TACTILE & VERSATILE

Milan Fashion Week closed with a bang with Pierpaolo Piccioli presenting his Valentino collection for the first time in Milan.

At Valentino, being radical is an act of awareness, the will of an individual gesture. It requires both knowledge and freedom in personal expression. The signs and the codes of Valentino today, are being resignified: in Milano, an industrial space that still resonates with the human activities that took part within its walls. In a factory that has been filled and defaced with flowers, a vision of what romanticism can be today takes shape and nuances as interpreted by women and men of all walks of life.

Romanticism is first and foremost a gaze on things and life, not on a set of rules. The individual vision of Pierpaolo Piccioli touches the individual spirit of each person, and what comes out of it is a suggestion of what Valentino can be now, following another perspective. It is about the values that make an ever-evolving identity, not the aesthetic that solidifies it.

The language of craft and of Couture mingle and merge. The idea of simplification and the quest for a new meaning guides the selection of pieces: masculine blouses, yet made of chiffon; five-pocket jeans, revisiting the 517 boot-cut model from 1969, in a collaboration with Levi’s; loose blazers; fluid long dresses and short-short dresses. Lace, macramé, crochet, and embroideries were among the textural couture accents reworked here with a crafty “human” touch. Both the women’s and men’s lines shared shapes, volumes, and fabrics; the same wardrobe staples, blouses, short-suits, and blazers were often proposed in identical versions for both genders.

Even accessories undergo a process of re-signification: Rockstuds enlarge in a macro version, flowers bloom on sandals, boots have an assertive presence, bags are materic and tactile. The collection is a set of modules that can be individually adapted.