Paris Couture: Valentino
By CATHY HORYN
The spring haute couture shows, which ended tonight with Valentino, revealed a creative energy that ought to give pause to designers of ready-to-wear. Not that the two worlds really have anything in common, except a respect for craft and beauty and certain high-profile clients. But ready-to-wear has had more and more limitations placed upon it, like the availability of fabrics, pricing issues and competitive pressures from fast-fashion chains. Haute couture has none of these concerns, and it has enough masters — Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier — and, of course, sympathetic corporate owners to create exceptional, even relevant fashion.
That’s what happened over the last three days in Paris.
At Valentino, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli offered very pretty clothes, focusing on maxi lengths, simple day dresses in double ivory crepe with faggoting, some very cool halter dresses in delicate lace, and shirtwaists. One of the most striking dresses was a long number in beige crepe, tied loosely at the waist, with a discreet flounce at the hem and long sleeves that were fluted at the wrists. There was lots of creamy lace and point d’esprit, soft pleating and an absolute minimum of bows and couture kitsch. The palette was mostly ivory and beige, with powdery pink and mint, and a bit of Valentino red.
The designers now seem to have left their tortured period, and they’re heaping fewer ruffles on things — or at least, they’re giving the impression that it’s a deliberate choice. Their couture is also youthful in that it’s less heavy in construction and attitude, and this season they seem more in possession of that distinction in Paris.
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