Valentino brings haute couture for Generation Z to Château de Chantilly

Valentino chose the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris, to turn this former symbol of exclusivity into “a forum of equality and openness”. In this context, Pierpaolo Piccioli presented a sophisticated line of ready-to-wear styles for contemporary men and women.

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Kaia Gerber was in charge of opening the show with an atypical look for a Haute Couture Week. Cindy Crawford’s daughter walked in a white puffy shirt with mao collar, jeans, pointy metallic ballerinas, adorned with maxillons and cascading earrings. Despite breaking with the stereotype of haute couture at the beginning, Pierpaolo Piccioli presented a collection full of extravaganza. Dresses and maximalist pieces, with characteristic elements of the house, but with a lightening of the fabric, to favor body movement: a minimized maximalism.

Through it, Valentino defends the fundamentals of Couture: the mastery, the craft and the power of the individual. These concepts become garments that reflect contemporary sensibilities, modern realities, avoiding the accessory to add meaning. A meaning that is common to all, which is why the emergence of masculine identities in haute couture continued. And also one that is reduced to the truly essential. That’s why shoes become flat to free movement, clothes flow. Suddenly, extravagant gestures emerge: a hood of rose petals, a cascade of crystal jewelry, a maxi bow on shoes…

And, inversely, the everyday becomes exceptional. Shirts become ball gowns, vintage Levi’s® 501 XX Big E jeans serve as a canvas for golden embroidery. Other jeans are reinvented, made with a meticulous trompe l’oeil of beads that arouse the viewer’s curiosity.

In his particular invasion of the castle, Pierpaolo Piccioli has defined a new concept of Haute Couture. The meaning of Valentino’s contemporary pieces goes beyond the simple fact of including feathers or flowers in them. Piccioli wants collections that speak of the people who wear them and the times of today, not those of the past.

Julien Dossena collection for Jean Paul Gaultier in Haute Couture Week.