VALENTINO Fifth Avenue - For the occasion of the opening of the new VALENTINO flagshipstore, 963 Fifth Avenue in New York last August, the Roman couture house presented on December 10th, 2014, for the first time ever an Haute Couture show in NYC, 945 Madison Avenue.
Though a fair number of fashion VIPs were over in Tokyo awaiting the Dior Pre-Fall extravaganza, there were still dozens of the industry’s great and good on hand last night at the Madison Avenue building formerly known as the Whitney Museum of American Art. They had come from places near and far to witness the Valentino Sala Bianca Haute Couture show. To be perfectly clear, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli will be presenting their Spring 2015 Couture collection as usual in Paris in January; this show was a special event, a celebration of the original Valentino’s early, ’60s-era collections at the Sala Bianca in Florence and the Sfilata Bianca in Rome that were comprised of looks all in white.
Photos via Instagram by @andreajankeofficial direct from the show
“White,” according to a loose definition of that non-color: The défilé included a jacket that shaded toward the sand-toned and a beaded gown you’d have to call gold. Still, white was the indisputable theme, and Chiuri and Piccioli made a powerful case for their palette, debuting light-as-air dresses and gowns of white chiffon, white lace, and white plissé organza that will no doubt find their way onto the red carpet. Perhaps they’ll be worn by stars such as Sofia Coppola, Olivia Munn, or Katie Holmes, who were sitting in the front row alongside Mr. Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, the latter of whom could be spied taking snaps for his popular Instagram (but see also my Instagrams direct from the show).
The clothes on the runway had an unmistakable ’60s vibe, no accident given the Valentino epoch to which they paid homage. As it turned out, the all-white thing was carefully considered, too as they looked at the decade, Chiuri and Piccioli took into their purview the work of painter Robert Ryman, he of the all-white paintings, and architect Marcel Breuer, who opened his “non-color” Whitney in 1966. So the event’s location was no accident, either. More mysterious: What was Ben Stiller doing there? (Our guess: researching Zoolander 2.) Who’s the Britpop superfan who booked ’90s-throwback band Skunk Anansie for the after-party? And, most important, if you can’t decide which Valentino Sala Bianca dress you’d most like to wear to your wedding, that’s a valid reason to get married multiple times, right? These and other matters were debated post-show as guests nibbled on tiny hors d’oeuvres such as bass carpaccio and foie gras balls. By the time the heartier dish of risotto arrived, at least one starlet in attendance was observed carrying multiple bowls back to the white leather banquette where she was seated. Fashion shows build up an appetite!
Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories
Photo Credit/Source: The House of VALENTINO
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Every one of the looks Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli sent out were inspired by the works of Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets, but first among them was a white draped tunic dress named after Alma-Tadema’s sultry study of a sleeping nymph, The Siesta, of 1868.
VALENTINO Haute Couture backstage, close up of the finale look:
40 meters of lamé and 2.000 hours of application work. The design depicts
an imaginary merry-go-round!
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