[KKnardi]

Quote:

It’s going to be a tough call at Valentino to predict who, out of the youthful front row of European high society, Brandolinis, Santo Domingos and Dellals, will win the race to order the Dress: a white column with bows zizzing down a bared back. It looked like the perfect piece for the lightly tanned young beauties, who spent the recent holiday season in Brazil and Laos. For summer events (and there are two royal weddings coming up, in London and Monaco), there was plenty of choice: slender long dresses scattered with pale flowers, columns of pleats swaying away from the body and decoration so subtle that it just misted over the silhouette of legs. In their fifth couture collection, the house’s design duo hit target: to produce a dress that clients were sighing and dying for; and a collection that was very Valentino is spirit — but fresh and young. The day wear still seems rather too polite and feminine for the jeans-and-crocodile-bag generation. The superlight pleated dresses with long sleeves and just-above-the-knee skirts were pretty enough and came, like the rest of the collection, in a pale version of the signature Valentino cappuccino with a splash of Val red. The strength of the collection was the delicate decoration with exquisite workmanship achieved by the Roman ateliers. “It’s the research into lightness — that is the magic of couture,” said Pier Paolo Piccioli, while his fellow designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, stressed the importance of “personal luxury,” saying: “It is not just about clothes — it is about the woman too and her sensual body.” The duo has relaxed, making clothes that are no longer artsy, but about the art of couture. The gracious ocean liner that was Valentino is turning slowly in the right direction and Stefano Stassi, the company’s chief executive, says that the company figures reflect the change: up 20 percent overall in 2010, making for fine figures — on the runway and in the financial books.

suzy menkes, iht.com