Altuzarra Spring 2015 Ready-to-Wear

Sex is rarely far from the surface at a Joseph Altuzarra show. The pink gingham of the first few outfits fooled you into thinking this was an unusual occasion on which he'd abstain, but if you looked closer the kinks became clear.

An otherwise proper skirtsuit featured a dangerously high middle slit, and a perfectly pretty dress was gathered at the shoulders and tied loosely at the sides with ribbons trailing pearls, as if still askew from a tumble in the sheets. In real life and on the runway, that interplay of purity and provocation stokes desire. Altuzarra said he was looking at Rosemary's Baby (Mia Farrow's unmistakable, haunting lullaby soundtracked the show) and Barry Lyndon. "Both movies are so beautiful," Altuzarra said, "but it's an ill-fated, sinister beauty. Which I liked."

If those films conjure eras past, the clothes here hardly smacked of retro. Altuzarra has a modern touch. Modern, and light. A black and white striped crepe de chine shirtdress practically floated down the runway. Tucked into high-waisted tapering pants, a button-down and lightweight cardigan were more covered up, but the proportions were fresh and sexy—the girl in the outfit no less tantalizing than the one who was unbuttoned down to there. In any case, Altuzarra didn't let himself get hemmed in by plot. Striped Moroccan blankets were reworked into asymmetric wrap dresses and skirts, as well as an outstanding coat inlaid with leather trim. Fetish-y leather latticework pieces, meanwhile, were apparently inspired by Renaissance architecture.

Altuzarra had the crowd right from the beginning, but the trio of finale gowns—"deflated 18th-century dresses," he called them—were so fabulous, so casual in their lavishness, it's hard to imagine anything this week will top them.