Valentino Couture Collection 2012

The cryptic Surrealist paintings of the twentieth century Belgian artist Paul Delvaux a flock of young women in pale turn of the century gowns walking with portraits of Marie Antoinette. She was a young Austrian princess stills from the opulent 1938 MGM blockbuster that cast Norma Shearer.  The grown is version of the ill fated French queen. The exquisite couture collection created by designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. The clothes also referenced some of Valentino’s own giddily romantic clothes from the early 1970s in the use of faded flower sprigged organza and lace.

The designers used printed taffetas of the sort that Marie Antoinette and her ladies favored for frolics at Le Petit Trianon with subtle foliate motifs and an eighteenth century toile representing Africa for a strapless ball dress. Four leaf clovers were printed over airy organza and shadowed with layers of tulle and lace. The pieces revealed a stricter hand a sleek ivory cape over lean pants for instance face dresses with hand detailing of extraordinary subtlety and skill. The haute couture so special but it is the hands of Valentino’s skilled Roman atelier staff that really spin magic into material and bring the Chiuri and Piccioli vision so beautifully to life.