Roberto Cavalli stayed true to his animal-fur craze with an extravagant collection which mixed leopard-print bikinis and dresses with a summer scarf made of two foxes tied together.

The floaty summer dress has been a constant on Milan's catwalks this season and Cavalli trod the line carefully between following the trend and branching out in his own style.

Light cinnamon, white and smoke gray leopard print stalked its way down models' bodies, clinging to the hips like a big cat to its prey, before floating out in layers from mid-thigh. A green and blue number was printed with huge lion heads.

For the evening, there was a long slinky black dress made of transparent gauze with dark tiger stripes cutting across it.

Once the big cats retired to their lairs, Cavalli wandered out into the savannah, printing bright red, orange and yellow flowers up skin-tight jeans or tacking them on an evening skirt.

Still not tame enough? Try a single-color, curve-clinging jersey knit dress with huge ruffles which swished about a meter off the knee or tight blue leather trousers sprayed with gold.

"It was very sexy, very Cavalli," said Luigi Lantoni, a guest at the show who picked out a tiny cropped leather jacket worn with low skinny-fit trousers as his favorite outfit.

But others wondered how the collection would travel from the wild safari to the city street.

"It was terribly extravagant but a little too much. You have to be so skinny to wear those clothes properly," said a buyer for an Italian department store who asked not to be named.

"The only thing I know will sell were the calf-high suede boots and the cowboy belts," she added.

Psychedelic style

While Cavalli wandered around where the wild things were, Emilio Pucci dressed his women for a more relaxed and happy-go-lucky summer holiday.

The designer known for his psychedelic style was true to form, swirling pretty much every colour in the book on to anything that wasn't skin.

Pucci is definitely spending next summer at the beach, with his multicolored swimming towels, beach bags and floppy hats.

The signature swirls were even printed on sunglasses which stood square across the face on wide arms like the paper glasses you wear to watch three-dimensional films.

As for the clothes, chiffon ruled yet again, in pastel rainbow colors or a mix of blues and grays.

The floaty dress made its regular appearance but Pucci cut it sexily onto the body with plunging V-necks and yokes which skirted slimmingly across the hips. Looser fitting dresses fell from square dungaree-style tops, held up with shoulder straps which roped through little loops along the neckline.

The colors, styles and general look have been seen in previous summers but Pucci proved the truth of the saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it."

The collection got a rare standing ovation from some of fashion's top editors while powerful buyers booked appointments to see the clothes close up before flying to Paris for the next round of catwalk shows.

(Shanghai Star 10/11/2001)