Frankie Morello's timeless 'dark lady'

Italian fashion house Frankie Morello showed its latest womenswear collection in Milan in a show that mixed the past with the future.

For fall, designers Maurizio Modica and Pierfrancesco Gigliotti took their cue from the Hollywood femme fatales of the 1950s.

But they gave her a modern twist using stiff fabrics such as matelasse, a quilted or padded textile, and dresses with mirror shard embellishments and holographic prints.

Hemlines on skirts were long, falling over the knees in shades ranging from dark red to metal and black.

Milan Fashion Week runs until February 26th, and coincides with the final throes of Italy's general election.