There are as many responses to the November attacks as there are designers in Paris. It’s all but inevitable the subject would come up this week; designers were working on their haute couture collections when the events occurred. Giambattista Valli’s idea was to look at the city’s famous gardens. “It’s kind of a thank-you to Paris,” he said backstage. “You know that flowers are my obsession. This time they come from the Parc de Bagatelle, the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Palais-Royal, and the Jardin des Tuileries.”
The other ground-shifting event in Paris near that time, on a much smaller, less world consequential scale, of course, was Raf Simons’s abrupt departure from Dior. In fact, with the intense focus on flowers here, some saw a bid by Valli for the open creative director job at the LVMH house, flowers having been a preoccupation of Monsieur Dior’s, as well. Be that as it may, this was a signature Valli collection. Cue the short lengths, tailor-made for the leggy young ladies who decorated his front row. Cue the exaggerated volumes, this time focused on bishop sleeves, Watteau backs, and a handful of empire-waist gowns. (An exhibition of paintings featuring Napoleon’s sisters, Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline, proved inspirational.) And cue the by now trademark parade of tulle plissé grand finale gowns, the boldest and best in a pulsating shade of red poppy.
Sparkle and sequin were downplayed here in favor of colorful embroideries and appliqués; when Valli did employ crystals, it was in grid-like patterns as precise as his flowers were flamboyant. As a rule, the fleurs were more persuasive. They came in many forms: picked out in paillettes on an organza empire-waist dress; as swirling garlands on short-in-front/long-in-back gowns of lace macramé; and, quite prettily, intarsia-ed in a rosebush motif on a short coat in white mink.
Valli recently dressed first-time Oscar nominee Brie Larson. He was mum on the subject of the upcoming Academy Awards, but should her stylist be shopping, our vote goes to something in that red poppy hue.
