The Fashion Plate Magazine

The first model to walk the Lucio Vanotti runway looked like she stepped out of Melanie Griffith’s Oscar winning film “Working girl”. The film was a huge hit. It was set in New York City and it was a common American story about a young, brilliant woman with great ideas and nowhere to pitch them because she lacked the social standing to push her way into a job and she didn’t have a penis.

At the Lucio Vanotti show, seeing the model brought back all the vibes from that 80s film. The model was styled in over-sized fashion, black pantyhose and white trainers.

In the 80s, trainers were functional footwear working women loved! The comfortable design made it easier for women who needed to rush home after work, they would swap their work heels for a pair of trainers. It was THE look on the 5pm commuter trains back to the boroughs.

Lucio Vanotti taps into that spirit for fall/ winter 2018-19. This is a big deal for a traditional country like Italy because wearing trainers after work would have been a style no-go in any other time period for fashion conscious Italian women.

Now, trainers are a more acceptable, and stylish, form of footwear. I’ve seen more trainers at shoe presentations during Milan Fashion Week than any season in the past.

For Lucio Vanotti fall/winter 2018-19 the clothes were equally nostalgic. Models walked the catwalk in the over-sized styles so loved by the newly rich in the 80s. Because, of course, nothing says “I’ve arrived” like yards and yards of fabric.

The looks Lucio Vanotti presented were what you’d have seen worn by corporate executive types jet-setting to the mountains for the weekend. And in true style, Lucio saturated the color palette.

The bright colors were a big departure from the designers usual earth tones. But Vanotti truly wanted to give us 80s consumerism, but the right way (pay attention Marc), Vanotti worked with modern textiles to create the shape, but not the waste.

But what stood out the most were the white heels and black pantyhose. They were the REAL throwback to the counter-cultural “commuter” trainers.

You see another interesting, but sad, fact about American work culture in the 80s is that women were required to wear pantyhose and heels at work.

By the time I grew up that rule was firmly broken.

It was a nice reference for the show. Lucio Vanotti’s white heel/ black pantyhose styling is now a fun and modern look and a subtle nod acknowledging the strides of women and supporting feminism.