“May I?” says Pierpaolo Piccioli, gesturing to a cigarette and leaning back into the taupe sofa that fits perfectly into its opulent surroundings in the Haute Couture private appointment salon of 8 Place Vendôme. It’s a busy day at Valentino, but one senses that they all are. Creative directors Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri are juggling fittings for the menswear spring/summer show the next day and as I arrive, I bustle into the lift with a throng of tousle-headed boys, who will transform the next day into the designers’ visualisation of a redefined Valentino. Cool yet graceful, youthful yet steeped in history and heritage. They are simultaneously fielding interviews, conducting a portrait shoot and preparing for the imminent couture event of the season, Mirabilia Romae. Though neither louche thinker Piccioli nor kohl-eyed Chiuri – pure rock ‘n’ roll in her signature all black uniform, fingers stacked with rings that flash through the air as she gesticulates – show any signs of pressure. This has been their world since 1999, when they arrived from Fendi to bring fresh eyes to Valentino Garavani’s accessories and emerged in 2008 as his creative successors.
But, it is not Paris that is the heart and soul of the brand: It is Rome. Often returning to Italian Renaissance art as the genesis of the house’s enduringly elegant but never haughty collections, the ancient city is a common thread that runs through every lovingly crafted piece. “We were both born in Rome and so, art is part of our lives. That’s why we find inspiration in it. All that we do is very close to us personally”, says Chiuri. “Art is a witness of our time,” adds Piccioli, layering insight onto Chiuri’s musings as the pair often do, in tune with each other’s thoughts after more than two decades working together. “We believe that with fashion, you have to be a witness of your times too. It is the same thing with art, but in a different language.“The Pre-Raphaelites set the tone for the innocent draped goddess gowns of the 2014 autumn/winter Haute Couture collection, while the quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, inspired enchanting cashmere, crystal embroidered astrakhan and a gown and train cascading with thousands of river pearls a year earlier. With Vermeer playing muse for an a/w13 collection visualised in Calvinist white collars, and the paintings of Marc Chagall vying with Dante’s Inferno to deliver romantic Russian-inspired embellishments for Haute Couture s/s15, art of all kinds is a starting sentiment for the Valentino journey. “We like sharing ideas or just taking inspiration from artists from the past and bringing those ideas into contemporary life,” continues Piccioli, “because sometimes, the message can be the same. Even if the period is different or the language is different, you find the same kind of values coming out.”
Rome has always been at the heart of Valentino and this time, rather than take Valentino to couture week, the duo brought couture week to Valentino’s birthplace. Staging the Mirabilia Romae collection under the setting sun at the brand’s headquarters in Piazza Mignanelli close to the historic Spanish steps, Chiuri and Piccioli brought imperial Rome to life and the fashion crowd (including a beaming Valentino Garavani) to its feet. With the beautiful attendees gathered in head-to-toe Valentino, the models floated down the raised runway in gowns, capes and gladiator dresses in the finest brocade, tulle and regal velvet littered with ancient symbolism, some pieces seemingly spun from ancient gold. The meaning behind the Roman nuances in the collection may be artfully complex, but the impact of the clothes is breathtakingly simple. The memory of stolen moments from the day’s La Mostra Diffusa exhibition lingers, too – discovering couture delicacies hidden in historic sites from Biblioteca Casanatense to Sacristy Sant’Agnese and the Sistine Chapel. The whole scene no less magical than if it had been choreographed by Fellini.
For Chiuri and Piccioli, the city is a living, breathing thing, synonymous with the Valentino woman. ”In a way, we don’t want to show Rome, we want to allow people to experience Rome through our perspective. You can’t describe Rome with only words. It has many aspects,” says Pierpaolo. “The city is really the same as women are today: Multi-faceted. There are many aspects living together, floating together, whether monastic, sensual, aristocratic, sexy, gothic, dark.” A homecoming certainly, but why now? “Probably because we are ready,” Chiuri adds with a laugh, hinting at the mammoth task involved in staging the show outside of the Paris schedule. “It is an important moment for us. We are opening a school of couture in Rome and we are so proud to be able to bring the culture of couture into the future, because sometimes you think of couture and you think of something beautiful but belonging to the past,” explains Piccioli, stressing the social responsibility that both designers feel towards continuing the traditions of their craft. “This is the moment to describe the two very particular aspects of Valentino, being Roman and being a couture house.” And, of course, there is the Palazzo-style flagship store in Piazza di Spagna to show off too. Opened this year and designed by starchitect David Chipperfield, it offers the “couture attitude” to every customer. “To be a creative director is not only about the dresses,” says Chiuri, “it is about vision. The concept store is a huge part of our vision because it’s like our home around the world. It’s important that the people see why we decided to use these particular materials in the store: Because they are close with the timeless values of quality and craftsmanship that we want to express with our vision.”
It’s evident from such timeless values that the pair are not interested in the kind of easy, fleeting attention that comes with chasing trends. They are not preoccupied with followers or headline-grabbing campaigns, seeing the digital world as an instrument, not a leader but a starting point. Instead, a couture sensibility filters through the simplest of the ready-to-wear items, absolving them of any hint of the mundane. “Everything starts from a human point of view. At the end, it delivers something that is human, too. Design is something that is close to the inner emotions,” reasons Piccioli. It is a strategy that works at every level, from sell- out accessories to red carpet outings on Hollywood starlets. The philosophy both elevates ready-to-wear and modernises Haute Couture. “This idea of one of a kind, of uniqueness, we wanted to translate into prêt-à- porter too. To create pieces that, of course, are of our times, but even talk about our couture, about details. Because this is very Italian,” says Piccioli. “Couture is more about culture, it is more about vision, but it is not about something that is dusty and old or simply expensive,” adds Chiuri. “It is a value and we also want to translate it into different categories that are more daytime, like denim.” As the designers have intimated before, couture is a realm in which you lay hands on your dreams. Valentino’s ready-to-wear, the closest most of us will ever get, is more than reverie enough.
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As forward-thinking as the pair’s vision of the couture of the future may be, it is always inevitably entwined with the past, particularly at a house with such strong and recognisable codes (Valentino’s signature red, the long-sleeved gowns and sumptuously high necklines). Having found their own groove after a couple of reverential early seasons, the pair no longer refer to the Valentino archives: After so long, their experience of the brand is much more visceral than that. “In some ways, we prefer to speak about heritage with our point of view. We are not obsessed with our past, our past is part of us,” says Chiuri. “Sometimes, talking about the past means you are nostalgic,” adds Piccioli with studied care. “Memory is something different. I think we have memory of our past: Selective memory. In selective memory, you remember what you like and why. The feeling you had when you saw something.”
This instinct, and an unwavering dedication to a certain fragile beauty, is what has made Valentino the brand favoured by stars from Anne Hathaway to Dakota Fanning and Chloë Sevigny, and that has given certain pieces a must-have status, both current and collectible at once. A new generation has discovered the brand in the hands of Chiuri and Piccioli, who have offered an alternative to dolce vita sexiness: A fresh-faced, modern appeal and a new Italian narrative that feels much more youthful. “If there is something you don’t like, you can react by proposing something new. We believe that women are looking for a new grace, a new delicacy. Even if they are represented as only sexy, only powerful, there is something very romantic and very pure in every woman that you can take and give new life. If you see masters’ paintings from the Italian Renaissance, you see women who are very beautiful with this kind of dignity,” muses Pierpaolo. Chiuri is quick to point out that they don’t like categories in any case. “Nobody is only one way,” and that the same goes for the house itself. “It depends on the moment. I don’t believe that a brand can be a value for life. You have to decide what is right about the moment because it makes a difference. It could be a reaction, it could be an idea but it is not a strategy. It is something that you feel.”
Such is the strength of their vision that you feel as if we could be witnessing the start of a new kind of relationship between Haute Couture and the city of Rome. A future centre for couture, a fifth fashionable city to add to the current fashion capitals? It certainly has the credentials. It has Valentino. It occurs to me that as well as innovators, Piccioli and Chiuri are historians of a sort, defining, sorting and storing what is truly sartorially beautiful right here, right now. Indeed, alongside Haute Couture, the ready-to-wear lines and an unstoppable accessories division, the pair forge ahead with dreams of a museum and a global exhibition of Italian craftsmanship, tempered only by such trivial concerns as budget. Ever the pragmatists, they also recognise that sometimes, the work, the dreaming and the creation must pause and that another famous Italian tradition must be observed: The holiday. “You need time to dream,” says Piccioli, in poetic conclusion to my glimpse into the heart of the Valentino empire. “If you don’t dream you can’t deliver dreams. It’s very important to take your time.”
