Stooping: the tradition of casting away your no longer needed furniture in front of your home so that anyone who needs the item can salvage it for whatever use they deem fit.

Inspired by this urban stable, Valentino Pre-Fall 2022 is a stooping of the maison’s past collections, a pursuit of a new appliqué and template by veteran Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli. Titled “Portrait of a Generation,” signatures of the Valentino’s heritage are repurposed for new representation, striving to appeal to a younger audience. “I always think my work is to take a new picture of something you know already,” said Piccioli, “I do it with new life and new shapes, so you view the landscape from my way of seeing.”

Shot in the streets of London, this season’s lookbook introduces a clash of contemporary and the ancient. Both furniture and model are the vital points of stooping, as Valentino cues like short white capes and A-line skirts are refreshed by Valentino embellished bomber jackets or high-waisted denim. The maison leans into adaptability, reshaping at a time when young demographics are showing they no longer strive for the grandeur of status when it comes to having access to the grandeur of a luxury label. Even an opulent teal feathered jacket is demoted to the same status and paired with knee-high black boots and clutch, just for a night out. 

However, that may be the irony of Piccioli’s intention behind the meaning of this collection, especially as stooping comes with the negotiation that the item being acquired is free (at risk of damage). In contrast, in the world of Valentino, stooping has the opposite arrangement. This does not mean that luxury can’t be adaptable, especially if you change the rules of dressing. When Mr. Valentino started designing, there were so many rules for how you wore clothes,” says Piccioli. “Now, fashion is about self-realization. This collection is shifting Valentino to his new world, giving new meaning to the codes and values.”