Umbrellas were standing by at Berluti's summer garden show last night, with inclement weather conditions lending a dewy air to the atmosphere surrounding this particular sartorial brand's lush renaissance. For a house blooming from the luxury footwear trade, designer Alessandro Sartori surprised with sneakers from the first exit onwards, treating them with all Berluti's savoir-faire to arrive at a luxe hybrid that shod his multi-generational casting with casual ease. The designer showed a tonal passage of meticulous heirloom pieces for the dashing 20th century gentleman, in a progressive story of tweeds and checkerboard knitwear that ran from dusty earth tones through olive and forest greens, on to deep chocolate and purples to finish in rich indigo and midnight blue. It is a difficult task to modernise the strict aesthetic frame of such a classical wardrobe, however Sartori succeeded in the light touch of sprayed seams that traced around sports coats and trousers echoing the brand's burnished brogues, or the trim nappa blousons he matched to suit trousers to relax formality with a dashing, urban elegance.
