SuzyMFW: Valentino – From Paris To Milan And From Silk To Denim

“We were talking about aesthetic codes like lace, like flower prints, flowers with a kind of lightness,” Pierpaolo said. “My job is about witnessing the world I’m living in and giving my vision of beauty. And beauty for me means diversity, evaluating the individual identity in different cultures. The freedom of being yourself.”

And the jeans? “Iconic Levi's, born in the late 1960s in a time of ultimate self-expression,” was the designer’s take. “I feel that I’ve always loved denim Levi's. I wanted to use lace and encrustation for the blouses to be worn with them. Because I feel that Levi's are an object that is very universal but also very individual.”

In every way, the designer known for poetry in motion, was altering the picture. First, there was the presentation in Milan in the time of Covid, admitting a spread of guests, all heavily masked. Then there were the flowers, appearing not just as a few bold patterns, but also in every nook and cranny of the airy building.

Plant artist, Satoshi Kawamoto from Japan, prides himself on transforming the way people interpret and relate to plants and interior spaces. The flowers for the show came from eight countries and were grown and cultivated in a nursery in Milan – to be rented for the show and then returned afterwards.

The third powerful component was the music from Labrinth, the multi-award-winning, British singer-songwriter who made the show’s sound so intimate, personal and meaningful.

“Labrinth is a great artist,” said Pierpaolo. “I have been very touched by his music because it can be techno and very romantic at the same time. I met him via Zoom of course and I sent him the approach I was going to give to the show. He has been so involved in the process. He was very intuitive and emotional. An idea of romanticism, emotion, empathy, that was the message I wanted to deliver – and he got it.”

If all that seems complex during such a tense, worldwide situation, Pierpaolo’s thoughtful presentation was integral to the way he works, delving deeply into history, culture and his own aesthetic interests – yet at the same time producing a collection of desirable and uncomplicated outfits.

The show opened with black, sporty, summer-in-the-city clothes, some lacy, others similar but in black. The brand’s accessories came in the form of just the right kind of decorative shoes and handbags, with the lace used in ways that gave them a sporty simplicity.

As a designer with a simple but full-on attitude to colour, Pierpaolo mixed in pink or mauve – after which he planted on the runway his first full-on flowers. That meant soft, silken, long garments in sweet mixes of lilac, green, scarlet, pink and earth-brown.

The effect was a sophisticated freshness, complementing the sportier lace shirts and tailored jackets. Worn buy a male model, a lacy cardigan – green with pink flowers – made a quiet but clear statement about men being liberated to choose sweetness.

Pierpaolo has been working on his own at Valentino for four years and has struck the right balance between the company’s grandeur and his own more simple attitude. Hence, I suppose, the jeans, which are never the night-out choice of founder Valentino Garavani.

“I used to say that my job at Valentino is about giving my personal point of view on something everybody knows,” Pierpaolo told me. “The world of Valentino is like a postcard that you already know. But when you get a picture of the same landscape from a very personal point of view, you can see different shapes, different light, imperfections. You can feel more intimate, more personal. And that is my job, to deliver a new picture of the places, the landscapes that you already know.”

It is important that the current designer makes his own choices. And this was a faultless collection – elegant, graceful and youthful – all the characteristics needed to make fashion desirable in these troubled times.