Pierpaolo Piccioli went in a sharply edited haute direction for pre-fall. His approach to wardrobing “is filtered through a very Valentino eye,” he said at a showroom appointment. This translated into a tight, curated selection of handsome everyday pieces, each bravura-crafted with grace and realism, embellished exquisitely with what he called “indulgent embroideries.”
After a spring show where the ready-to-wear had the stellar craft quality of a couture collection, pre-fall was kept at similarly luxurious levels, just toned down a notch to make it not so much a radical statement, but a more covetable and credible repertoire. “Making the ordinary become extraordinary,” was how Piccioli framed his MO. To that end, a few couture techniques seen in the spring show were reprised and adapted, the most striking being the high-relief cut-out intarsia the maison’s atelier came up with, that here graced the back of a sharp-cut, fitted gray wool coat. The decoration wasn’t just a visual magnet, rather “a sort of built-in structure that defines the garment,” pointed out Piccioli.
The Valentino signifiers—bows, roses, feathers, lace, scalloped hems—were given a counterintuitive treatment that skimmed the unconventional without straying from the label’s fundamentals. Sharp, masculine tailoring in dry wools and tweeds, mainly in classic shades of slate gray, made the case for flawless, atelier-level cutting techniques, yet bent to the feminine through flattering hourglass shapes and smatterings of lavish crystal embellishments on lapels and cuffs. On the same ordinary/extraordinary note, a pair of XL “tourist bermudas” were studded with a cascade of sequins, and worn with a crisp poplin shirt; a trench coat was printed with a chichilla trompe l’oeil motif, or with the bold archival civet cat pattern, and a belted citycoat was punctuated by quivering feathers, while appliqué rosettes whirled on a straight-cut ‘60s duster in rich black leather.
The overall luxurious feel of the collection was apparent, which sits well with Valentino’s raison d’être. Yet Piccioli’s idea of luxury is rather more subtle. While acknowledging that Valentino is about a certain effusive, indulgent flair for the extravagant, “it has always been about grace and a gentle way of respecting the feminine, never loud,” he said. He believes that today the value of luxury is connected to “the humanity that goes into making a superlative piece. It’s about beautiful hands capable of creating something exquisite, even out of the humblest material.” Valentino’s expressive ethos doesn’t really sync up with some quiet luxury notion. “Quiet luxury has something of the conservative,” reasoned Piccioli. “As a designer, you have the duty to give people ways of representing themselves free of clichés. Fashion conveys a strong message, and if you have a voice, it’s your responsibility to use it to bring about change.”
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