The Giorgio Armani Spring 2019 RTW collection felt subaquatic with the opening section of spotlighted silver semi-transparent pieces with smokily muted color.

A coat of woven strips of leather had a sharkish toughness. A pink-edged, coral-like wide-brimmed hat and a pink-edged encrustation of ruffle on the chest of a dress signaled the dive into this collection’s central exploration of color and texture.

Layered metal and plastic jewelry plus the net-like bags and shoes with slick and shiny uppers of scrunched PVC added an undersea other-worldliness in tandem with the models’ bunched, salty Pre-Raphaelite hair. A balloon-hemmed vest top teamed with pants of reflective, liquid-like organza was patterned with circular multicolored sequins that resembled a rainbow of raindrops on water. The model in a pink bomber decorated with oyster-shell gray and pink embellishment and a triple-layered, ruffle-detail gray skirt handily caught an anemone-esque pinned earring as it fell loose from her left ear.

By the end, we were voyaging in mermaid territory: The opaquely multicolored sheen, reef-like banks of ruffle, and silver fish-skin shine of Armani’s often multilayered fabrications combined beguilingly.

Special guests of the Giorgio Armani Spring 2019 fashion show discuss the collection and the qualities of the Armani woman.