Valentino's demure, round neck-line, long sleeved, slender-torsoed, bell-shaped skirt configuration is much copied. "We like to think there are different ways to be sexy," Maria Grazia Chiuri, one half of the duo designing there.
"I have the biggest couture atelier in the world," he told me. And yes, he's planning lots of Oscar dresses. If he coaxes more Hollywood starlets out of their beige strapless columns and into colourful, demure lace dresses, the ceremony might actually be worth watching.
It wasn't, to put it kindly, the most inspiring couture week… and then at the end, came the light(ness)
Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pieropaolo Piccioli have taken Valentino's couture line to extraordinary levels in the four years they have been there, without ever resorting to crash-bang-wallop-what-a-picture gimmicks. Not that these clothes are minimalist or under-cooked. Far from it: they're probably some of the most exquisitely crafted pieces money can buy.
This was the stand-out show of the week; workmanship to swoon and sigh over, and graceful clothes you actually want - scratch that, would love - to wear.
There's never the sense that embellishment has been plonked on for the sake of it, or to please gaudy rich women.
Part of the charm derives from the yin-yang balance achieved in every look: a pearl-and-crystal beaded jacket partnered with a sweetly "simple" cotton voile skirt being a case in point. There was even a trend we can all take away: matchy-matchy shoes and outfits.
Move over trusty nudes: at Valentino, the shoes and dresses were dyed the same colour or embroidered with identical flowers or crystal beads. I think same-colour shoes and dresses were last fashionable in the early 1960s - which is just about long enough ago for them to look ravishingly fresh and pretty again.
No comments:
Post a Comment