No 21 S/S 2015

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.

High-heeled mule versions that gave a sassy twist to high-waisted lace pencil skirts worn with crisp poplin shirts

his crystal crusted corsages and squiggly floral beading beamed with top quality grandeur

When they slithered over poor fabrics like army khaki or black and slacker red wool plaids.

It's an unlikely combination but one that Dell'Acqua has finely honed at his label No. 21.

JJ Martin