Etro - Осень 2009 ready-to-wear

MILAN, March 1, 2009 By Sarah Mower Somewhere in the processing of material for her collections, Veronica Etro always manages to excavate a timely East-West connection that reflects the culturally eclectic heritage of her family company. This time, she said she was looking to Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire, whose treasures happen to have just been on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. That meant she could find her own way to weave the season's burnished golds, bronzes, and copper into her show. It also led her to detail neckpieces and belts to evoke the feathers of the angel wings seen in Byzantine icons, and to design spice-tinted prints derived, perhaps, from the patterns of Turkish carpets. Not that you needed a degree in art history to understand what was on show. In truth, Etro has settled into a sensible groove of accessible daywear, one that accommodates house signatures like the paisley coat, edged in gilded leather, as well as specialties like the flowy, halter-neck scarf dresses presented for evening. The gilt-edged suede shoes and the gold-and-fringed bags might pique the interest of a cherry-picking fashion shopper for fall, but mostly Etro has steered the company's designs toward steady middle-of-the-road fare—a safe port in a storm, perhaps, for a company with a following of people who don't care too much about transient trend agendas.