As anyone who keeps up with my reviews will tell you, the
reviews are rarely favorable when it comes to Valentino. What remains a constant is that Maria Grazia
Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli are amazingly full of bravado, if not brazen,
when it comes to technique, materials, quality and workmanship; but to me, it
stops there! Their design esthetic
evades me practically every season since they began.
Here’s the rub for the Fall 2013 Haute Couture … my take is
that the clothes, design wise, are surely not on my top 5 or even top 10 … BUT, if there was ever a collection that
embraced, lauded, utilized and shined a klieg light on the abilities of couture
ateliers… this collection shoots to the top of the list!
For me, the whole monastic, somber tone of the seemingly
robotic models and clothes as well as the presentation are not appealing. The almost matronly lengths, silhouettes,
hair and make up, fall flat in my eyes.
The color palette is bland, almost yawn worthy, and without excitement. If I was so inclined I might pick the
collection apart but there is no point as once again, we need to be reminded
that these clothes have an instant customer approval rating and it will be they
who judge the success or failure of the collection. BUT … there are some absolutely stellar
pieces hidden amongst all the ennui.
The awe inspiring aspects of the collection are the
embellishments, the fabrications, the workmanship and the finish of these
garments which are all above any criticism that can be offered. All of this is just mesmerizing and has no
equal … not even the “modern couture” of Dior.
If one thinks of it, Valentino is the antithesis of that Raf “modern manifesto”
as these clothes could not scream any louder that they are ONLY for the
endlessly rich and reek of the heritage that is particular to the haute
couture.
Bravo to the designers for fluently speaking the language of
the Haute Couture. It is just a pity
that the clothes do not equal the sum of their parts.
No comments:
Post a Comment