A hymn to love with its constant companions: youth and lightness sang the design duo of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Picciolo in their spring-summer haute couture collection for Valentino, the most romantic of the Parisian fashion houses. From season to season customers and other less fortunate audience fall in love with creations of the Italians, but for the first time Maria Grazia and Pierpaolo themselves reveal their feelings, expressing them literally.
Neo-Juliettes  as if dropped in our not so affected by sensuality twenty first century from Verona’s sixteenth, wear dresses with bodices and airy hems embroidered with quotes from Shakespeare and “The Divine Comedy” of Dante.
To give even more lightness to already weightless dresses, silvery clouds and stars float on them (“In some ways, you are flying when you are in love,” – confesses Chiuri).

Pronounced corsets emphasize ingenious beauty of youth that does not require additional decorations.
The most interesting, in my opinion, is the first part of the collection inspired, as designers explained, by the works of a Russian avant-garde artist Marc Chagall, awarded the honor to paint the ceiling of the Parisian Opera Garnier. Tunics and shirts made of milk-white linen canvas with delicate red needlepoint embroideries  are indeed copying almost letter to letter traditional national costumes. However, we must note, rather Ukrainian than Russian (in particular the famous Ukrainian “Vyshivanka”). Though Chagall himself, coming from a family of Belarusian Jews, can be called Russian with a great reserve.

Flawless stylistically and historically remain signature Valentino dresses – simple, without extravagance, whose trump is in perfect cut and noble fabrics – two components of style, remaining unchanged since the days of Shakespeare.

Photo credits: Valentino / Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com