by Sarah Mower

SEE THE SLIDESHOW

“We want to do something which is about fragility and beauty,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri, “something light—a reaction to the time we’re in.” She and Pier Paolo Piccioliwere working in the Valentino showroom on final fittings for their couture show on Wednesday. A girl stood before them in a long, full-skirted dress with delicate wrist-length sleeves and a high neck in yards of blurred, faded blue-and-yellow rose print. “I feel like a princess,” she breathed, catching sight of herself in a mirror. 

All the signs are that something extraordinary—even emotional—will take place between models and the audience when this collection hits the runway. It’s based on the designers’ research into eighteenth-century portraiture, the court of Marie Antoinette, the romance of Barry Lyndon and the outcome is exquisite in every detail of the multiple refinements of lace, tulle, and minute embroideries summoned by the Valentino couture ateliers in Rome. We are set to see lace slippers, cream embroidered tuxedos, high-necked ruffle-collared blouses, and any number of enchanting dresses in the kind of handwork rarely witnessed in the twenty-first century. Still, there is nothing Old World about the feeling of the clothes. Ornate as they sound, there’s an overriding freshness and vitality in them which feels genuine to a young girl like that model. On rare occasions, fashion shows can be intensely moving, and this may well be one of them. Note to audience: Pack tissues, just in case.

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