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Sometimes fashion isn’t about an intellectual endeavor, nor a social and personal protest, or maybe even about an artistic project. Sometimes making great fashion isn’t about taking a journey to an exotic locale and bringing home the various finds, or a cultural encounter to incorporate these borrowed ideas into the clothes. Sometimes fashion is just about understanding what clothes should be made at the right time and wearing the right clothes. This was the case at Pierpaolo Piccioli’s show inside a white wooden frame tent outside of the Hôtel des Invalides where the designer relied on his instinct and churned out an emotional collection for his clients who leapt to their feet when the designer appeared for his bow.
“The freedom to be oneself is an act of being present in the moment, following no rules or schemes. Strictness and eccentricity, extremes that converge, giving courage to be simply as one wants to be. What one sees derives from a feeling and if the feeling is true, everything comes together. Couture, a salient feature of this palatable personality, is primarily a way of looking at the world,” are the words from the designer written in the printed program notes for the show. Translating the Valentino’s heritage of couture - of an established and rigid standard of craftsmanship and values – into today’s much more casual mood on a global scale means relating the house codes in a manner easily understood and embraced by the younger customer base. Couture values are not outdated nor are they obsolete in the current tempo of streetwearization, but in fact, Piccioli demonstrated with a powerful collection that they would be equally relevant among the competing value systems.
That said, bringing couture into reality meant creating the kind of clothes that would resonate with the brand’s clients foremost. Piccioli achieved this by starting with a series of dresses based on his fall couture volume silhouettes shown in July, with Kristen McMenamy leading the parade, wearing an off-shoulder black taffeta long loose dress with side pockets to break the formality of the dress, a way of freeing what can be a rigid look by adding a casual element. What followed were a series of looks anchored in the ethos of Valentino DNA all rendered in black – long crepe dress with marabou trims, short taffeta dress with ruffles, taffeta sleeveless tunic with relaxed pants, pleated and gathered waist long dress or lace tunic and pants with wool cape and a wool crepe pant-suit.
From black to white to the obligatory red – Valentino’s signature color to the colorful prints and patchwork, Piccioli kept a sharp eye and hand on mixing the element of couture in a subtle manner into the clothes. Even a black sweater with a large white V logo, perhaps the most recognizable item of apparel rooted in the sporty and streetwear origins, was embroidered with black marabou feathers.
The loose pleated burgundy wool silk deep v-neck sleeveless dress flapped back and forth against her skin, moving with abandon in the air as the model passed with leather sandals trimmed with feathers. Out with complicated art and travel references, and in with free-spirited clothes with touches of couture, but not so much that can make the clothes feel from another era.
Photos courtesy of Valentino
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