President Obama and Raúl Castro shook hands back in April 2015 a gesture symbolic of the warming diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. That was all fashion needed to turn the island country into the inspiration point du jour. Stella McCartney name-checked Cuba a year ago at her Resort 2016 presentation, Chanel flew planeloads of journalists to Havana for its Cruise 2017 show last month. Now, Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli have taken a metaphorical trip to Cuba of their own.
After a relatively muted Fall collection of ballet pinks and black, their new Resort clothes were a jolt—dense with color, print, and embroidery. “The thing we love about Cuba is the many different memories of the place—African, Spanish, ’50s America,” Chiuri said over the phone. Piccioli picked up the thought: “It gave us a real freedom to mix, like a souvenir, lots of pieces together.” As promised, they touched on their greatest hits, offering apropos tweaks: Their beaded lace evening dresses were made new with large painted wooden beads, and their familiar camouflage jackets came in a softer washed material, as if they’d been worn over and again and had gone through the machine more than a few times. The national flower of Cuba, the white ginger lily, is known locally as mariposa, or butterfly, which happens to be the Valentino house mascot. Here, they flitted over washed and pleated cotton voile dresses with a humble texture. Extending that feeling, a floral print used for a sleeveless dress and full culottes had a handmade batik-y look. Elsewhere, they washed and overdyed a brocade coat, and despite its signature Valentino-red shade, its raw edges and generally undone aspect felt new for the designers. In a fashion world plagued by designer comings and goings, more than seven years in, Chiuri and Piccioli are still refreshing their signatures. That must take its own kind of special diplomacy, and they deserve a cheer for it.
