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Valentino

Spring 2023 RTW

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Properties

Date: October 2, 2022
Location: Paris, France
Looks: 91
Brand: Valentino
URL: wwd.com

Critic Reviews

By Joelle Diderich for WWD

What gives? Valentino’s spring 2023 collection.

Creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli designed the outfits using stretchy underlayers, elasticated waists and generous volumes to ensure they had enough flexibility, or give, to accommodate a range of body shapes.

The idea came from the bustiers used to underpin couture gowns. In a spirit of inclusivity, Piccioli reimagined them as a kind of shapewear that he used on its own, for a minimalist second-skin effect, or as a base layer for everything from pleated cape dresses to sparkly cocktail frocks.

The sheaths came in five hues. “I love the idea of celebrating different kinds of bodies and different skin tones,” the designer said in a preview.

Some outfits were tonally matched to the wearer: Think a dark brown cropped shirt with a sweeping chiffon cape back; a pale beige top with slouchy pants dotted with ostrich feathers, or a sharp black minidress with a diagonal cutout back.

While there were women of all races on the runway, the brand didn’t cast any plus-size models. “I wanted different shapes of body but not showing the differences, trying to make them all beautiful and not to pick the one that has to be the big girl,” Piccioli explained.

It was a missed opportunity to illustrate how the designs might work for curvier physiques. Chances are it would have been terrific, especially since Piccioli stripped away all excess by using a single fabric for each look. “To me, minimalism means subtraction, and arriving to the purism,” he said.

In the case of his monogram outfits, the allover concept extended to the models’ faces: painting on the pattern took makeup artist Pat McGrath and her team more than five hours. The new logo motif, christened Valentino Toile Iconographe, appeared on ample shirt dresses, body stockings and adjustable circle skirts.

Sometimes Piccioli’s idea of going back to essentials involved using a sequined or embroidered fabric from head to toe. Standouts included a emerald green sequined cape dress.

Other times it involved deconstructing wardrobe staples like the white shirt, offered in a variety of generous cuts. “I feel that fashion is going sometimes too much back into exclusivity. I feel that idea of having a universal object like a white shirt for everyone is more interesting, more contemporary,” Piccioli said.

That’s not to say he skimped on the red-carpet stunners. Turning his back on last season’s neon-bright Valentino Pink PP shade, which was worn by a large proportion of guests like the uniform of a super-stylish cult, Piccioli turned out a sequence of flawless black evening looks. An edgy midriff-baring black trouser-and-cape combo had front-row guest Zendaya’s name all over it.

It was a shame that the brand, which is famous for its Rockstud ballet flats, chose to show the outfits with high heels. Several of the models struggled with their shoes, undercutting the impression of ease that was supposed to emanate from the clothes.

The general ambiance of the event, which for the last few seasons has drawn huge crowds of screaming onlookers, also contrasted with the serenity of the designs. To the delight of waiting fans, the models walked out in front of the building for the finale of the show.

Bringing the rarefied world of high fashion to the street is arguably the most inclusive move of all, but strip away all the spectacle and one was left with what truly matters: Beautiful clothes.

By Mark Holgate for Vogue

And just like that, boom! Everything changed. Last March, Pierpaolo Piccioli sent out a Valentino collection that included a 48-look homage to the power of fuchsia, and the audience at his show today had clearly got the memo and dressed accordingly. Just about everywhere you looked, that color reigned supreme on clients and celebs alike, though none looked as major in it (and I will brook no argument on this) as Erykah Badu, who worked it from the tip of her towering stovepipe hat to the trailing hem of her feathered coat. (Even more major: The way Ms. Badu adorably bobbed up and down in her seat, phone in hand, primed to film Piccioli’s appearance on the runway at the end of his show the minute he popped out from backstage.)

So there was every eye in the room training itself on Piccioli’s opening salvo for next spring, and what did we get? No more Think Pink, that’s for sure. Instead, a caped dress in the palest of beiges that was graphically emblazoned with the house’s V logo. The marque was over absolutely everything, including the gloved bodysuit worn under the dress (silky knit body-suiting, designed to counteract the diaphanous nature of his fabrics and make women feel more comfortable about wearing such gauzy materials, was a constant refrain here). It was even painted across the model’s face, an incredible effect courtesy of the deft hand (and ceaseless imagination) of Pat McGrath.

That was just the start. Piccoli focused his look on mostly beautifully cut flowing, undulating dresses, short or long, some scissored away at the waist (inspired by the slashed canvases of artist Lucio Fontana) and soft suiting that was androgynous with or without the feathery trims, in myriad shades of ivory, beige and brown, his celebration of the beauty of every skin tone. During the course of the show, he started to introduce bright saturated colors as a contrast—electric blue, acid green, emerald green—which looked at their most dazzling when deployed for the dream-it-and-we-can-make-it technical marvel of his pleated sequin pieces, such as a shrug it on coat, or a sweeping floor-length backless evening dress. (How often does one see pleated sequins, particularly when the folds run on the bias? Like, never. Difficult to do doesn’t even begin to describe it.)

Of course, what was going on here wasn’t some old school narrative of a shift from one trend to another: Nothing so first degree. What Piccioli has triumphed at these past few years is the way he has challenged himself, the house he oversees, and the industry itself, to keep thinking differently, respectfully, democratically. (Consider how, at the end of his show, he led the models out onto the street, so the crowds outside could see the collection.) He has proven himself to be a particularly sensitive and thoughtful protagonist. His spring collection was dubbed Unboxing, as in thinking out of the….

Such as: Refuting the notion he could only work with uberstar models. The cast here was almost all unknowns, some of whom had never walked a show before; the better, Piccioli thought, for the audience to focus on who they are as individuals and not on their status in the industry. (Which might have explained why a few found the heels tricky.) Or challenging the orthodoxy of fashion speak, in this case, the term minimalism. Backstage, Piccioli laughed at the idea that sequins couldn’t be thought of as minimal. For him, he said, it all came down to the idea of how you designed to be reductive without taking away.

Being behind the scenes gave another insight into what was going on here. Pinned up above a moodboard was a quote from Richard Avedon (Piccioli had recently visited the late photographer’s ongoing retrospective in Milan.) “My photographs don’t go below the surface… I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues,” Avedon said. In other words, in Piccioli’s view, a designer can only give their vision. The rest of us have the right to interpret what he presents, to look further and deeper, in whatever way we like.