VALENTINO SPRING 2014 COUTURE

MAARTJE VERHOEF (WOMEN)

VALENTINO 

HARLETH KUUSIK (ELITE)

SPRING 2014 COUTURE

ANNA EWERS (WOMEN)

KAYLEY CHABOT (NEXT)

Fifty-five looks for fifty-five operas. The Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were after something new for Couture this season, and they found it in the age-old tradition of opera. 

VALERY KAUFMAN (ELITE)

OPHELIE GUILLERMAND (WOMEN)

The show opened with a nod to La Traviata; Giuseppe Verdi's score was embroidered in black on the long, full skirt of a parchment-colored tulle dress. 

ANTONIA WESSELOH (ELITE)

SASHA LUSS (ELITE)

After that, Chiuri explained, "we wanted to describe the character of each [opera's] protagonist in a primordial way." By the end, they had called out all the greats: Puccini's La Bohème inspired an elegant navy cashmere cape and silk crepe sheath. Bizet'sCarmen produced a pleated bronze tulle gown with silver-gray guipure lace embroideries.

MANUELA FREY (ELITE)

INE NEEFS (ELITE)

Admittedly, the connections were sometimes tenuous, but that didn't detract from the austere beauty of simply draped silk marocain dresses in earthy shades of sienna, green, and mahogany.

MIJO MIHALJCIC (IMG)

IRINA LISS (NATHALIE)

Or the divine splendor of a gold thread dress embellished with four thousand smoky gemstones that took twenty-five hundred hours to affix.

ASHLEIG GOOD (ELITE)

KATE GOLDLING (FORD)

The monastic and the regal are the twin signatures of Chiuri and Piccioli's work chez Valentino. Both sides of that aesthetic presumably appeal to Florence + the Machine's Florence Welch, who was perched near Giancarlo Giammetti in the front row.

BOGI SAFRAN (NATHALIE)

HARLETH KUUSIK (ELITE)

The surprise was all the animals—a veritable menagerie of them, or as the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns would've had it, a carnaval des animaux. 

LAURA SCHELLENBERG (IMG)

ONDRIA HARDIN (ELITE)

A swan, a snake, and a peacock made from feathers that wrapped around the waistline of ballerina tutus…lions and elephants on a double-face cashmere dress and a coat (not embroidered, mind you, but built into the fabric of the garments, like a puzzle)…even a gorilla and its baby were spotted tucked amid the leather floral appliqués of an organza cape.

CAROLINE BRASCH NIELSEN (ELITE)

MAGDALENA JASEK (OUI)

The creativity of the set dressers at the Rome Opera House had a profound effect on the duo this season; Chiuri and Piccioli invited the opera's artisans to paint the show's runway and backdrop.

PAULINE HOARAU (ELITE)

INE NEEFS (ELITE)

But if theatricality is a virtue onstage, the more realistically the creatures were rendered here, the better off the clothes were. By contrast, a satin tiger practically pounced off the skirt of the finale dress.

KREMI OTASHLIYSKA (ELITE)

IRINA KRAVCHENCO (NATHALIE)

The workmanship was second to none, but the designers may have overestimated the big cat's charms. All in all though, this was another bravura performance.

LEXI BOLING (FORD)

MAARTJE VERHOEF (WOMEN)

ELISABETH ERM (ELITE)

COUTERSY OF STYLE.COM

Valentino Fall 2009 Ready to Wear.

Kasia Struss (WOMEN)

The fanfare of their first haute couture outing behind them, the new Valentino designers, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, presented their ready-to-wear collection today, and while the label's retired founder wasn't visibly cheering from the sidelines as he was in January, his spirit was certainly present.

Ali Stephens (MARILYN)

As former accessories designers under Mr. Valentino, the incumbent duo are keenly aware of the house codes, and today they adhered rather dutifully to the ladylike sensibility for which these clothes have always been known.

Toni Garrn (WOMEN)

Elaborating on several of the ideas they presented in their sixties-inflected couture collection, Chiuri and Piccioli showed sleeveless sheaths and coats with fan pleating below the ribs, some accented with a jeweled brooch.

Freja Beha Erichsen (IMG)

There were evening coats with gradated crystal beading, deep fox-fur cuffs and hems replacing couture's feathers.

Natasha Poly (WOMEN)

Cocktail dresses and gowns, meanwhile, featured draped and shirred bodices, but despite bold colors like emerald, golden yellow, and turquoise, they erred on the staid side.

Raquel Zimmermann (VIVA)

The same goes for those camel and bordeaux cape-backed lunch suits. A long leopard-spot cape with a wide band of fur at the hem had a younger feel.

Magdalena Frackowiak (ELITE)

Overall, capturing the youth vote with this collection will prove a challenge. Mr. Valentino, of course, was popular with ladies of a certain age, but he always was—and continues to be—quite tapped in with the fabulous crowd.

Iris Strubegger (WOMEN)

In order to move the label forward as the new designers' mandate requires, a little less reverence for the past and a little more attention to what the palazzo set is wearing now will be in order.

Vlada Roslyakova (WOMEN)

Nimue Smit (WOMEN)

Imogen Morris Clarke (NEXT)

Edita Vilkeviciute (VIVA)

Alla Kostromicheva (ANGELS)

Liya Kebede (VIVA)

Lily Donaldson (IMG)

Sara Blomqvist (VIVA)

Meghan Collison (WOMEN)

Sophie Srej (IMG)

Addison Gill

Heidi Mount (IMG)

Katie Fogarty (NEXT)

Charlotte di Calypso (ELITE)

Kendra Spears (ELITE)

Hanne Gaby Odiele (WOMEN)

Angelika Kocheva (MARILYN)

Kamila Filipcikova (IMG)

Chanel Iman (VIVA)

Daria Strokous (IMG)

Kinga Rajzak (IMG)

Diana Farkhullina (IMG)

Amanda Laine (WOMEN)

Anabela Belikova (IMG)

Elsa Sylvan (VIVA)

Karolin Wolter (WOMEN)

Karlie Kloss (NEXT)

Sasha Pivovarova (IMG)

Karmen Pedaru (NEXT)

Anna Selezneva (SILENT)

Jourdan Dunn (NATHALIE)

Anna Jagodzinska (NEXT)

Sigrid Agren (ELITE)

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli