Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2022 Paris

[Deleted member 141309]

It’s funny how some people think that customers that can actually afford couture are anywhere near plus size. Please research true couture clients and not celeb PR stunts, they are all very thin and mostly athletic women. And not even by photos only - go someplace like Monaco, easy to see couture and money by the evening on the street. I think racial inclusivity is indeed important, but size in haute couture - just no. Having and keeping standards is not going backwards in time. I want to see the highest physical standards on the runway too, as much as clothes, make up, set design, music, atmosphere. Not McDonalds level (physique included).

 

[LadyJunon]

Let me say this, the construction and the fit of the collection was done so well. So good, I actually found it difficult to weed out the non sample sized models (for the first time, I recognized Jil Kortleve by her face rather than how sh*tty the clothes looked on her). My heart does go out to the pattern makers having to use ten fit models though...

The design however, absolutely garbage and outdated. The Vogue review said everything it needed to on the design...

 

[aracic]

Most of these “plus-sized” models still stuck to the hourglass silhouettes so really not that much more of a challenge to fit, just a bit more curvy than your typical runway model. I wish he’d gone all the way and really challenged himself, dug deeper.

Precisely. The ''plus'' size models in the line-up are nowhere near fat or ''McDonalds level'', it's impressive how deeply rooted the skinny athletic physique standard of beauty is in fashion (or in general). Clothes are supposed to be fitted to any size, not the other way around and the ''exclusivity'' part of haute couture has never ever been about size, but about wealth. Fat people have money, too. And most of the slim women go through certain body changes with age as well, is there a point where they should stop wearing couture because of weight gain? Ridiculous notion.

Kristen McMenamy looks stellar, I live for her resurgence in fashion. And I must say I quite like some of the pieces here, doesn't feel very couture though.

 

[WAVES]

what a mess of a show. it’s so lacking in direction that any bit of excitement evaporates.
nothing made sense.

this is the state of Fashion. a painful woke mess.

 

[jeanclaude]

I can´t see any sense of refinement here, these clothes (even the evening gowns) look banal.

Somehow this feels like he made the first "toiles" in expensive fabrics...and he refused to adapt and evolve each garment from that first "toile".

Great to see Kristen McMenamy and Hannelore Knuts again!

My favourite Valentino collection is F/W 98-99. It oozes sophistication and refinement, while being relaxed at the same time:

 

[Frederic01]

“In runway shows, sometimes there are 50 skinny models and one bigger-sized. I feel like you don’t really relate to that. You don’t believe that. You just tick the box,” Piccioli said.

VOGUE RUNWAY

Pierpaolo is so insufferable and pretentious, possibly even more so than Valentino Garavani himself at his peak. At least Garavani was upfront about his desire to design solely for the contemporary bourgeoisie. He knew his target audience well and it worked seamlessly. The whole bourgeois aesthetic was partially the raison d'être of the brand, let's be honest.

Seriously though this whole casting was a PR stunt dreamt up by Piccioli and the Valentino marketing team in an attempt to be topical and supposedly at the "fore front" of social and cultural issues dominating the public consciousness and also to distract from how repetitive and ordinary the clothing really is. It's the same pieces that he has been doing for the last three years but in different colours and on a "different" cast. That first dress is a literal copy of an Anthony Vaccarello Saint Laurent dress from a few seasons ago. I see a lot of other references to other designers, but little reference to the history of Valentino. At this point the clothes so lack the Valentino DNA, the only thing that identifies them as being vaguely "Valentino" is the arm-length gloves, which he has done to death now.

What shocks me though about this collection is how influential the politics of a very small minority of woke-leftists are on designers like Pierpaolo. Seriously, most of the people that attend couture shows couldn't care less about notions of body inclusivity and diversity or the environment or ethics. They are at Valentino simply because they want to buy beautiful clothes that are expensive, one-of-a-kind, and have the label "Valentino Haute Couture".

I digress. I don't understand why Piccioli insists on the idea of trying to make Haute Couture "inclusive"? As @aracic rightly mentioned, the exclusivity of couture has always been about economics rather than appearances. If you have the money, you're in, it's as simple as that.

 

[Frederic01]

The irony of him talking about diversity and freedom and then forcing the entire audience to wear all black, down to the masks LOL. Last season they did a similar thing with forcing everyone to wear all white.


VALENTINO

 

[joedago]

gloubi-boulga, pot-pourri of stuff; yes the usage of stuff is intentional

 

[JohannesL]

So, only tall thin women are meant to wear couture?

I am talking about the presentation, not the HC clients in the fitting room. HC at its core, it is more an issue of social class than body diverdity. To say that, I am fine with body diversity in fashion, only without being a marketing stun.

 

[Lola701]

I must say that the thing that I liked the most about this show is actually the cast.

It’s not the first time we are seeing different body size or age on the runway but I think it’s a first for Valentino.

Even if a lot of clients and among them, the majority of the younger clients try to stay in shape to fit into the sample sizes, a lot of clients have bigger frame. But I like the idea of using those bigger or older models as a canvas similar to the more regular models.

Unfortunately, here they were used for the regular evening dresses when I think it’s really interesting to show tailoring or daywear because the reality is that at the shows, those women never shows up in full gowns. And even in older models like Anne Sophie Wilson, what an unfortunate silhouette. She looks short!

But it’s also the best I’ve seen Jill look…


The collection feels disjointed. Not enough new ideas and not enough focus but it checks all the boxes required for good comments on social media.

My favorite look is the one on Hannelore, the green ensemble I think it’s fabulous and worn by the right person. It’s so decadent and so Valentino in a way… In the old days, it would have passed as an « Ensemble d’Apres-Midi ».
In a collection that fails to transport me, that look evoke a kind of lifestyle I associate with Valentino: on a boat in Portofino, in a house in Capri or in a fancy apartment in Hotel Particulier.

That was the magic of Valentino. It evoked something instantly mostly Mr Valentino, unlike a lot of his contemporaries, lived the lifestyle of his clients. He was as part of the JetSet as much as he designed for them.

On one hand, I guess it’s great that with each collection Pierpaolo decide to have a « cause » but maybe he should just design first and include all of that in the collections. The collections should be first, the marketing conversation after…

 

[mistress_f]

i don't understand what's going on here? It looks unfinished / ripped ?

image vogue.com

 

[Ruito]

I really don't understand what are you guys talking about or what type of glue you've sniffed, because I thought the collection was majestical. I cried the entire time! (well, the Antony & The Johnsons songs might have helped a bit).

 

[susseinmcswanny]

Seriously, most of the people that attend couture shows couldn't care less about notions of body inclusivity and diversity or the environment or ethics.

This is kinda true tho. First of all, fat billionaires don't give a f*ck what people on twitter and instagram think. 2nd, it is a really uncomfortable and kinda complicated thing to talk about, but the fact is that "inclusivity" with these companies, especially in haute couture, is just a gimmick to take money from a broader audience, just as an over the top Galliano couture show was the same as a marketing technique for people to be inspired enough to buy perfumes and bags etc. I would like to see everyone in beautiful clothes. And I think it must have an impact on children to see someone that looks like them in beautiful clothes. It just so happens that haute couture is only for a certain type of person. For a reason. And that person is not going to change. And I'm not positive, but I don't think that person is more than half of the models in this presentation. This just reminds me of what Malcolm X said about the white man trying to satisfy black people with symbolic victories rather than economic equity and justice. ??? Are the couture clients magically gonna decide to redistribute their wealth? I don't think the trickle down economics of having Adut modeling for Valentino will be helping black people to be in the position to buy haute couture. It may help people like Louis Pisano to be tap dancers for companies like Kering, LVMH, Condé Nast, etc though

 

[jeanclaude]

I found this through a contact in Facebook:

 

[gossiping]

the show itself was fantastic. what a beautiful finale, the music was a bit too much at times but it was really powerful

the clothes, were ok...

 

[dior_couture1245]

i don't understand what's going on here? It looks unfinished / ripped ?

image vogue.com

I noticed the same thing and zoomed in on the Vogue Runway app...hmmm....not good.

 

[TaylorBinque]

The best part, to be very honest, is the cast. That's the most exciting news at Valentino recently. He seems to stuck in the same idea and can't just progress to somewhere new. This is as directionless as half of the HC shows.

 

[GivenchyHomme]

It's all so gimmicky. It's all about the casting and the clothes are playing second fiddle. The dresses at the end are hideous.The one saving grace is the brocade coat and the embellished suits, and even those are are old fashioned. It looks like a mish mash of several different designers. The result is a big unfocused mess. Then he had to go and put that Celine-esque look on Lara which was completely unnecessary. I will give him the benefit of the doubt. It's a miracle they even had a show, but it's obvious that the pandemic played a significant role in the final outcome. Hopefully next time he will present something concise and focused. This is not it.

 

[YohjiAddict]

For Pierpaolo finding the right balance between line, volume, color and embroidery is a constant struggle…never more apparent than with this show which was lacking in both excitement and coherence, a jumbled bore.

That the fitting on a couture show should be flawless is a given, in spite of it, many of the styles remain matronly and unflattering; They fail to communicate the height of conceptual and technical sophistication that couture is supposed to embody.

The dresses on lighter fabrics could hardly be any more awkward, cheap-looking or out of place.

 

[Frederic01]

Supposedly the next Valentino show will feature "plus-size" mens models. Looks like they are paying attention to the commentary and observations that only female body diversity is celebrated in fashion at the moment and how wrong that is. Kudos to Valentino if they go ahead with the casting of a more diverse male line-up.