Valentino moving its next co-ed runway show to Milan this month

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 1, 2020

The house of Valentino has announced a surprise decision to stage its next runway show, a co-ed ready-to-wear collection in Milan, during this month’s Italian runway season.

 
In a brief statement, the Roman based house underlined that the decision was brought on by concerns about the global pandemic. As a result, Valentino Men’s and Women’s Spring/Summer 2021 collections will be presented together on September 27th, the penultimate day of the seven-day-long Milan Fashion Week.
 
“These unprecedented times we are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought the company to reconsider where to present the Valentino collection and has decided to show in Milan rather than in Paris for this season,” the house explained in a communiqué.
 
This marks the second time that Valentino has departed Paris, where it has staged its menswear, women’s ready-to-wear and haute couture collections almost exclusively for the past two decades.
 
The announcement also comes six weeks after Valentino staged its most recent couture collection behind closed doors in a collaboration with photographer Nick Knight and without any audience inside Cinecittà, the giant film studios in Rome.
 
“Paris is the city where we have always hosted our shows and that truly embodies Valentino DNA. The current situation has forced us to take an unusual decision. I believe that, in this moment in time, it is of paramount importance to stay grounded and focused and to work on tasks. I feel energized when I can work on ideas and this is the time for ideas to spread and grow. Milano is a new opportunity, a great project that I am developing with my teams with the aim of working around the idea of identity,” said the house’s Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli.
 
The dramatic change of locations is the latest upheaval in the international runway calendar in the wake of the global health crisis, which led to the cancellation of practically all catwalk shows in the Europe this summer, and to multiple brands forsaking their traditional locations this fall.