Never was the remove of the fantasy of haute couture from the reality of life demonstrated more than by one of the inspirations for Giambattista Valli’s collection. Gesturing backstage to the first few looks of the show, crystal- and feather-embroidered duchesse satin short dresses and tunics with pants gridded with fold lines, Valli explained that the idea was of a traveler (clearly a very rich, very fabulous one) who packed one of her copious trunks with said looks and pulled them out to find them creased from being stored. Frankly, here’s where couture and life diverge; it’s clear that any maid, lady-in-waiting, valet, etc., worth her or his salt would have known how to pack, and unpack, them properly. I mean, did you ever see the like on Downton Abbey? You did not. Plus, as anyone else (i.e., almost everyone) not in the couture stratosphere would know, those creases are nothing that turning on the shower full blast couldn’t sort out. Still, joking apart, reality shouldn’t, I guess, ever get in the way of a fashion narrative.
It’s not the first time that creasing-as-decoration has seen the light of day—Martin Margiela, Miuccia Prada, and more recently Alessandro Michele at Gucci have all tried their hand at creating the notion that their clothes have had a life before they’ve made it onto the runway. This has to be one of the first times it has been explored at couture level, though, and it was a more human-scaled counterpoint to Valli’s general modus operandi when he’s working on these collections, where he’s a firm believer in making big, as in really, really big, gestures. Even when he’s whipping up the tiniest confections, he will oftentimes, just to amp up the drama, playfully have a train trailing in the wake of a short dress, such as this season’s pink silk faille version cascading with ruffles.
For the most part, though, it was ball gowns galore for Spring. Some were constructed out of countless yards of tulle and mousseline, a Valli standard, while others were traced in graphic formations with crystals, so they conspired to somehow look both extravagant and minimalistic at the same time. If one can talk about trends at couture, then it’s this: The Ball Gown Is Back. How this rates in a world where so many women are currently engaged with activism and empowerment, who can say? But after all, this is the haute couture, so why not go all out? No one came here looking for a hoodie, after all.
