Since the introduction of its VLTN logo last year, a game on an archival font, the Valentino brand has pushed so much into streetwear, which seems to suggest that the dress is a now extinct species. The ss19 collection by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino took a further step forward, with such a heavy line of logos that left everyone speechless.
The lettering is the object of the letter addressed to new users of fashion. A cubist action that carves letters and glues them on fabrics as a philanthropic gesture for today’s fashion. Alongside this, a fuchsia pink VLTN logo crosses a pied-de-poule checkered coat, a camouflage zip jacket, jeans, a bucket hat and a leather belt bag. Other looks were characterized instead by logos borrowed from the Seventies foulard prints, which are combined with the designs of his women’s resort.
The silhouette is oversize. Bomber, camouflage cargo pants, sweatshirts and jeans: the Valentino street style is also worn with a bright, fluorescent and acid color palette.
The memories of the couture roots of the house were scattered everywhere: wings applied on a gray sweatshirt, hand-stitched palms on sweaters and embroidered ornaments on overalls and coats, not to mention sneakers with snap-tabs from which ostrich feathers sprout.
This season, Piccioli’s approach has been influenced by trap music, not because he personally likes this gritty genre, but because he talks to young people, including his 12-year-old daughter Stella.
As part of his new, more collaborative design method, he asked four of the front row guests, such as rappers Nas, A$AP Ferg, Keith Ape and female singer Syd, to designate their spiritual animals: a lion , panther, monkey and peacock, each of them, embroidered in four different looks.
The designer said he was trying to link Valentino’s couture values with the way young people refer to fashion. “It’s not about designing, it’s not about creating fashion like we used to think about fashion, but they have a kind of more spontaneous relationship,” he explained.
The show raised a wider question. If customers increasingly dictate the production of luxury brands, what will the role of the designer be? Piccioli seems genuine in his desire to evolve with the times, but it would be a pity if, in this evolution, his voice was drowned.
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