Bloom Becomes Her

Just as the petals of a delicate flower, Valentino’s Fall/Winter 2022 Haute Couture collection is brimming with heartfelt connotations and dynamic textures. Here, the house’s latest offering titled “The Beginning” blossoms into sartorial paradise

This story appears in V139, Supermodel, Superhero issue, now available for purchase.

Like the tales of human existence, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino is honest—unwavering in nature and quietly whimsical in facade. He designs with a certain ease, one that is cloaked by his truthful approach and appreciation for those, and the world, that backdrop him. For Valentino’s Fall/Winter 2022 Haute Couture collection, Piccioli placed his vivid designs in the context of Rome’s Spanish Steps, a locale located mere steps from the brand’s Piazza Mignanelli headquarters. “Roma is the place where everything starts. The life, the people, our stories, and identities are here,” Piccioli explains. “We are constantly changed by our own human experience; beauty undergoes continuous interference from the world and often shifts in the mentality of the researchers.”

 

Titled “The Beginning,” the encompassing collection draws from the storied lexicon of the brand, while simultaneously etching an air of modernity that has defined Piccioli’s tenure. And for the Italian, the collection is deeply personal—a breathtaking assembly of painterly dresses and masterfully assembled textiles that remain in dialogue with founder Valentino Garavani.

The creative’s silhouettes are both referential and new, infused with a sense of humanism and whim that delicately continue the poetic tale of Valentino. “This collection is the result of the constant dialogue I have had over the years with Mr. Valentino; a real dialogue, sometimes an imaginary one, very often unconscious,” Piccioli shares. “Memory is respected without nostalgia, but rather, through the unconscious knowledge of our heritage.”

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