Giorgio Armani's favourite colour, navy blue, got the electric treatment this season. Starting with inky black tones and finishing off with mesmerising neon, blue got splintered into nearly every shade humanly possible for spring. Paired with only black, white or grey, Armani rigorously kept to brief, but drew like crazy within the confines of his rigorous theme. Striping, colour blocking and scintillating textures - like printed PVC or patent leather - created a shiny and new veneer to the clothes, sometimes to an exaggerated extent. But the highlight of this collection was the funky flat footwear that grounded his whimsical clothes and created a whiff of the modern. Not all of it worked (we're looking at you, hybrid tennis shoe sandal in patent leather), but most of it was terrific like the slip-on Vans, punched hole deck shoes and the two-strap sandals on a flat bed platform.
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
