Giambattista Valli was thinking of “porcelain goddesses” for his appropriately fragile and delicate haute couture show, its runway decorated with classical statuary draped in garlands of white hydrangea.
In a nod to Capodimonte, Italy’s royal Neapolitan ceramic workshop, Valli married that fragility exquisite appliqué of lace and massed groupings of organza carnations decorating the hem of a short, full skirt to the city’s famed menswear tailoring, with structured jackets made from an innovative shadowy organza and paper fabric that resembled the interlining used to create shape in a bespoke suit coat, and the playful effect of an “unfinished” sleeve, hanging from its shoulder seam as though picked up from the tailor’s table in mid-process, revealing a flash of flesh.
There was Wedgwood porcelain too, evoked in pretty rococo scrolls of white ribbon embroidery on that company’s signature clear sky-blue, and Meissen and Sèvres too, for picturesque decoration of tiny, multicolored blossoms scattered on diaphanous lace skirtsm Valli likened the effect to “winter flora in a winter greenhouse” and there was certainly a lightness here that evoked St. Petersburg’s white nights rather than a gloomy winter as well as chinoiserie scenes and three-dimensional butterflies that flitted across those icy blue skies and lighted on the blossoms. There were tunic effects suggested by short dresses worn over those clinging, trailing skirts; these elements can of course be separated to create the shapely little cocktail dresses for which Valli is celebrated. As ever, Luigi Scialanga’s beautiful jewels accented the softness with a tougher edge ribbon “belts” in tarnished steel, and tiaras with the neoclassical elements, including goddesses, putti, and crescent moons, similar to those used by the great late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century furniture makers to embellish their own spectacularly crafted creations.
Valli’s finale, of wafting, blossoming lace sheath dresses, was anchored by a dramatic trio of gowns in blocks of surprisingly potent color combinations like tropical birds let loose in his flowering conservatory.
Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accesssories
Photo credit/Source: VOGUE
Photography by Yannis Vlamos / InDigitalteam / GoRunway
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Amazing 'Behind The Scenes' of Giambattista Valli Fall 2013 couture
'"Flowers and colors are what women want from me," Giambattista Valli said before his couture show his fifth, the program notes reminded us. "That's what I give them, but every time I get inspired by something different." The something different tonight was porcelain.'
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“I think it’s time to free couture,” declared Raf Simons as he came up from hugging a delighted Jennifer Lawrence amid the backstage melee of congratulations after his third Christian Dior couture show. “It annoys me that couture is thought of as the circus clown of fashion,” he continued. “What interests me is to get down to a more psychological level. To think about individuality, and the cultures women live in.”
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