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Roberto Cavalli – Credit Card for Clubbing Clothes

"This does not mean that I will pay all your debts," cracked Roberto Cavalli at a party to launch his very own MasterCard credit card on Sunday night, March 1, in Milan.

Cavalli's card is in metallic blue, just like the card holders placed on all the guests’ plates at a dinner for some 300 in Teatro Franco Parenti, a brick theater dominated by a larger, multi-level night club.

Nightclubbing has always been the theme of Cavalli’s fashion – he does not do office wear – and was again in his slick show presented earlier Sunday in a custom built tent in a Milan suburb.

His audience at dinner was an edited version of his fashion show spectators – from Elizabeth Hurley and husband Arun Nayer to Milla Jovovich, the star of the card’s ad campaign, and a slew of Italian aristocrats.

Responding to the somber times, Cavalli’s collection was the darkest in decades – featuring matador pants and chopped off Spencer jackets in wool and fur, nearly all in black. Where typically Cavalli shows are all about sunset, floral and fantasy prints, this contained just a tiny dose of stone washed images. His best looks were some fringed punk squaw cocktail dresses, the better to gain entrance to a nightclub. So the collection, while focused, slick and well tailored seemed out of step with the current fashion zeitgeist of nesting, weekend retreats and a return to honest, daylight values.

Cavalli’s dinner seemed forced. As a fine Mariachi band serenaded diners, nobody paid much attention. Well before the main course was served, over 1,000 Milanese had gathered in the theater’s pounding disco, one level below.

Brand extension has been the buzzword in fashion for some years now, but a designer credit card is something of a first. Yet, where launching a credit card in a nightclub might have once seemed savvy, today in Milan it seemed rather passé.

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