Milan-based designer Alessandro Dell'Acqua has got the market covered when it comes to matriarchal gear amped up with a dose of sex appeal. It's an unlikely combination but one that Dell'Acqua has finely honed at his label No. 21. This season he reprised his famous elderly-home slippers but constructed them in stiff, couture-worthy satin that was tied into a dramatic debutante bow over the foot. The same bow motif was applied to naughtier - and more sprightly - high-heeled mule versions that gave a sassy twist to high-waisted lace pencil skirts worn with crisp poplin shirts. Dell'Acqua's workmanship is always a superb example of why the effort and cost to continue to 'make in Italy' is worth it: his crystal crusted corsages and squiggly floral beading beamed with top quality grandeur, even when they slithered over poor fabrics like army khaki or black and slacker red wool plaids.
