Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Fall 2022
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As cameras filmed Giambattista Valli’s latest collections stalking a runway in Paris, the designer noticed that a model in a floral brocade haute couture gown forgot to put her hands in the pockets of the skirt.
Take two!
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The whole idea behind the show, dubbed “The Valli Experience” and mixing his pre-fall ready-to-wear and haute couture in a freewheeling way, was to nobilize the former and ground the grandeur of the latter — hence the importance of that hand gesture.
When the designer opted to forego a physical show with an audience during couture week amid a tsunami of Omicron cases in France, it presented an opportunity.
“Let’s do a conversation between the different worlds of Giambattista Valli, so every level, every floor of the maison,” the designer enthused during a preview. “And so you really get into the wardrobe of these women, which is becoming larger and larger.”
Dominique Maître/WWD
While haute couture and rtw have been mashed up in fashion shoots — who can forget that landmark Vogue cover of a bejeweled Christian Lacroix top and jeans back in 1988? — it’s rare to see them mingle on a runway. Valli opted not to identify what’s what in his film, though his inimitable, grand gowns made of miles and miles of tulle or chiffon could not be mistaken for anything but haute couture.
“I love to have this kind of eccentricity in the collection. There’s this idea of timelessness and having no rules,” he said. “It’s about wearing things in a spontaneous way, an effortless way.”
To be sure, both collections erred on the side of gamine glamour: quilted coatdresses shimmering in lamé fabrics, or bearing off-the-shoulder necklines; tweed miniskirts edged in transparent PVC for extra shine, and black suits and coats glinting with way more gold buttons than usual.
Dominique Maître/WWD
There’s a Parisian sensibility to everything the Italian designer turns out, occasionally with a whiff of YSL or Rue Cambon, but with his own slant, which runs from sleek and minimal to exaggerated and very worked.
Valli argued that “sometimes people see couture too much like a faraway dream,” whereas pre-collections might be underappreciated for the fashion quotient. “It was a very nice exercise to find the balance between the two, and getting the ready-to-wear super elevated and a super, easy kind of look for haute couture.
“We want first of all to inspire people, whether it’s with haute couture, a piece of denim or an accessory, to give it to you like a dream,” he said. “Inspiration is the most important thing. This is the first thing that I think fashion has to sell.”
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