Kittens on dresses and Peter Pan collars could be a twee turnoff for most adult women looking for something they can actually wear. But Italian fashion house VIVETTA incorporates girlish designs that raise an arched eyebrow signaling what they call "subtle irony." While the results are undeniably feminine, they are also funky and assertively unique.

Designer and founder Vivetta Ponti truly esteems the Milan fashion tradition of which she is a part. Ponti's collections are entirely produced and designed in Italy. Old World craftsmanship is apparent in the fine embroidery, careful ruffles and exacting constructions. Poofy A-line skirts in silk organza or crêpe de Chine speak to another era, perhaps a more innocent time. But there is a knowingness, a sophistication that still manages to retain playfulness.

VIVETTA's Spring 2016 collection was inspired in part by the photography of Slim Aarons. Aarons captured the '60s socialites and celebrities poolside and fireside at vacation destinations like Palm Beach, Lake Como and Acapulco-or a style he famously called "photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Indeed the collection is breezy and cool in an oversaturated palette reminiscent of that jet-set.

Read on for our talk with Ponti and to hear who she'd like to dress in this swan frock.

How did your work at Roberto Cavalli influence your work at VIVETTA? Do you see the labels as speaking to different sides of the same woman?

The Cavalli experience has been very important, I learned everything about embroidery there. Cavalli is sexy and Vivetta speaks about sensuality; it's a different impact but it' s not so different...I think a woman could wear and match both.

Your clothing has a lot of beautiful embroidery. Where did the recurring hand design that's on your belts and dress collars come from? It recalls some of Elsa Schiaparelli's fun designs. Was she an influence on you?

Not directly. Elsa Schiaparelli influenced my designs. Surrealism is my favorite artistic wave, so I think in a surrealistic way when I work on a collection.

Each season it is different. I think of something I like, then I do it in my way.

Your design work is uniquely Italian. Tell us about your design and manufacturing process?

Everything is made in Italy, fabrics, embroideries, the manufacturers which work to produce everything. I'm so proud of it. It's difficult to keep prices in this way, I know, but I try to work on the collection to make it half quite expensive and half less expensive. It's a big work but possible.

You're inspired by vintage clothing. What is the favorite piece of vintage clothing that you own?

I have a very big vintage archive. I am in love with so many things, bags, accessories, clothing, that I don't have one favorite.

Do you have a favorite era for fashion?

Yes, '60s and '70s.

If you could dress any celebrity living or dead in VIVETTA who would it be? What would you put him/her in?

Mia Farrow with the Rosemary's Baby haircut: I would put on her my swan dress from the Spring '16 collection.

SHOP: VIVETTA

-Britt Olson