Photo Credit: Valentino

Valentino is synonym to luxury, impeccable quality and the iconic red. Under the helm of Pierpaolo Piccioli the brand has gathered a new set of fans, including young fashion aficionados. Which is not surprising. Piccioli managed to enhance what the house is best known for (partywear), while still keeping a good moneymaking set of products (accessories).

His eye for the creative and the commercial can be clearly seen on Valentino’s Fall 2020 Couture Collection. Called “The Performance: of Grace and Light, a dialogue between Pierpaolo Piccioli and Nick Knight”, it showcased 15 looks that are meant to be an extreme response to lockdown, and to conceive a new start. Because the garments were created in a socially distanced manner in the atelier, there were some technical difficulties. They also couldn’t produce new lavish prints and embroideries due to how time demanding their creations are.

Photo Credit: Valentino

The result were all white pieces with extra-long hem that are meant to be seen as a silhouette and not exactly a final product. Pierpaolo wanted to focus on the human, and let the pieces dialogue with the digital to create a new perspective. For that photographer Nick Knight created a video where the lightwork creates different prints and textures on the fabrics.

The choice of venue also adds to the feeling they wanted to convey. Cinecittà was founded in 1937 as a plan to revive the Italian movie industry. And it worked. Throughout the years many iconic movies, such as La Dolce Vita (1960) and Cleopatra (1963), were filmed in the studios.