VALENTINO SPRING SUMMER 2020 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK

A study on withdrawing in order to focus on shapes and volumes: their purity, but also their extravagance. As part of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s broader and ongoing interest in inclusion within the once rarefied system of Couture, taking away brings the attention from the dress per se to the personality that gives life to it, from the object to the individual.

Grisaille is an artistic technique that consists of making a whole painting, glass wall or drawing in shades of grey and white. As a monochrome, it is an exercise of uttermost concentration. By subtracting color, shape and volumes come to the fore.

Grisaille as a monochromatic metaphor describes another quest into the spirit of Couture, which is Valentino’s true essence. Universal pieces such as the white shirt, the shirtdress, the dress, the pencil skirt, the bermuda shorts have been reduced to the essence and interpreted with the richness of Couture, in cotton poplin. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.

As permutations unfold and follow one after the other like shades and shadows multiplying on a grisaille, touched by the sense of craft of jewels, shoes and accessories, color slowly slithers in. It is a bright, compact and fluorescent color, immaterial as silk georgette on shapes that have been empties from the inside letting the body itself become structure.

The movement proceeds to bold fauvist prints charged with a narrative urgency, only to slow down and sink again into total white. Subtraction retains the frenzy and the richness of a whole universe of aesthetic references, just like the non color white is ultimately a sum of every color of the spectrum. The journey is now complete and can commence again.

Withdrawing is a process of discovery and of selfdiscovery. As the individual blends in, personality stands out. Quietly, on the inside.