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Outerwear takes center stage in Ferragamo's Fall 2013 collection, perfect for Windy City winters. boots with metal-trimmed cutouts and the sleek A-line wrap skirts, but it's the cunning outerwear choices—in deep navy wool or black leather and often paired with easy, minimalist sheaths—that are the true stars of Ferragamo Fall. "I wanted to explore the idea of urban construction, with a great emphasis on outerwear, very polished coats and trench coats, and a refined idea of sportswear that feels very dynamic," he notes. "I think about women who live in large cities, how they leave their house early in the morning and aren't able to get back until late in the day, so I have to offer them choices that take them through the day feeling right in every situation." Menswear feels no less adventurous. Giornetti is among those designers who are currently delighting in breaking the rules in men's design, stretching the boundaries of structure and use of color, even as he retains a profound appreciation for a very Italian viewpoint toward tailoring. "This, to me, is the most important balance of all," he says. "Menswear for me is very surgical and really about working on the details. With womenswear you can reinvent the silhouette every season, but with men's it's not as easy. I like to think of it like ingredients in a kitchen; sometimes you need to inject a little spice. I also want to create a closer language between tailoring and sportswear: to create knits and other sportswear pieces that feel closer to the refinement of a tailored piece, while at the same time making tailoring feel less strict." As he explores such an evolution, Giornetti says he does so always with a thought toward the man who built the house that bears his name. Perhaps it's no accident that Giornetti shares a few kismetlike moments with Salvatore Ferragamo: Giornetti says he began sketching fashion at the age of 6; Ferragamo crafted his first pair of shoes, for his sister to wear at her communion, at the age of 9. Following his early years, in which he carved out a reputation as the "shoemaker to the stars" in 1920s Hollywood, Ferragamo returned to Italy and set up his business in Florence, the city in which Giornetti was born and raised. Might such a pairing contribute to Giornetti's understanding of how to blend modern with timeless, of how—not unlike Kapoor's mirrored sculpture in Millennium Park—to reflect classic ideas in something that feels wholly new? 122-125_MA_FEAT_Massimillano_October13.indd 125 Giornetti can appreciate the thought, even if his respect for Ferragamo is too deep to contemplate a true comparison. "Salvatore Ferragamo really did have the soul of a genius—he was a visionary, a pioneer with dreams in his mind of construction and shapes and colors, and I'm inspired by his work every day," Giornetti says. "When you have a brand with such a rich history, it can be easy to be scared of that, but I've never felt that way. We just have to be creative in understanding how to translate its heritage." MA Giornetti's Fall 2013 styles offer Chicago women looks that transition from day to night. Giornetti is breaking the rules in men's design through structure and use of color. Ryan Gosling in head-to-toe Ferragamo at the Cannes Film Festival. 9/18/13 10:22 AM