Valentino’s Castle

«I wanted to take all meaning out of the castle. There are no princes or princesses, kings or queens. I wanted to bring freedom and equality», Pierpaolo Piccioli said, explaining the decision to bring Valentino haute couture to show at the Château de Chantilly.

«I do not parade in the château, but outside. Not the château, but a château. A place as idea and metaphor». Made in its current appearance during the 18th century, the building is transformed into an architectural backdrop as models parade through the monumental garden. From Florence Pugh to Emily Ratajkowski, Clotilde Courau to Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece to Donatella Versace, guests can tour the vast museum filled with masterpieces from Botticelli to Memling, the most important museum in France second only to the Louvre.

When the show starts, the first outfit is already statement. Kaia Gerber wears an oversized white shirt and a pair of jeans. However, that is just an illusion, as it is a pant made from a trompe l’oeil canvas with 80 shades of indigo, packed with thousands of appliqué beads that took three months to make. The best image for the 77 releases Piccioli described as, «my couture from the simplest silhouette». However, a simplicity understood as a point of arrival and not of departure. As artist Constantin Brâncu?i said, «Simplicity is complexity resolved». Clothes are markedly simple, they move with the body, streamlined to follow its shapes. The seams are reduced, precise, and focused. The ideals of the past are evoked with a contemporary spirit. Fabrics are lightened, memories of abstract decorations, arabesques of intensified color that propose an imitation of the baroque, a minimized maximalism.

Drapes freeze the body in movement, holding its momentum, and isolating an instant of stillness. Evening gowns seem to slip off and sprout a bra. The proportions of the red outfits have a flavor between the mantles of Madonnas and ancient sculptures. The founding reality of haute couture is promoted, with its craftmanship and the focus on the power of the individual and of uniqueness. These concepts are translated into clothes that reflect contemporary sensibilities and modern realities. The anomalous result of adding meaning is achieved through a process of reduction. The designer wants to find pure simplicity within the complexity, both the architectural complexity of the Château and the perceived complexity of haute couture.

Judgment. The incipit of Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium focuses on the art of losing weight, not as a diet, but rather as a work of subtraction on creative activity. An art that Pierpaolo Piccioli, his team, and his atelier, exalt with this couture for the Mayhoola’s Maison. The collection feels like a turning point in his creative process, a statement to continue to evolve couture as an intangible heritage of culture by subtracting from it the sense of privilege and keeping it that of a masterpiece. (All rights reserved)