Roberto Cavalli, Lord of the Flame

We joke that collections light up the runway, but at Roberto Cavalli, things were literally on fire. The designer presented his Fall 2014 collection in Milan against a fiery backdrop: Models strutted around a pool of water encircled with a wall of fire as hot as the clothes they were wearing. Fire and water were the perfect accompaniment to the cool gray, deep red, rich blue, stark black, and crisp white palette of the collection.

Cavalli has been heating up the blogosphere recently with his condemnation of designers dressing celebrities and his continued chastisement of Michael Kors over plagiarism, so perhaps that's why he decided to set the runway ablaze, as well?

All the Cavalli signatures were present — sleek suits, thick furs, luxe python, and evening gowns with plunging necklines. But the collection also carried with it Great Gatsby feel with addition of drop waists, heavy beading, and fringe, fringe, fringe — a detail we saw in his Just Cavalli Fall 2014 collection last week.

The designer explained to the New York Post that the collection was inspired by “the femininity of the 1920s and the geometry of the 1930s.”

The nods to Gatsby were beautiful, but the fire motif pieces were the stars of show. Blaze-printed blouses, black dresses with red ombré, and gowns with flames creeping up the hem closed the show in sexy Cavalli fashion.

I can’t help but love Cavalli’s balls-to-the-wall approach to, well, everything. No one will ever accuse him of being a wallflower. The Cavalli woman lives in much the same way and is, I'm sure, very excited to set fire to her closet come Fall.