ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: As Delicate As It Is Divine: VALENTINO Pre-Fall 2013

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

As Delicate As It Is Divine: VALENTINO Pre-Fall 2013

Rose, Ivory, Black or Red - the color palette for fall is as delicate as it is divine. By now we’ve come to have a clear idea of what Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli believe to be the key pieces of a Valentino wardrobe:
1. A short dress with long sleeves.
2. A feminine and/or unconventional trench.
3. A lace dress, unadorned for day and embellished for night.
4. A jumpsuit.

It makes perfect sense, then, that they would use a transitional season to focus on these signature silhouettes and play with materials and treatments so that the resulting pieces look like your favorite dress/trench/jumpsuit but still make the pulse quicken.

The selection the duo created for pre-fall was a striking mix of graphic black, white, and red clothes done in everything from a Moroccan-feeling macramé to slick patent leather. (Perhaps a nod to this spring’s “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibit at the Met?) The lines were clean and simple and followed that same sweet but strong story line that Chiuri and Piccioli have been weaving. It was most powerful in a great pale-pink look: a cocoon cape with a structured ruffle hem and matching straight cropped pants.

If anything, there was a more monastic feel, with a greater number of midi-length skirts and pants than in past seasons. But the house’s popular tango shoe kept everything from looking too heavy. Evening looks mostly lacy, long-sleeved, and to the floor included a long chiffon dress and suit in a smoky, blurred floral. Until this collection, prints were one territory Chiuri and Piccioli had left relatively unexplored. Could this be a hint of what’s to come for fall '13/14?