Skin itself becomes a fabric - skirts are abbreviated, both revelatory and permitting dynamic movement, while bold cuts open windows onto the body, allowing form to be reconsidered. A new technique, named by Valentino, Altorilievo (High Relief), sculpts fabric into apparently seamless three-dimensions, creating naturalistic forms - Baroque foliage, fruit, flowers and animals - that frame the naked body, our natural state. More naked than clothed, this technique is a form of honoring the woman - built around the body, she becomes an active participant in its design. Elaborate yet simple, the decoration creates structure, their silhouettes entirely determined by the body - here simultaneously clothed and unclothed. Prints executed in grisaille echo these forms, fabric sliced away to reveal flesh.
Simplicity - t-shirt, shirt, jeans, honest garments marked by their direct engagement with the body. Tailoring is proposed in cotton poplin, its hand and structure softened, a reflection of feminine curves. There is a gentleness, a tenderness and care. T-shirts can become precious, proposed in silk, elongated and draped in evening gowns, preciously embroidered. Linen and raw silk excite the touch, in an innately personal dynamic - for the woman wearing them, alone.
Accessories underscore the relationship between fashion and a woman, her freedom: shoes are low, grounded, engaged with the body and facilitating movement. The Valentino Garavani Vlogo Moon bag, supple and malleable, molds itself to the form of the body, the elliptical ‘V’ chain wrapping the wrist, fusing woman and garment. It is offered in double calf, pliant and relaxed.
Sensuality - an exploration of pleasure, a delight of the senses. Underscoring the attitude and emotion of the Valentino L’École collection, the multidisciplinary artist FKA twigs performs with her body and others - a corps of dancers, moving as one. Her performances are always corporeal articulations of her work, fusing her music with dance and movement to place her own physicality at the center of her creative expression. This live performance explores and honors bodies, a physicality, and the feminine.
#ValentinoLÉcole
