VALENTINO reported a revenue boost of 24 per cent early last month and it’s not unthinkable that it will reap even stronger rewards over the next six months after the collection we saw this afternoon in Paris.
Creative directors Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli have pulled the Italian house up from strong heritage brand to swoon-inducing cult label in their two and a half years at the helm. It’s poetic but modern, extraordinarily light but with a sense of wearability and really, really pretty.
Today, the girls had their hair plaited into Edwardian halos and wore flat, sparkling sandals or heels to match the final colour at the hemline of their degradé, nude-to-red floral lace gowns.
The dresses were innocent in shape and alluring as ever in their translucency and fine detail – doily lace patterns were intricately applied to leather, fine linen or chiffon. No matter the density of the fabric, the expert finish was the same creating a consistency throughout that makes Chiuri and Piccioli’s talent all the more obvious.
Princess dresses with high necks and capped sleeves were belted in narrow laces of leather studded with gold; strapless cocktail versions sprung out from the body in bubble gum pink or pale mint, and the Valentino red burst out via a leather trench coat with a finely ruffled waist and macramé dresses that fell to knee length or all the way to the floor.
Tiers of glittering chiffon overlaid angelic lace dresses in nude and cream - then blue, pink, buttery yellow and black, or floral combinations of all four, prevented the collection from being saccharine.
It maybe that at some point we want something different to pure, modern romance from the Valentino team – but it’s hard to imagine ever getting bored with this.
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