Valentino Spring/Summer 2019 Couture Review
For Spring/Summer 2019, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the current creative director for Valentino, presented a haute couture collection at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild. This historic home completed in 1878 is formed around an ornate, multilevel atrium. Modern and massive floral arrangements and ivory leather chairs set the scene for the greatest fashion show this season. As more than sixty models glided across the soft white carpet, members of the audience clapped, cried, and shot every angle on their smartphones. It was a true fashion performance piece.
Piccioli is known for his excellent color combinations. He isn’t afraid to create never-before-seen color combinations to breathe life into a collection. His spring outing shares many of the talents a modern florist or pâtissier might have. These marzipan gowns and complexly-draped daywear pieces appeared to envelop the wearer and ascend her to divinity. Piccioli spoke about not trying to “modernize” couture like his contemporaries. Instead, he believes really good couture can transcend time saying, “I believe in very classic couture, the celebration of beauty and dreams and emotions, volumes, technique”. This is vital in creating couture that matters in a time when logically it shouldn’t. Of course, it’s very nice to talk about the intense fuchsia feathers that floated over the fantastic floral print of look number 32 or the Kaia Gerber’s thirty-pound green sequin number, but what difference do these clothes make on a global scale when tear gas is being thrown out to rioters on the streets of Paris?
To an anthropologist, these clothes might be contrary to what defines our society today. However, when the sparkling beads, flowing lace, and sharp suede stilettos march across the lush Hôtel, when many hours of dedicated craftsmanship finally come to life in these overpowering clothes, and when “The Maze” instrumental piece from Sally Potter’s Orlando blasts, one cannot help but be transported and emotionally moved. Members of the atelier at Valentino dedicate their whole lives to protecting the techniques and artistic integrity that can exist in the highest forms of fashion. So why try and take these people’s jobs and artistic ability away from them?
Next to no one on this planet can afford haute couture but fashion is just about wanting to buy pretty things to wear to make yourself feel better about the world. It is also high art. As Naomi Campbell made the final exit of the night and gathered around a small group of other models in the center of the room, the iconic Cecil Beaton image of Charles James ballgowns of 1948 came to mind, reimagined as women of today, from all different backgrounds and from all over the world. The remaining models appeared from above, looking down and clapping like angels from an opening in the ceiling as Pierpaolo Piccioli took his bows, hugged and kissed the cheering audience, overcome with emotion.
Photos and Quote Courtesy of VogueRunway.com