Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino presents Le Club Couture Spring 2023 in Paris, where he took his collection out of the salon and into the nightclub.
Valentino’s shows in Paris have become synonymous with hordes of screaming fans and this season was no exception. Creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli unveiled his spring haute couture collection in a pitch-black nightclub next to the Seine River in front of guests including Anne Hathaway, Suga, Kylie Minogue, Sam Smith, Doja Cat and Ashley Park, who arrived on crutches.
Valentino Le Club Couture
Hundreds of onlookers massed on the ornate Pont Alexandre III bridge in near-freezing temperatures to watch the livestreamed arrivals, as the Eiffel Tower gleamed in the backdrop against the foggy night sky.
Guests entering the venue were handed wristbands that read “Valentino Le Club Couture.” It was a far cry from this time last year, when the house staged its show in the hushed calm of its salons on Place Vendôme, evoking a time when society women dressed only in made-to-measure clothes. But Piccioli believes that the rarefied discipline should break with tradition.
“To me, couture is relevant when it talks to a lot of people, when you can deliver your message in a very bold way and I felt during these seasons that the young generation are really touched by couture,” the designer explained in a preview.
“I was thinking about this idea of a kind of glamorous extravaganza but in a new way, full of humanity and personalities, kind of like when young people go in a club and they are invited to be the best version of themselves,” he added.
His coed lineup of 89 looks was a festival of color and embellishment that toggled between old-school glamour, inspired by founder Valentino Garavani’s exuberant designs in the ’80s, and tops and skirts as brief as censorship strips.
This was partywear for the post-lockdown set. Think neon green tights and towering platform shoes, worn with nothing but a sheer pink puff-sleeved, ruffled organza blouse and micro briefs dripping with drop-shaped Murano glass pearls. “I love this idea of the impossible of the couture, creating pieces that look out of this world,” Piccioli remarked.
Craft is a means and a methodology to achieve impossibility.
For his latest collection, @pppiccioliuplifts the qualities that make Couture tirelessly complex and unfathomably intricate.
#ValentinoHauteCouture
Makeup: @valentino.beauty
Music curated by: #AndyButler @herculesandloveaffair
@international_music_and_arts
#ValentinoEyewear envisioned with @akonigroup