On his backstage wall, Giambattista Valli had pinned a photo taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1968 of a young woman sitting outside Brasserie Lipp looking all the rage in a cool, scanty outfit. Next to her was an older woman in a classic 1940s silhouette sending her a stern look of disapproval. “It’s what I learned from Paris,” said Valli. “Women here have a very feminist attitude in a very modern way. They’re very complex. They don’t care about any critics. They just want to be themselves. This I love about French women. They’re very free, very faithful to themselves.”
In Paris, history repeats itself. Anyone who’s ever worn, oh, say, a head-to-toe tie-dye outfit from Dries Van Noten’s ‘Rave and Renaissance’ collection to Brasserie Lipp circa 2014 and been shown to a table in the very back room despite a half-empty restaurant would recognize that attitude. It’s what creates the balance between chic and cool that keeps this city on its toes, and what adds the magic ingredient—a little spark and edge—to the frilly, romantic girlishness of Valli’s work. After all, we’d get bored if there wasn’t something to rebel against.
His collection was founded on the dichotomies that exist between generations. It opened with a replica of the skimpy white shirt dress worn by the girl in Cartier-Bresson’s photo, and continued that ’60s hemline until skirts turned into flared trousers and the protests of ’68 began playing out before our eyes, albeit romanticized through Valli’s porcelain lens. A faux fur-trimmed floor-length jacquard coat evoked the Afghans worn by students during the revolts, and cut a clear contrast to the more classic, ladylike silhouettes Valli threw into his line-up to illustrate his Parisian point.
Like many designers this season, he said things had taken a slightly different direction over the last 12 days—referring to the war in Ukraine. Wanting to express a sense of hope and optimism for future generations, he styled the models’ hair in a wet fashion to symbolize a rebirth, replaced his original soundtrack with an emotive Max Richter piece, and infused his show production with a certain somber calm. Valli’s walk down revolution road concluded in a series of beautiful tiered tulle gowns so light and ethereal in their bouncing volumes there wasn’t a maître d’ at Lipp who wouldn’t surrender.
