and as gold chain latches in place of buttons. Even prints weren’t spared the fate of being decked  out in gold, as a zebra-ikat print blazer came with black and gold alternating stripes.

Of course, all the gold would be great news to the “I-love-gold-hardware” camp, for the gold was – in most part – tastefully done. But to the people belonging to the other camp, the “I-only-like-silver-hardware” posse, it is highly likely that they will look elsewhere to fill up their wardrobes for summer next year.