The Valentino Spring Summer 22-23 Ready to Wear collection premiered last weekend at Paris Fashion Week to a full crowd. The audience was eager for the show, most had dawned Valentino pink, a shade of custom Pantone pink the fashion house built their last collection around, even turning their website logo pink. All in attendance waited to see if the color would be featured in the new line. To our surprise, the patented pink was not shown. Instead, Valentino showed an impressive ninety-one new looks themed around the concept of ‘Unboxing’.

Most of the clothing shown were in neutral tones and blacks, focusing on sheer fabric and textured details that resembled that of the house’s haute couture work. Pops of color were shown largely canary yellow and bright red. 

Valentino engaged the audience in feathered detailing and a reconfiguration of the brand’s logo. From far away what appeared to be a fishnet pattern upon closer inspection was a clever constellation of the brand’s signature ‘V’ repeated to create a new print. The pattern was placed over the clothing and painted on the models’ faces, attached capes, and accessories. The models wore long gloves, hitting the opera glove trend that has emerged recently while allowing the models to be fully enveloped in the pattern. Valentino also showed several looks playing with the idea of workwear by redesigning the classic white dress shirt.

Neutral tones were highlighted with heavily sequined embroideries. Bejeweled pieces were matched with bags encrusted in crystals with shoes to match. Sparkles and feathers were not shown together in the same look, choosing one major element to focus on resulted in clean and captivating ensembles.

The dresses and playsuits sculpturally cut out backs ended right on the hips, showing off the upper and lower back, balanced out by a high neckline in the front,“ Cuts and transparencies reveal the persona.” The dramatic backless pieces bring to mind the flashy and provocative ‘bumpsters’ of Alexander McQueen in the early 2000s.  Valentino’s Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli seemed to take an artistic approach to his collection. Focusing on the evolution and story the collection told as it walked out, “Unboxing an image means unboxing an idea. Get rid of the structure and you’ll see what’s inside.” the brand stated in a press release following the collection’s premier.