Milan fashion packs up with jet-set Martini

MILAN — Alviero Martini appropriately used his trademark travellers’ map of the world design in outfits on the last day of womenswear shows here before the fashion crowd moves on to Paris.

The antique map, which first featured on luxury leather luggage, was transformed in Martini’s First Class collection for winter 2007-2008 to appear stamped on black silk or floating in soft, mohair jumpers and dresses.

Martini kept to the traveler theme with a backdrop of London nightlife, as models walked down the catwalk at a hall in Milan’s exhibition center to laid-back soul vocals.

The designer used the map to grace a cream gossamer mohair dress nipped in above the knee, with a huge rib neck pulled over the head into a cowl, or put it on soft caramel suede boots worn with thick ribbed cream tights.

Deep green velvet that could have graced a first-class compartment on the Orient Express was tailored into a smart suit with tight-fitting trousers and a jacket that emphasized waist and hips.

Martini picked rich mulberry, coffee and cream for a striking giant houndstooth check that he used on trousers, or for a short skirt that tapered upwards into a coffee wool ribbed strapless bodice.

Boots were in berry, deep green or caramel suede, soft enough to turn over and fall back to the ankle showing sheepskin inners – a contrast to the black shiny leather thigh-high versions seen earlier in the week at Gucci and Burberry.

Martini ended the show with black evening wear that were in fabrics light enough to scrunch up into a ball – and tuck into your travel bag.

A prim, buttoned-up shirt collar blouse seen earlier in coffee silk metamorphosed into a black satin version which slipped into black wool rib for a bodice and ended in tight black jodhpurs.