Designer Ferre has angels for final menswear show

MILAN, June 24 (Reuters) A line of children looking like angels ended Gianfranco Ferre's menswear show today to a standing ovation, just a week after the Italian designer died at the age of 62 after a brain haemorrhage.

To applause from journalists and buyers at Ferre's headquarters in the bohemian Brera district of Milan, 30 children dressed in white overshirts walked the catwalk route models had just used to show the designer's last menswear line.

Ferre's long-time friend and collaborator on menswear, Giovanni Vidotto, took a bow after the show, which featured a finale full of Ferre's trademark white shirts.

The owners of the Ferre brand, IT Holding , have not decided on a successor for the designer, known as ''The Architect'' of Italian fashion for his degree in architecture and his tailored suits.

Ferre had already prepared his womenswear fashions for the September shows.

Sunday's menswear triggered several bouts of applause from watching journalists and buyers, singling out items such as a coffee silk shirt with cream embroidered frogging at the front.

Variations on Ferre's white shirts included loose silk versions carrying blue, red and green birds and flowers, or ones with shantung sleeves and gold embroidered fronts and shoulders.

Ferre's tailoring touch was dabbed on shirts for pintucked fronts or gatherings around the collar, or on pleat-fronted trousers, while suit jackets came in blue silk shot with black.

Waistcoats, which are becoming a theme of the spring/summer 2008 shows, took inspiration from a traditional dress shirt or sat neatly under a linen suit.

Ferre's design abilities turned a capacious bag into a flat rectangle to hang snug against the hip on a wide shoulder strap, in burgundy leather or a larger version in acid yellow.

BAGS AT BOTTEGA Earlier yesterday, Bottega Veneta showed plaited grips in white or brick, taking the theme through to plaited eyelet panels for shoes.

The show was the third menswear offer from Tomas Maier at the brand, which was founded in the 1960s and known for its luxurious leather bags.

Maier used suede so soft and fine it could be worn as a shirt, and made short jackets in leather coloured pink, brick and sand.

His waistcoats were in fine cottons with gathered seams, while jackets had sleeves with zips to make them short or long -- a versatility which echoed the jackets-cum-coats in Versace's show yesterday.

Milan's spring and summer 2008 menswear shows run until June 27 and 47 designers are holding catwalk shows.

Later today, Miuccia Prada -- known for her updating of archive designs and innovative materials -- will roll out her ideas for the boys.

Reuters JT DB2120