Valentino to stage next haute couture collection in Venice on July 15

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
May 28, 2021

Valentino has announced plans to stage its fall/winter 2021 haute couture collection in Venice on July 15, skipping its traditional location in Paris for the third season in a row due to the pandemic.

 
Back in January, Valentino staged this year’s spring/summer collection inside Palazzo Colonna in Rome, in a performance-art-meets-runway format ensemble where the house’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli collaborated with Massive Attack founder Robert Del Naja.
 
While last July 2020, Valentino staged a digital live screening of its couture collection inside a massive sound studio with Rome’s Cinecittà, in an almost hallucinogenic linkup with photographer Nick Knight.

“One the most challenging aspects of my work during these unprecedented times was the reprogramming of some of my recurrent thoughts, which of course included the concept and the place for my couture shows. The current “travel with your fantasy” mode we are in pushed me to dream harder and bigger,” Piccioli told FashionNetwork.com.
 
The Rome-born couturier also revealed that he had already christened the next couture collection 'Valentino Des Ateliers.'
 
“The overall approach to this project has a lot to do with the name itself. I have challenged myself in orchestrating a symphony of different souls, minds and creative inputs. All of these energies drove my vision to Venice. This city genuinely and spontaneously generates vibrations in art, theatre, music, architecture, cinema, and everything that has to do with creativity. That is why it has been a natural decision to go for this idea. I am a designer, a fashion creator and I need to envision my creations in specific frames. Venice is the frame of Valentino Des Ateliers collection,” added Piccioli.

See catwalk

 
The decision robs Paris Couture Week of an iconic marque, since Piccioli’s shows for Valentino are one of the most anticipated in the season. The next Paris Couture Week takes place from July 5 to 8.
 
However, the house was very keen to underline that it will be still part of the extended Paris season. Even if its show takes place a week after the last Paris couture show, the Valentino Des Ateliers show will be displayed livestream on the platform of the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode – French fashion’s governing body - and on digital channels.

A selected number of guests will be invited in Venice, in the respect of the current situation, following all necessary security measures, the house added without revealing its exact location in the lagoon city.