Smile and think of shopping at Gigli Milan show

MILAN, Feb 21 (Reuters) Smiling models skipped down Romeo Gigli's catwalk under instruction from designer Gentucca Bini to think of a happy day out shopping.

Bini took inspiration for her winter 2007/08 collection from the 1940s when women cannibalised men's clothes for a feminine take on a masculine look which combined a mix of prints, colours and textures.

''I said to them smile as if you're going to the supermarket,'' Bini said yesterday backstage after the show, pointing to posters urging the models to do just that.

''It's very feminine when a woman smiles,'' she added, saying models with straight faces looked a bit grim.

Girlish grins peeped out over the collection's big red and green rose printed tops, red shiny plastic coats, silver-white silk trousers and maroon and blue-striped tops.

Textures were equally diverse, from Gigli's trademark fleur de lys on elegant dark silk evening suits to a tufted yellow wool sweater which looked as if it would feel like a woodland plant.

The girls doffed short-brimmed felt hats in a rainbow of colours, and scampered along the catwalk to syncopated jazz music in keeping with the era in which a generation of women hit the workplace while their men were off fighting.

Bini said yesterday's show, at the exhibition halls, was more technical, but fashion as culture and art remained a theme.

''There's always inspiration from art for me, because I grew up surrounded by art.'' Reuters SSC DB0848