Giambattista Valli could not host a presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.
Although the pandemic has been a massively destructive force on us humans, Mother Nature has actually thrived under lockdown. Call it a spectacular turning of the tables, for once. Glorious spring weather and the lack of pollution in Milan helped plants and flowers bloom peacefully and undisturbed here; just by looking out the window at the new foliage of a tree across the street, our moods were lifted, restored by a moment of hope in life’s rebirthing cycle. Giambattista Valli shared the sentiment: “I have always been passionate about gardens,” he said over the phone from Paris, where he spent the quarantine with his partner and their seven-year-old-son. “I am lucky enough to have spacious balconies in my apartment, which are filled with wild roses, lemon trees, jasmines, rosemary. Being surrounded by their beauty was a tremendous help in our confinement. The energy of nature is powerful, it’s oxygen for resilience and creativity.”
Valli celebrated his love of gardens in his new resort collection, which was designed at home during the confinément. Delicate floral bouquets grace his signature feminine dresses, rendered in light-as-air fabrics including chiffon, georgette, and Chantilly lace. The color palette was also intended to convey
a sense of freshness. “You can actually smell primroses, wisterias, flower fields,” he said. Too bad I couldn’t actually live the experience, but these are unfortunately the downsides of reviewing remotely.
Valli sent clips from a video he made for the collection—fields of beautiful flowers bending gently, caressed by the breeze. “I love to keep memories from the gardens I’ve visited, like the terraced limonaie in Positano, or jardins sauvages, [which are] not too trimmed by human intervention,” he explained. “The most incredible one I have ever seen is the Suryagarh in Jaisalmer, which reminded me of a Mughal miniature, so exquisitely surprising as it grows in the middle of the Rajasthani desert in India.” The eye definitely has to travel, doesn’t it? “We have traveled extensively in our minds under lockdown. We’ve been apparently still, but so much has actually happened,” he said.
Like many of his fellow designers, Valli has reflected on his practice and on its future, emerging with a renewed focus and a vision more edited and clear. The languid occasion dresses he makes for his clients’ ’happy times’ were well represented here, but he also expanded his daywear options. Pragmatic while retaining his signature femme-fleur femininity, these included bell-bottom denims paired with small bouclé jackets, or billowy blouses worn with high-waisted pants.
For all his love for the ethereal and for romance—“fashion must still make us dream,” he reflected—Valli doesn’t live in a bubble or a walled garden. The state of the world seems to deeply concern him. “So many radical things are happening on a social level right now,” he said. “It feels like we are in a huge reset mode. And young generations are so engaged in making true changes happen. This truly gives us hope for a better world.” And what about the ongoing conversation on the changes the fashion industry apparently needs? “Who knows?” he answered. “Let’s see if greed will prevail once again over utopia.”
