Giambattista Valli is a designer synonymous with dresses, mostly of the exquisite, couture kind. Lately though, he’s been thinking beyond the rarefied world of evening, exploring more practical terrain in a woman’s wardrobe—or as he put it, clothes for the school run, the office, and not just cocktail hour. It’s perhaps why Valli has been so obsessed with perfecting the fit and cut of his pant for the past few seasons, with a signature silhouette that tends toward long, lean, and slightly flared.
There were certainly plenty of tailoring options besides for Pre-Fall, including Valli’s latest take on the classic Wall Street suit—a gray sleeveless blazer paired with ankle-nipping pants—a look that would surely pass even the strictest of corporate dress codes with the addition of, say, a crisp button-down shirt. Amal Clooney, a Valli fan known for navigating a decidedly conservative working milieu, could certainly attest to that. Still, it was hard to turn your eye away from the pretty, little things in the collection—a powder pink mink coat cut with macramé lace, a tea-length lilac dress tied up with bows, and all the eye-catching floral handwork, for example. And of course those pieces spoke directly to the soft femininity Valli has been nurturing since the beginning.
That said, Valli managed to strike a happy medium at several points in the collection. The abstracted prints he’s been experimenting with worked particularly well on a pair of black cigarette pants that were shown with a matching ruffled white blouse—a nice reimagining of the classic tuxedo. And his expert couture hands were put to great use on a sporty shearling jacket that had a sleek patent leather finish, and was laser-cut with petals. After all, chic high-powered women like Amal Clooney need something fun to throw over their two-piece suit at the end of the day.
