When Christian Lacroix said “Haute Couture should be fun, foolish and almost unwearable”, he was definitely not thinking of Antonio Riello and his retro couture collection of preversely blinged out personal weapons just for ladies.

Dubbed as fashion-fiction, Riello has taken real traditional male stuff and in an *artistic way* turned them into the *perfect female accessories*.  So what do you get when you mix gold, rhinestones, velvet and faux fur with italian barettas, hand grenades and double headed battle axes?

“Using leopard skins, brightly lacquered colors, inset jewels and fake furs, I create a range of specialized items for wives of mafia bosses, arms dealers, sophisticated ladies and exigent soldiers….hybrids born from Italian obsession for high fashion as well as for violence”.

Scary stuff, especially if you think about the fact that he named all these pieces after women he’s had passionate encounters with.  Really does bring to mind something my mother kept on telling me while I was growing up – about *being careful of who you associate with*.  You might just find out that a tacky piece of weaponry was named after you.