Time and again, fashion houses dish out new campaigns scintillating with maximalist pursuits for our attention. Hoping to break through the ever-saturated airwaves swarming fashion’s frenetic sphere, we’re often presented with fantasy as a skeleton key. Albeit these radiant images of models in labyrinthine poses decked in lace and embellishments are certainly a treat, a palette cleanser is perhaps equally enjoyable. 

Hitting a factory reset on all the glitz and glamour bound to the Valentino name, Pierpaolo Piccioli tears away at its excess to arrive at a new vision. Unboxing Valentino, he subtracts the superfluous to highlight its core; wielding its campaign as a tool for innovation, Valentino sets its sights on capturing the essence of its wearers. 

Piccioli severs the ouroboros of the fashion icon. No longer does the stale mannequin wander through the fashion campaign’s desolate negatives, awaiting its endless cycle of cloning to begin again. 

What remains glistens with the promise of rebirth. Picking up its remnants, Steven Meisel and Pierpaolo Piccioli merge their visions to address fashion’s progress as a portrait. Capturing the new generation, it harnesses the spirit of what today’s youth is all about. Equally unabashed by flaws as relentlessly driven by expression, the ethos of their latest campaign is all about unbridled individuality. 

Unboxing Valentino reasserts fashion as both a statement of the individual and a reflection collective of shifting times. Set in grayscale spaces, the veil of fantasy is disintegrated through their vision to capture real people sporting looks for the real world. 

A second skin is created for its wearers; conveyed through a palette of sensuous fleshy tones and hints of gleaming glamour, identity becomes the focal point Meisel harnesses through the camera’s flash.

The concept of couture as a dermis permeates the glossy editorials of the past; rather than homogenizing, the iconic Italian brand celebrates the vibrant personalities it encases. Featuring a cast of diverse models, the thread that unites them is that of self-expression.  

Models pierce through the fourth wall with a confrontational gaze, directly addressing onlookers. 

‘This is the new generation,’ proclaims their smoldering eyes with striking conviction. 

Through a framework of couture, Piccioli and his team harmonize volume and shape in complex creations. Tailored figures nod to today’s gender fluidity throughout its campaign. Balancing restriction and ease, Maison Valentino harnesses yet another defining stamp of this era. 

As time progresses, so do portraits; solidifying the spirit of each era, they act as a window to peer into the world at a specific time and frame of mind. Challenging the prior formulaic modes of the fashion campaign, Italian fashion icons Meisel and Piccioli deliver an updated portrait of today’s fashion world emblematic of its shifting focus to the individual.