During a walk-through of Giambattista Valli’s pre-fall ready-to-wear collection just last week, his PRs took pains to point out the presence of “Valli pink,” a sugary shade closely associated with the designer.
So it came as no surprise that Valli went bananas in October while staying at The Beverly Hills Hotel and discovering in a corridor an old photo of peony pink midcentury cars parked in front of the Sunset Boulevard landmark. Around them milled handsome men in tuxedos and gorgeous women in long, flaring ballgowns, many of them pink.
Valli took a photo of that photo, and backstage before his spring haute couture show on Monday it took pride of place on his mood board, also plastered with his snaps of the hotel’s pale pink sun beds in neat rows by the pool.
There was plenty of Valli pink — and other pretty, flattering shades — on the big white carpet he laid out for his high-fashion display, which featured extravagant fishtail dresses, ballgowns and feathery coats to make his mood board look like casual Friday.
The collection exalted color and volume to extremes, with Valli’s atelier coaxing expansive puffs, swags and rosette swirls from silk faille, moire, tulle and chiffon.
The designer doesn’t even bother with daywear for his haute couture displays. The closest thing were small, cardigan-like jackets, but they came fully embroidered, fronted with frothy bows and paired with flaring, silk faille pants.
“We’re talking about gowns for parties — for happy times,” Valli said. “I think the most important thing about haute couture is the clothes, of course, but you also bring a dream.”
While a few of his really big dresses, one composed of hundreds of meters of tulle, bordered on unwieldy and almost overwhelmed his young models, Valli usually kept the body in view, especially legs, but also a slice of tummy here, a daring décolleté there. A few looks hinged on sparkly, crystal-mesh catsuits, around which the designer draped a bit of muslin silk.
To cap off his dreamy, escapist show, Valli conscripted flame-haired Brazilian actress and socialite Marina Barbosa to wear the finale look of sparkling jacket, pants as big as a ballgown and a tulle cape.
He called up her Instagram account, which shows her looking fabulous in Cannes, Marrakech, Florence, Jeddah and the Maldives. She exemplifies the fun-loving, international women of style to whom the couturier caters. And yes, she often wears Valli pink.
