An unusual theme chose for their new fall-winter haute couture collection the designer duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Peirpaolo Piccioli, working for the fashion house Valentino. The “Cabinet of curiosities” evokes the images of something odd, attracting the attention by standing out from the usual visual range of objects surrounding us, something rare. For the brand which recent collections were mostly associated with Swiss private high school pensioners: by bourgeois modest buttoned up collars, long sleeves, a haircut with a strict parting the middle, floor-length dresses and magnificent fabrics with Delphic blue and white prints being the only luxury – such new topic intrigues very much.

Opening the show “lady like” coats, dresses and suits with herring-bone pattern in gray and sand tones were stood out by their casualness, more suitable for the prêt-à-porter, if not the original cut and gorgeousness of embroidery. For the Valentino designers the haute couture line does not bear the pretentious of museum exhibits, whose use is limited to only one spectacular appearance. The concept of “high fashion” in this case is primarily associated with the exclusivity of the model and the highest quality of materials from which the outfits are created. So a silk brocade coat is in fact woven from the finest raffia fibers, and black astrakhan dress, embroidered in the shape of a coral branch with crystals, required not less than five hundred hours of manual work.

Though some of the looks indeed approach a miracle in the beauty of their implementation: the dress embroidered with 2200 lake pearls and golden threads; the “Tapestry” coat with embroidery in the shape of a dragon on the back or the finest lace, protruding from under a cashmere coat. Interspersed with strict, almost monastic way, these extravagant masterpieces take the audience to an extraordinary exhibition of curiosities – to a laboratory of fashion, which the haute couture really is.

Photo credits: Valentino Couture