The incandescent presence of FKA Twigs is visible only in the top left-hand corner of some of these photographs. Truth be told—it was difficult to concentrate on Pierpaolo Piccioli’s menswear show going by as she was singing in her uncategorizable delicate yet operatic way. Cloaked in iridescent Valentino haute couture with her face half-obscured by a crystal fencing mask, Twigs’s mesmerizing performance was a lot of competition to put up against the Valentino boy models who were walking past.
Maybe that’s what Piccioli meant to happen, as the celebrated feminist male designer he’s known to be. “Life needs emotions,” he said before the show. “Men are changing much more quickly in the last two decades because of women. And because of how work has changed.”
Read that as one man’s call to the next generation to celebrate its sensitivities. The societal changes which Piccioli intuits, or wishes to see realized, were projected onto his approach to tailoring: an exploration of the relationship between suits and haute couture.
Guys these days should have no hang-ups about wearing coats and jackets stamped with photo prints or embroideries of flowers, Piccioli believes. Luxury for men and women is being dissolved into a median category. Valentino boys have segued seamlessly into carrying small cross-body bags. Some might be utility pouches, but others are indistinguishable from the mini-bags on chains that have been gendered as female for generations.
As a father watching children and their friends growing into their teens and twenties, Piccioli feels the awesomeness of time turning in a positive direction. “I think we are learning from them,” he says.
