Gucci's take-over of Yves Saint Laurent last December appears to have had an impact on Gucci designer Tom Ford. Gucci's new autumn collection takes on a bourgeois slant, but beneath that carapace of respectability and ladylike polish, there is the flash and glitz of a rock chick waiting to get out.
What Ford has done is tap the looks of Gucci from back in its heyday of the 1960s and 1970s before the label became so widely copied and devalued during the 1980s. Classic luxurious honey-coloured leather coats and patterned lurex mini-dresses, worn with Jackie O sunglasses and scarf-bandanas, have been updated with a little biker chic.
This means a white leather biker jacket flourishes a pussy-cat bow neckline, and a glamorous frilled shirt and tailored jacket are teamed with skinny leather biker pants. Fur, and there is a lot of it in Milan this week, is worked into racy chevron patterns for coats and leather is bronzed or gilded into flashy, but ladylike, belted coats. The big surprise was a little black Audrey Hepburn dress with stiff frills sprouting from V-neck and cuffs - very couture.
Elements of the tough, chic look also emerged in Giorgio Armani's Emporio Collection, where he would top a wispy black chiffon slip-dress or a swishy accordion-pleated velvet skirt with a leather bustier. Armani was breaking with tradition this season, showing less tailoring and mixing his separates in a fun way.
This meant super-chic black velvet jackets over floral beaded shorts or adding short, puffy, pie-frill sleeves to a bottle green velvet jacket to create something naive and innocent. Draping a casual pants-and-jacket outfit with a large fur-trimmed chiffon stole was another paradox he enjoyed working on. Deep colours and mixes of velvet, leather, fur and beading give a luxury grown-up face to Armani's youthful label.