The timing could not have been better. Fausto Puglisi unveiled a collection of Pompeii-inspired looks the day after frescoes depicting Dionysus, the god of wine and indulgence, were unearthed in a banqueting room on the archeological site outside Naples.
Maybe it wasn’t such a coincidence. Puglisi is a culture-lover, poring over architectural details in his native Sicily (and beyond), flitting between churches, museums and archeological sites, snapping pictures of colored marble all over the world.
“I remember the first trip I made with my parents to Pompeii and it’s still in my heart. It’s a magical place, and an extremely modern one as well,” said the designer, pointing to a picture of a dark red Pompeii fresco on his moodboard.
“That deep red is very Rothko-ish. I love that Roman culture is connected to something extremely modern,” he added.
Puglisi dug even deeper into the ancient ruins, working with an artist to recreate a blue-green garden fresco from the site. Its colors spilled over a saucy slip dress edged in black lace, a lineup of gowns embroidered with flowers and vines, and the gold serpent-shaped handles on handbags.
The Pompeii palette dominated, with rich reds and grays for velvet devore slipdresses, and coats covered in lava-hot colors and edged in faux leopard. Those coats, and other hefty furs, were a wink to the founder’s love of animal print, and to the exotic beasts kept by the ancient Romans for hunting games.
Feathery straps on short slip dresses and the delicate choker necklace on a black gown looked as if they were made from gold leaf, while the twinkling oversized sequins on long-sleeved minidress resembled mosaic tiles.
Puglisi went wild with prints, too, using what looked like colored floorplans of the architectural site for knotted, off-the-shoulder scarf tops and matching tap pants and wide-leg jeans.
“We all remember the golden age of Roberto, who used to sell thousands of printed jeans to all the American department stores. Jeans, jeans, jeans! Now, we’re back on track selling printed jeans, but I wanted them to be cooler with a baggier shape but still feminine, and young,” said the designer, who certainly has a respect for history, ancient and otherwise.
