Valentino, Couture, SS12, Paris.
There are some designers who can take an idea or a technique that has been used time and time again, and can bring their own freshness to them to use the techniques in new and beautiful ways. Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, as the creative directors at Valentino, are finding ever more intricate ways to work with lace, and lace-like effects to build ethereal collections.
The garments manage to balance prettiness with substance, largely due to the obvious care, thought and attention to detail that goes into crafting these garments. Additional edge is given to the collections through the intelligent colour combinations that contrast the most subtle of neutral pinks, lemons and mints with pops of cornflower blue, vibrant red or even layers of stark black.
Half of the beauty in these collections is hidden in the details – the careful finish given to a near invisible fastening, or the way that the leather is molded and tucked to form a perfect and yet understated sleeve head shape. Sometimes embellishment can be used as evidence of labour and effort but in the Valentino collection it is all about subtle and deft handiwork.
Images from Vogue.co.uk»
