Love, Death, and Rebirth
Review of Roberto Cavalli Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Destruction and regeneration. Echoes across history.
Roberto Cavalli’s Fall 2025 collection sees creative director Fausto Puglisi draws inspiration from the legacy of the destruction of Pompeii: both the spectacle of nature’s destructive and regenerative power, and the way that echoes of the past shape possible futures.
Devoré velvets and printed silks abstractly echo the advance of lava floes and falling ash. Deep, fiery red gives way to soft purple, gold, and ashen gray. The waxed canvas of a set with a sharply shouldered shirt and cargo pants channels shards of lava rock, while one dress that beautifully wraps the wearer’s form recalls the famous casts of bodies at Pompeii frozen in their final moments. Slightly macabre? Yes. Super stylish? Oh yes.
Pieces with armor-like constructions suggest artifacts found at the site of an ancient battle, but the exploration of history isn’t purely ancient. A smart consideration of the way that history is received and interpreted differently across moments in time runs throughout the collection. The Victorian era, for example, was particularly concerned with the practice of collecting and curating antiquity, and nods to Victorian style can be felt in several dresses, as well as the cameo necklace with a portrait of Minerva.
Nods to sensual 80s and 90s glam, of course, are present as well, while the slick sunglasses lend a touch of retrofuturism. The brand’s signature animal print is used relatively sparingly and with intention, and when it does appear brings an animalistic energy that underscores the collection’s reverence for the power that the natural world has to shape human events and artistry.
As the collection progresses, the opening firestorm and transition to muted dormancy ultimately gives way to a final bloom of color, a vivid rebirth. Floral paintings that might have been wall murals at a Pompeii villa live anew across flowing silks.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
Puglisi continues to do strong work to evolve the brand’s vision of powerful glamor and artfully bold Italian identity, demonstrating that Cavalli is much more than just animal print. This collection is particularly powerful for the way it channels the brand’s legacy of drama and innovative fabrications into a timeless, mythologically scaled story of death and rebirth.
