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Fall 2021 Couture; Major Moment | Valentino
Ok ok, I know…
I’ve been going on about how uninspired I’ve been lately by fashion, but then shows like this come around…and I have opinions.
Valentino has always been a highly glamorous house.
And, since the appointment of Pierpaolo Piccioli to creatively direct the house, the label has really taken this idea of luxury and ran with it.
Something that Piccioli has always brought to this brand is a sense of romanticism through art. For him, art and fashion go hand-in-hand, and this collection – which was no exception – was rooted firmly in that ideal.
However, Piccioli clarifies – “Fashion is not art.”
“Fashion always has a practical scope while art is an end in itself.”
He elaborates, “fashion and art are creative practices that respond to different purposes — one linked to the body and movement, the other completely free from constraints of sorts — which nevertheless find a conjunction in the atelier: the place of making, of thinking with the hands, of translating a desire, an idea, a sensation into a tangible object.”
“Couture is to fashion what painting is to contemporary art,” an idea reinforced by Piccioli’s show notes.
The intention was to give “three-dimensionality to what is meant to live on a two-dimensional support, animating in movement what is imagined to be observed and contemplated as something still.”
Motivated by this impetus, and driven by an urge to build and celebrate a community of artists – an experimental project dubbed Valentino des Ateliers – Piccioli employed an international group of 17 painters, all of whom contributed to 22 of the 84 (!!) looks -75 of which I *had* to feature here.
These garments are not only artistically impressive, but also technically, and practically as well!
Colour was the theme of the night.
And so, Piccioli applied an impressive palette of colours, using various treatments and textures. Male and female looks walked the runway in flamingo pink, and bold shades of red, violets and greens, all masterfully crafted with brushstrokes and handprints signifying those of their creators.
And as bold and brilliant as these looks are, there is also a glamorous, wearable ease to many of them.
Trousers, capes, and blazers, all done up in luxe fabrics, taken over the edge into a fantastical realm by the use of feathered “jellyfish” hats and opera gloves.
And of course, there were larger-than-life ballgowns – some requiring more than 700 hours of work to complete!
The results were spectacular.
But of course, nothing less is expected of a couture house with as rich and illustrious a history as this one.
And Piccioli, an avid storyteller, knows just how to use this label’s resources to paint a beautiful story with both colour and emotion.
See the rest of the collection here.
Enjoy!
xx
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