VALENTINO COUTURE SS21

“The narrative of the collection is the collection itself. No stories. Nothing figurative. I wanted to work on surfaces, not in a decorative sense, but workmanship which becomes the surface itself.” - Pierpaolo Piccioli

This Valentino Couture show was unlike anything we had witnessed before in the Houses history, a reinvention of what Haute Couture is and should stand for. This was a show of many firsts for Valentino, who had never put male models on a Couture runway prior to this season. The collection embraced a genderless attitude as Piccioli abandoned the typical feathers and prints associated with the house, instead, opting for a more muted colour palette with pops of neon.

The collection titled, Code Temporal, was just that, clothes which embraced the here and now as opposed to looking back into history. The avant-garde collection is very much rooted in the present, as Piccioli transformed the Houses traditional approach to Couture, substituting it with a more relaxed silhouette as the show embraced hoodies, sweaters and, shorts - fashion’s new normal. It will be interesting to see if other designers follow suit in this more relaxed approach to Couture, for as Piccioli states: “Elegance is not about ‘good taste’… It’s a bit daring.”

“But couture is for people. I don’t care about gendered (fashion). It’s an inspiration which is fluid, no-boundaries: a trench coat is for men and women.” - Pierpaolo Piccioli