PARIS — “I don’t wish to disappoint anyone, however I’m not a tailor, and never even a couturier: I’m effectively versed within the concept of dressmaking, and am good with pins in spite of everything these years, however I can’t make issues with my arms,” admitted Valentino designer Alessandro Michele in a press convention after the digital grand guignol of his first ever couture present. “Once I was a child, I needed to be a fancy dress designer — and I feel it exhibits in what I do.”
Present it did. The outing Wednesday afternoon at Palais Brongniart was a blast: extra multimedia efficiency than couture defilé for which the garments had been certainly costumes. This was clearly no conventional couture arrange. The room was pitch black as friends had been escorted to their seats; stadium bleachers rather than gilded chairs. And rather than the ordre de passage, a thick A4 envelope was laid on every seat. Inside, a textual content signed “Alessandro” rhapsodised over the “vertigo of the checklist” (impressed by a powerful Umberto Eco essay) earlier than describing every of the present’s 48 seems as an inventory of phrases. And as every look took the stage to blaring sounds and blinding lights, a display displayed the checklist of phrases related to it, together with its quantity.
The impact was vertiginous certainly — an assault even. Then there have been the characters of their costumes: dramatic and abrasive of their opulence, donning crinolines, floaty capes, tailleurs, harlequin and pierrot regalia and so forth. However the factor a couple of efficiency is that it’s a must to be there within the second to get the total impact, and this extends to the costumes. Therein was the issue with the gathering: as costumes throughout the efficiency, the items had been a blast; stripped of the efficiency, much less so, regardless of the atelier’s beautiful execution.
Michele’s work has typically wandered into luxuriant citation and, on this assortment, one may see, alongside the Valentino archive, a wild and great pillaging from costume designer Danilo Donati, and what he did for Pasolini, in addition to historic work, a little bit of Vivienne Westwood, Leigh Bowery and numerous Demna, who was within the viewers. This, in fact, knowledgeable a couple of shapes, however largely the character-building, which was new and thrilling.
The solid, with many ageing beauties, really made the spectacle and introduced the clothes to angular life. There was a crudeness to the entire endeavour that felt promising, although what the Valentino couture clientele will make of it’s anybody’s guess. (Michele stated that when the crinolines are eliminated, the clothes change). It will likely be attention-grabbing to see the place the designer goes from right here. His subsequent couture present is in a 12 months from now. “Couture requires time, and we’ve got to maintain it,” Michele stated backstage. That’s a luxurious but in addition a curse.
