Much is made of Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s ability to bring a modern sensibility to his couture designs, often using volume and a color palette that exists outside of more classic conventions to surprise and delight those lucky enough to attend his presentations (and wear his beautiful clothes).
At an intimate show this evening at the Gaggiandre in Venice’s Arsenale, he flexed this specific sartorial muscle yet again, presenting chic suiting and separates, many of which were interchangeable on a cast of men and women, in pops of of canary yellow, emerald green, and a heart-stopping fuchsia. Gowns and cocktail dresses added punchy pinks, baby blues, and the house’s signature red to a color palette that popped against the dusk sky over the 16th century shipyard.
A single dress took 680 hours of fine workmanship to complete; yet a sense of luxe simplicity prevailed, from the all-white dress code for attendees, to makeup artist Pat McGrath’s color-coded eyeliner—pencils, topped with pigment-dipped brush strokes—which reinterpreted more familiar cateye flicks in shades of acid pink, lime green
