It’s Fleet Week in Manhattan, and the streets are thronged with clean-cut men and women looking like so many extras from 1944’s On the Town in their preternaturally pristine white uniforms.
Stefano Pilati was clearly riffing on this nautical vibe with his perky, chic collection that also evoked the era of that classic musical and played with elements of both traditional matelot uniforms and forties-inspired dressmaker details that evoked Yves Saint Laurent’s groundbreaking 1971 show peopled with wartime floozies. The designer himself was appropriately attired in a captain’s navy blazer and white cotton ducks.
A poppy red kid-glove leather trench opened the show, given the Pilati finesse with a crisp white cotton shirt and wedge-heeled espadrilles. Wide navy sailor’s bags were trimmed at the hem with a blazer’s gold buttons. A crisp bonded jersey coatdress was cut with a sailor’s collar. Micro shorts were woven with an all-over anchor motif—and if one missed the message, golden anchors dangled from silk-cord choker necklaces or as fobs from a belt loop. The strident color combinations—black and white with chrome yellow or scarlet—seemed like so many flags in a regatta, and their bold prints turned out to be mooring ropes. For evening, the anemone prints that appeared on some of those daytime espadrilles blossomed into feminine and intriguingly cut frocks and gowns, although life at sea was suggested here too, in the Mediterranean azure and ultramarine of a crepe de Chine tap-pants set.