It’s been a rainy Milan fashion week, and Ferragamo took the risk of an open-air show in the courtyard of its Portrait Milano hotel on Saturday morning.

Phew! While the dark brown carpet was sodden from an earlier downpour and grey clouds hung low, no drops fell on the spring collection, a sultry, soigné and lounge-oriented take on the ’20s, birth decade of the Florentine house.

During his latest trawl through the archives, creative director Maximilian Davis fell upon an image of American actress Lola Todd dressed head-to-toe in leopard – the coat made from the actual exotic skin – and a baby leopard crouched beside her.

Raised in Manchester, England, by Trinidadian-Jamaican parents, Davis posed the question: Why leopard?

“At that time, people were importing textiles.. and leathers from Africa, and from the Caribbean, as a sign of wealth and status. And I thought that was quite interesting,” he told a huddle of reporters after the show.

Davis also studied American cartoonist John Held Jr., who documented the Jazz Age for many top magazines, depicting women and men kicking up their heels in flapper dresses and Zoot suits respectively.

“This is a movement which I really feel connected with, where people were rebelling against society, creating their own spaces, speakeasies, and dressing for themselves – especially women,” the designer enthused.

Davis etched the period with a light hand, employing gossamer and liquid fabrics for his slouchy, shawl-collared tailoring, drop-waist shift dresses and pajama-like ensembles.

The animal spots were rendered as abstract dapples in satin devoré, while flapper dresses had boudoir airs, melding scalloped satin and airy lace. Glossy mules with sculptural heels finished off the looks.

Fringe, a surefire signpost of the era, sometimes hung from unusual places like the ribs or the wrists, the latter giving scarecrow vibes.

Outliers included a skirt suit and polo dress in black patent, which Davis reprised from a 1998 Ferragamo collection as a showcase for Gancini turn lock clasps.

But overall, this collection seduced with its lustrous textures, slouchy silhouettes and its original take on the ’20s, whispered rather than roared.