Pierpaolo Piccioli spun a narrative of unrestrained femininity in the Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection. A meticulous fusion of art, expression, and feminist fervor marked each piece, setting the iconic Place Vendôme abuzz with whispered adorations and overt admires. Women’s freedom to embody their authentic selves, unabridged and unjudged, permeated the ethos of this collection.
The unveiling, a rapturous visual banquet, was at the esteemed Beaux-Arts school. Here, the convergence of art, culture, and Valentino’s epochal collection created an ambience of aesthetic enlightenment. FKA Twigs rendered a live performance, embodying the spirit of feminine energy unbounded, a vivid complement to the masterpieces adorned by the models.
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Piccioli’s narrative for Valentino Spring/Summer 2024 ventured beyond aesthetics, confronting societal norms that sought to police and restrict women’s expressions. A collection showcasing skillfully cut open-worked dresses, an epitome of sartorial elegance, boldly professed nudity as a manifesto. The craftsmanship was couture-grade, with each piece an articulate dialogue between form, function, and feminist ethos.
Skin was not just celebrated but elevated, a canvas of autonomy and power. Three-dimensional renderings of doves, lilies, and pomegranates crafted as finely as plaster moldings breathed life and meaning into soft structures. This innovative technique birthed from Piccioli’s ingenuity coined “high relief,” saw decorations morphing into the construction itself.
Against the backdrop of classical nude sculptures of women at the École des Beaux-Arts, models donned pieces that were a poetic alignment of different styles, sensibilities, and moods. Flowing silk t-shirt dresses, crisp white cotton poplin suit jackets, and blanket-like sweater dresses underscored comfort, choice, and character. The Valentino woman is not a monolith but a multifaceted enigma of strength, vulnerability, and allure.
The fervent energy of feminist defiance pulsed through the stitches and seams of this collection. The designer’s aversion to the conservative-right administration’s attempts at curtailing women’s sartorial freedom in Italy was palpable. Articulated in the intertwining threads of trouser suits, jackets, over-shirts, and shorts, was a silent yet powerful resistance.
Embroidery in the Spring/Summer 2024 collection diverged from the conventional. It was not an ornament but an essence, a structure breathing life and spirit into the fabric. The caged effect of linked flower, bird, vine leaves, or pineapples was not just a testament to Piccioli’s avant-garde approach but a narrative of freedom, where barriers are but illusions.
The Valentino aesthetic, rooted in the ethereal elegance associated with its founder, metamorphosed into a modern, yet graceful exposition of the female form. It was not a rebellion but an evolution, where the body is a temple of expression, unshackled by societal expectations, and liberated from the gaze that seeks to define and confine.
Read more: Valentino Spring/Summer 2024 – Milan Fashion Week Men’s
©Photo: Valentino
