The opening look at Saturday’s Laura Biagiotti show set the mood for a joyous collection intended to spark optimism and lightness, according to creative director Lavinia Biagiotti.

The loose-cut skirt suit bore an allover magnified print of futurist artist Giacomo Balla’s famous “Futurfarfalla” painting series dedicated to butterflies – in Biagiotti’s intent a memento for women “to always restart and embrace new perspectives on familiar things, as a butterfly would fly around discovering the world.”

This approach informed the no-nostalgia collection, a lineup of pastel-hues – unusual for Biagiotti, typically a champion of muted tones – that swathed cotton tweed and cable-knit miniskirt suits, knit frocks and flowing ruffled slipdresses and kaftans bearing traces of the Balla butterfly for an almost pointillist effect,

Bodycon knit dresses were offered in a variety of options, all flattering, from the rib-knit candid white version to the tank styles in blocks of lurex pastels or covered in golden sequins placed like a mesh.

A loose eggshell rib-knit sweater worn over a golden silk skirt and a lean tank top and midi skirt ensemble in midnight blue taffeta dotted in tiny crystals and rhinestones made the best impression. They conjured the sophisticated simplicity and ease the brand is known for.

The show marked Laura Biagiotti’s 60th anniversary in business. Clad in a white caftan with tone-on-tone embroidery, Pat Cleveland, a longtime friend of the house, walked the show to mark the milestone. Incidentally she first appeared on a catwalk exactly 60 years ago, too.

Serendipity was at play.