CELEBRATING THE BEAUTY OF IMPERFECTION
On the sidelines of Valentino’s pre-fall 2019 collection in Tokyo, Sarah Maisey speaks to the brand’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, about walking in the footsteps of a legend, and his newfound sense of freedom and authenticity
From the front row of Valentino’s pre-fall 2019 show in Tokyo
Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit Tokyo will appreciate its unique allure. A city of contradictions, it is calm yet fastpaced, old but at the same time new. So it is not difficult to understand why Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Italian fashion house Valentino, chose this curious city for the unveiling of his pre-fall 2019 collection.
With a shared a love of beauty and refinement, both Tokyo and Valentino remain loyal to a rich past while looking resolutely to the future. One Japanese element in particular that caught Piccioli’s imagination is wabi-sabi, the Japanese belief, with no western equivalent, that flaws and imperfections are an intrinsic part of beauty. This is supported by a tradition of repairing broken objects with gold, so that the break itself becomes something precious.