April 10, 2023 |
A Roman holiday? It was a homecoming. As a coda to the haute couture season, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli brought us to the Eternal City, where past, present and future co-exist and the Valentino legend was born.
It was here in 1959 that Valentino Garavani and his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti launched their era-defining couture house and quickly found a jet-set clientele which included Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor. The codes of beauty and exquisite artisanship they established are still hallmarks of the brand today, a point Piccioli was keen to make with a collection that was in conversation with the Valentino archive while also projecting forever forward.
7 July, 2022
I land in Rome at dusk, just as the setting sun is bathing the city’s monuments in pink light. The Hotel Locarno is near the river and, after marvelling at the amount of marble in my bathroom, I head up to the roof terrace for drinks with the Brits. They had arrived earlier on a specially chartered “couture” flight from Paris. We sip prosecco under the stars and gossip about who looked the best at Balenciaga (Kidman, Kardashian or Christine Quinn: my vote is for Nicole). It’s the perfect end to the day.
8 July, 2022
The next morning I’m up with the birds, literally. Breakfast on the roof terrace is shared with an opportunist seagull (I didn’t want that croissant anyway). Then we head to the heart of Rome, past the queues for the Colosseum and up to The Church of San Bonaventura al Palatino, a centuries-old monastery perched on the Palatine Hill, overlooking the Forum. It’s still a working abbey and one of the Franciscan friars who lives there is a friend of Piccioli, a highly collectible, contemporary artist called Sidival Fila.
You can tell a lot about a man from the friends he keeps. Trust Piccioli to forge a creative, cross-pollinating, life-affirming bond with an artist who is also a monk. Fila’s use of fabric and textures have inspired the designer, who has three of his paintings in his studio. Fila’s own studio is on the top floor of the monastery, which is where we find him working on his latest pieces, which are laid out on a large table in the centre of the polished concrete floor. The walls are hung with his works, including 3D slabs on undulating threads and a slashed cross made from antique fabric (“My basic idea is not so much about reuse… but about redemption,” he says).
Fila is wearing a Basquiat T-shirt and Birkenstocks and tells us how he came to Italy from Brazil to study art, even working in a bar before becoming a monk in 1992. He devoted himself to spiritual life and stopped painting, taking it up again in 2006 and finding international acclaim. Franciscans take a vow of poverty and all the proceeds from his art go to charitable causes. He leads us up to an attic room to see more of his works. The serene space offers a 360-degree view of Rome’s glories.
The city is Piccioli’s main source of inspiration. “Rome with its layers and codes, high and low, sacred and profane registers, never stops amazing me. The contrasts and splendours of the city are the ones I explore in my research. Rome is history at its purest, but it is also a contemporary southern European city where anything could happen and sometimes dreams come true,” says the designer.
The dream to hold his couture show on the historic Spanish Steps comes from a very personal place. When Piccioli was a student in Rome, he saw a glitzy fashion show called Donna sotto le stelle (“Woman Under the Stars”) set on those steps. Watching from behind the barriers, on Piazza di Spagna, it was the spark that lit his ambition in life. From then on, he knew he wanted to be a designer. Indeed, that feeling remained so strong that he wanted to pass it on to a new generation, inviting 120 students from Rome’s fashion schools to tonight’s show.
The buzz in central Rome is intense. The streets around Piazza di Spagna are so thronged with people that we have to abandon our people carrier and push through the crowds to get to our seats at the foot of the Spanish Steps, a stone’s throw from the Valentino atelier and flagship boutique. Has there ever been a better-dressed audience? There are rows and rows of beautiful people wearing PP Pink (the vivid pantone shade, patented by the house), including Anne Hathaway in an itsy-bitsy sequinned mini dress and huge platform heels.
As dusk falls, the show starts and Piccioli’s Valentino beauties come zig-zagging down the steps. He called the show “The Beginning” and that’s where it started. The opening look – a ball of red silk roses worn over a red playsuit – was a 21st-century version of a look from Valentino Garavani’s debut collection in 1962. What followed was an ode to the Valentino couture world, which revolves around beauty and exquisite craft but under Piccioli has also come to represent an openness and generosity of spirit.
In his hands, fashion is a feel-good force for change. Its ravishing beauty becomes a source of emotional nourishment. “Beauty is pervasive, it overcomes bad moments, but mostly creates good ones, with gentleness,” said the designer. As his models descended in feathers and chiffon, it was hard to disagree. The craft on display was mesmerising. One weightless cape was made from hundreds of scales of black and white organza and lace, layered individually into a geometric pattern inspired by ancient Roman mosaic floors. There were gowns galore, some light as air, others bursting with vivid 3-D plumage or dripping in dazzling crystal embroidery. There were hand-sequinned suits and men’s couture, a recent and growing addition to the Valentino world.
And what a wonderful world it is. The designer’s models represented a great diversity of body shape, ethnicity, age and gender. “I lost interest in the super-professional fashion standard, while realising that everything pertains to humanity and personality. A dress means nothing without the person wearing it,” said the designer of his inclusive approach to casting. Each model had a story to tell: from the girl recovered from an eating disorder who is now pursuing a successful plus-size career to another with vitiligo and several non-binary models. For Piccioli, beauty is not escapist, it is political. “Fashion can have a strong say on social issues like acceptance of diversity or standing up for human rights,” he said, talking about the soft power of a big house. He described his beauty as anti-conservative, crafted to confront ugly world events and ideologies which he labelled as “anti-democratic idiocy”. As his models assembled en masse for the finale, it was impossible not to be awed. “Couture is about dream, fantasy and the expression of individuality. But most of all it speaks the language of extravagance. It is a superpower that’s able to shake feelings and unveil all the beauty that hides beneath the surface of the known. Extravaganza appears, passes by and leaves a different landscape behind. It generates freedom through surprise,” said the designer.
Piccioli took a bow with his entire couture atelier, a moment that he described as “magic” adding, “We were at home. I felt the immense energy of my community, strong as never before.” He described the atelier as family. “We have known each other for a long time and what I can affirm without any hesitation about the Valentino ateliers is that they are filled with unstoppable people who chose to do what they do because of passion, dedication and true love for the craft of couture. Our dialogue is based on technical details but constantly fuelled by emotional intensity.” We could feel that emotion as they all processed into those ateliers at the foot of the Spanish Steps.
We were whisked to the Caracalla Baths where the after-show party was being held among the ruins and beautifully preserved mosaic floors. Even Anna Wintour obeyed the suggestion to wear flat shoes on the uneven ground, trotting around the party in what looked like espadrilles. We feasted on pasta and prosecco as Pierpaolo and his wife arrived with their dog on a PP Pink lead. The day was rich, beautiful, warm and very human. It doesn’t get more Valentino than that.
Additional photography courtesy of Valentino. Taken from Issue 5 of 10+ – WORLD IN MOTION – available here.
Backstage photographer GESUALDO LANZA
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Date 8 JULY, 2022
Location ROME
Designer PIERPAOLO PICCIOLI
Fashion Editor JOE MCKENNA
Hair GUIDO PALAU
Make-up PAT MCGRATH
Casting CARLO SAVOLDI and PATRIZIA PILOTTI
